I want us to read beginning here
in verse 26, John's Gospel chapter 19 and verse 26. When Jesus therefore saw his
mother, and the disciples standing by whom he loved, he said unto
his mother, Woman, behold your son. Then said he to the disciple,
Behold your mother. And from that hour that disciple
took her unto his own home." That was John. After this, Jesus
knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture
might be fulfilled, he said, 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. The Jews, therefore,
because it was the preparation that the body should not remain
upon the cross on the Sabbath day, for that Sabbath day was
Nanhide, they besought Pilate that their legs might be broken
and that they might be taken away. Then came the soldiers
and broke the legs of the first and of the other which was crucified
with him. But when they came to Jesus and
saw that he was dead already, they broke not his legs. But one of the soldiers with
a spear pierced his side, and immediately there came out blood
and water. And he that saw it by record,
and his record is true, And he knoweth that he saith true, that
ye might believe. For these things were done, that
the scripture should be fulfilled. A bone of him shall not be broken. And again another scripture saith,
they shall look upon him whom they have pierced. Let's look
at some of these scenes from Calvary this morning. And only John records this scene. And these things that I've read
to you. And back here in verse 26, the
Lord's dealing with His mother. Now, the Lord loved His mother. His
natural mother. Never was a woman more honored
of her son than Mary was of Jesus her son. And we can tell that if we'll
just take time to realize the agony that our Lord must have
been in at this time. What He had gone through in His
body, in His soul, in His spirit, the pain. What He began to suffer
there in the Garden of Gethsemane that He was under so much pressure
mentally and emotionally that it turned His or pushed the blood
surface of his skin, what he suffered in the judgment hall,
the plucking of his beard, the lashes upon his back, the mockery,
the stripping of his clothes, putting on him a purple robe
to mock him as a king, putting the cross upon his back. He was
so weak that another had to bear his cross. He was crucified through
weakness. The nails being driven in His
hands and in His feet, hanging upon the cross now, tormented
by devils no doubt, mocked by a crowd that hated Him for the
most part. God had forsaken Him. Darkness
had come upon the land. If you and I can begin to realize
the agony and the misery and the pain that our Lord was in
at this time, will surely appreciate Him taking this time and the
labor to provide for His mother. And that's what He does when
He looks out from this cross and He says to John, He says
here to His mother, Woman, behold your son, and He no doubt looks
to John and indicates to her that this is your son. And then
he says to John, behold your mother. And from that hour that
disciple took her unto his own house to care for her. Now, sometimes
it may seem to some people that you and I somewhat degrade this
woman. Some might think that because
we don't bestow that honor upon her and a position upon her that
has not been given to her or a position she's not been put
in. She has no merit of her own. She was saved through the merit
of her son. Her own heart rejoiced in God
her Savior. She needed a Savior just like
us. She is not a co-mediator between God and man, as Catholicism
pretends that she is. But I tell you, she is a woman
highly honored of God. She is a woman upon whom we still
say today, of all women, this woman was the most blessed. From henceforth, all people,
all nations, shall call me blessed. She's called the mother of our
Lord. And that she is. And that she
was. She has no more authority with
Him than any other saved woman. But He loved His mother. And
if there was ever a man upon this earth that honored His Father
in heaven and honored His mother in this life, it was the Lord
Jesus. And when he says here woman,
he often addressed her as woman. And I'm wondering if when he
did that, that his meaning was that there's something more important
than natural relationships. I don't know that he ever addressed
her as his mother. But I think when he said woman,
He was meaning to tell her and to tell us that there is something
essentially more important, vitally more important, than even a relationship
between the mother and her child. Mary came to where the Lord was
preaching one day, and the crowd was so big she couldn't get into
it. And one went in and said, your mother is outside desiring
to speak with you. And he said, who is my mother?
Who is my mother? And he pointed to some of the
ladies sitting down front and said, there's my mother. There's
my mother. So there's something more important
than family, natural relationship. So he calls her mother. So he
calls her woman. And probably he called her woman
here too to protect her from this hostile crowd. What if he
had just said mother? I imagine they would have been
the gift began to give her just some of what they began to give
to him. Hostility. Hatred. But he loved
his mother. He loved his mother. There's
women in our country today, and it's so sad, embracing religions
that so dishonor women. This thing about Mormonism now
and polygamy, men having several wives, you know that's growing
again. And you know who's embracing
it? Women. Women embracing that Eastern
ungodly blasphemous religion of Ishmael. Look how that degrades
women. There's only one religion in
this world that honors the woman. and puts the dignity upon her
that God has put upon her from the very beginning. And that's
Christianity. That's Christ. And isn't it strange
that so many women speak up against Christianity, the very religion
that honors them more than any other religion in this world.
But there is what we saw at the cross, very calvary, Christ providing
for his mother even in the time of his extreme sufferings. And
then what he says in verse 28, after this, after he had secured
the home for his mother, Jesus knowing that all things were
now accomplished, that the scriptures might be fulfilled, he said,
I thirst. I thirst. You know no doubt he
thirsted physically. He was dehydrated at this time. That's why he was swelling. His
tongue was swelling. His body was no doubt swelling. He'd been dehydrated for hours. He was thirsty. But I wonder
if the Holy Spirit hasn't got a deeper meaning than a physical
thirst. Because he thirsted for one thing to
happen. And you know what it was? that
the scriptures might be fulfilled. That was what he thirsted for.
He had this thirst, he had this hunger, he had this longing.
My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish
his work. And here he had such a high regard
for the scriptures that they might be fulfilled, knowing what
they would give him if he said, I thirst. He said, I thirst.
But he hungered and he thirsted in his soul. Blessed are they
that hunger and thirst after righteousness. And that's what
the Lord Jesus here was hungering for, that the Scriptures might be
fulfilled. I thirst. And here he goes on in verse
30, And when Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he
said, It is finished. And he bowed his head, and gave
up the ghost. It is finished. Now, what does
this tell us? It tells us two or three things.
One, it tells us that his physical sufferings were over. He had been despised and rejected. He had suffered immensely. He
had suffered from friends who forsook him. He had suffered
from friends who betrayed him. He had suffered from his enemies
who wounded him and bruised him. He had suffered from devils.
He had suffered immensely. But now, he says here, it is
finished. No more sufferings. His personal
sufferings were over with. No more lashes across the back.
No more hair being pulled from his cheeks. No more crowns upon
his head. No more mocking. No more shame.
It was all over with. It was finished. I want you to
turn with me to Hebrews chapter 9. I want you to hold John chapter
19 and turn to Hebrews chapter 9. Catholicism has a doctrine, commandments
of men that they've made up. They call it transubstantiation,
where the priests bless the bread and the wine like you and I partake
of, and they say when they do that, it turns into the literal
body and blood of Jesus Christ. And then there is a real sacrifice
in those elements as when Christ offered Himself upon the cross.
That Christ literally suffers again in that bread and that
wine. Now, you shake your head. You know better than that, don't
you? There's no need for Christ to ever suffer again. His sufferings have ended. Look
here how the Hebrew writer says it in verse 24. Hebrews chapter
9 and verse 24. For Christ is not entered until
the holy place is made with hands, which are the figures of the
truth. but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence
of God for us. Nor yet that he should offer
himself often as the high priest entered into the high holy place
every year with the blood of others, for then must he often
have suffered since the foundation of the world. But now once, one
time, in the end of the earth, has he appeared to put away sin,
by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed unto men
once to die, and after this to judgment, so Christ was once
offered, once offered, once offered to bear the sins of many. One
time. One time. And His sufferings
have ended. He never suffered since the cross,
and He'll never suffer again. Now he suffers in his people.
What they feel, he feels. He can be touched with the feelings
of our infirmities. And when somebody is persecuting
his people, he counts it as though it's done to him. And when somebody
is giving to his people and helping his people, he counts it as though
they do it to him. But his personal sufferings have
ended. Doesn't that make you so happy? That makes me so happy, doesn't
it, you? Old Spurgeon used to say, if
you're afflicted yourself, and if you're weak and you're sick
yourself, but if you have a dear friend that you love, that you
really care for, and you hear that it's well with them, doesn't
that make you glad? Our second and third president,
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, were very close friends. When
they were younger, they didn't like each other. But as they
grew older, they became intimate friends, wrote each other all
the time. And they died on the same day, July the 4th, 1836, if I'm not
mistaken. John Adams died. And on his deathbed,
not knowing that Jefferson had just died himself, Adams had
great joy when he died. And this was his last statement,
I'm dying, but Jefferson still lives. I'm dying, but Jefferson still
lives. I'm afflicted. You're trying in this world.
You're suffering. But our Master's suffering is
over. He lives, and He'll never suffer
again. That is finished. Isn't that
wonderful? Because we love Him, and we're
glad that it's well with Him, and it gives us a degree of joy
knowing that it's well with Him. What does this mean when He says
it's finished? Well, in a nutshell, It not only
means that all his suffering has ended. And those sufferings,
by the way, all of those sufferings, they were ordained of God. We
need to remember that. There was no sufferings that
slipped up on him. All that he suffered in his soul
and in his body was ordained of God. He was purposed of God
beforehand. Peter said it like this, you
have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain him.
But listen to this, he was delivered by the foreknowledge and counsel
of God. You did only what God purposed
for you to do. We need to remember that as we
look at the sufferings of Christ. It was all purposed of God. But in a nutshell, All the prophecies
that had foretold of Christ's coming in the flesh, all of those
prophecies, all of those pictures, all of those types, all of those
shadows in the Old Testament that foreshadowed Him and His
sufferings, that was all finished. All that we've been studying
about in Deuteronomy and Numbers and Leviticus and Exodus, all
those beautiful pictures and prophecies and types. Ever better,
that's finished. It's all fulfilled. The redemption
of His people from the curse of the law, that's all accomplished. It's finished. It's done. I want
you to turn here another place with me, turning to Galatians
chapter 3. When I think of what He meant
when He says it's finished, sometimes I think of this very scripture
here in Galatians chapter 3. in verse 13. Boy, this carries
so great a meaning when he says it is finished. So many things
were accomplished in his death. Do you remember when Elijah and
Moses appeared to the Lord Jesus and those apostles up on the
Mount of Transfiguration? They came down from heaven and
they appeared to Christ. And remember what they said to
him, remember what they talked about, the death that he was
to accomplish at Jerusalem. You and I, when we die, I'm being
serious, we accomplish very much in our death. They'll take us
and they'll put us away and they'll forget about us and we'll be
gone to the resurrection. But you know Jesus Christ accomplished
something in his death. The death that he's to accomplish
at Jerusalem And when he lifted up his voice and was ready to
give up the ghost, he said, It's accomplished. It's finished. What was finished? Well, look
here in a nutshell. In Galatians chapter 3, look
in verse 13. Christ hath redeemed us. He hath redeemed us from the
curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written,
Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree." What was accomplished? What was finished there at the
cross? The redemption of His people. He accomplished it. He says it's
finished. He redeemed them from the curse
of the law. The curse of the law. What's
that about? That's what stood against our
sins. That's what accused us because of our sins. You know
what Christ did to that curse? He bore it in His own body. All
the sins that we committed, He took those sins, He made them
His own, and He redeemed us from the curse of that law. Did you know that almost 2,000
years ago now you were redeemed from the curse of the law? Ain't
that amazing? You just found out about it,
didn't you? You just come to believe it a short while ago,
but when did it actually take place? At the cross. It's finished. When He was made
a curse for us, He redeemed us from the curse of the law. The scripture says He suffered
for our sins as our substitute in our place, the just for the
unjust. He was cursed of God. And by
being a curse, He redeemed us from the curse of the law. And He says it's finished. It's
finished. Listen. In His living, He fulfilled
all the demands of this holy law. And in His death, He suffered
the full penalty of that broken law. And He made a complete atonement
for sin, and He brought in everlasting righteousness, and He gave to
those who would ever believe upon Him that inheritance that
is incorruptible and undefiled and fadeth not away. And all
of this was completed when He says, It's finished. It's finished. was made between earth and heaven.
Reconciliation was made between all the elect and God. The curse
of the law was satisfied and the ground was laid for the
time when we come and believe on Him and receive it all and
be made new creatures by Him. It is finished. It is finished. Somebody said this, the purging
away of sins has already been accomplished. All we do now is
believe on Him for it. Is that true? That's true, isn't
it? He by Himself purged our sins. It's finished. I love that
message. I often think of that message
that dear man preached one time, and I listen to it so many times. And he made this statement in
that message. The only way a believer is allowed to consider his sins
is that they have been purged. While he weeps over them, while
he confesses them, while he seeks to lay them aside, The only way
he's allowed to consider his sins is that they have been purged. It's finished. It's finished. Do you feel your need of a robe
of righteousness to stand before God in? It's already been woven. It's already been woven. It's
finished. The robe is finished. The last
stitch has been put to it. Believe on Him for it. Do you feel guilt upon your conscience? Do you feel your need of being
justified before God? Then believe on Him for it. He
was delivered for our offenses and raised again to show forth
our justification. Do you feel your need of reconciliation
between your soul and God? It's already been accomplished.
He made peace through the blood of His cross. It's not a matter
of doing now, is it? It's a matter of believing what's
been done. It's finished. It's finished. I will not work
my soul to save. I will not work my soul to justify. I won't work to put off my sins
from my conscience. I won't work to work out a righteousness
to stand before God in. This my Lord has done. I'll work like any slave for
the sake of God's dear Son. But this work has been accomplished. It's been accomplished. Somebody
say, Bruce, would you have us to believe that Christ has done
all for us? Yeah. Yeah. And until we believe that, no
matter what we do, it's sin. It's sin. Till to Jesus' work
you cling by living faith, doing is a deadly thing. Doing ends
in death. It's finished. It's finished. Look back in our text again in
chapter 19 and verse 31. Look at some things you're concerning.
False religion, self-righteous religion, legalistic religion. Look in verse 31. The Jews therefore,
because it was the preparation, the preparation for the Sabbath,
that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath
day. Well, that Sabbath was a high day. They besought Pilate that
their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. Look how cruel a separatist religion
is. Cruel. They besought Pilate. They asked
Pilate to break these two thieves' legs so they would die quicker. They didn't want them hanging
upon the cross on their Sabbath day. Isn't that amazing? Religion is cruel if it's a self-righteous,
legalistic religion. You can read eyewitnesses' account
of how they did this. They had a huge club, a wooden
club. Some had iron stakes, huge stakes. And they would break the thigh
bones of these crucified people. Above the knee, the thigh bones,
they'd hit it so hard that it would break. And they said you
could hear the screams because of the pain forever so forth.
And they couldn't hold up their weight so they would hang there
and suffer an agonizing death. If they wanted to dispatch of
these thieves, if they wanted to kill them to do away with
them, why not stab them in the heart? Or why not strangle them? Do something, but break their
legs and let them hang until they're finally suffocated? I
tell you, that's self-righteous religion. That's self-righteous legalistic
religion. They hate people. Do they not? You put them in the right place
at the right time, and you'll see how cruel false religion
is. The second thing about it is
this, the hypocrisy of self-righteous religion. If you want to read
the account of this, I won't take time to read it, but it
was the parallel passage to John. The same evening, it said the
next day, their Sabbath began on Friday evening, when everybody
settled down for the Sabbath, to keep the Sabbath. These Jews, these priests, it
said, and Pharisees, they got together. They got together and
went to Pilate's house, or to the judgment hall. They found
him and had a meeting with him. And they said, we need you to
make the sepulchre sure, because they said after three days he's
going to raise again, so we don't want him to come and steal Jesus'
vest away of the night. So he said, you have the soldiers.
So they took the soldiers and sealed the tomb and set a watch.
All of this coming and going and meeting on the Sabbath day. Ain't that hypocrisy? The Lord
healed a man that had his arm withered on the Sabbath day,
and they hated him for it. He found a man that had been
crippled for 38 years and healed him on the Sabbath day, and they
tried to kill him for it. He opened the eyes of a man that
was born blind and they were going to stone him because of
it. They rebuked the disciples for plucking a few little grains
of corn out of the wheat field because it was the Sabbath. And
what do they do? They run around all over town
plotting how they might keep the body of Jesus Christ in His
tomb. What hypocrisy! What hypocrisy! But that's the way false religion
is, isn't it? They make up their little rules, and their man-made
commandments, and they hang on to their traditions, and they'll
force them off on you, and they won't keep them themselves. And that's still going on today,
not only in the religion of the Gentiles, but especially in the
religion of the Jews. You just get to know some of
them, you'll see how they slip and do things. They tell their
children all these things that are wrong, and then they'll slip
and do them themselves. Observers of the Sabbath, and
they don't observe it themselves. Hypocrites. And here's something else about
their false religion, how deceitful it is. It puts a man under a
legal conviction to do all sorts of things, even cruel things
and hypocritical things. And it never stops to reason
what the motive is behind it. These fellows never stopped to
reason, what's my motive in abusing these two criminals? What's my
motive in having their legs broken and causing them all kinds of
pain? What's my motive in trying to seal the tomb, even break
the Sabbath to do it? What's the motive behind my religion? You ever stop and ask yourself
that? Why do you do what you do? False religion won't face
that question. They won't reason that. But the
Lord's people do. We get in the heart, don't we? Look back in our text again in
verse 32. Look at this. Then came the soldiers, just
like the scribes and the Pharisees desired they should do, and they
break the legs of the first and of the other which was crucified
with him. They break the legs. And boy,
I tell you what, when I read that, I thought, man, I can almost
feel that. Almost feel that. Did you almost
feel that? Hit the other side and all the
weight and probably those bones that were broke, jabbed down
through the muscle and out the skin. Oh, I could feel that,
couldn't you? But you know what this shows
us? This one thief went from torture to torment. He thought it was bad where he
was, and it was, but it was nothing. It was a prelude to what awaited
him. Some people think because they
suffer in this lifetime that surely they're going to have
a little rest in the life that's to come. Boy, not necessarily.
Not if the Lord hasn't saved you. I remember my dad's funeral. He was an old mason. The day before the funeral, they
came at the visitation to have a little funeral for him because
he wanted them to do that. And a friend of mine was in the
little funeral service they had. But the man that was leading
it made this statement. He said, the soul is so precious
that it must have eternal life. Because the soul is precious,
it's not possible that it could perish. The soul is precious. This man's soul was precious.
It was more precious than the world. And he suffered greatly
in this lifetime. But his sufferings had just begun. He perished. He left the cross
for the torments of hell. Now, there are people in this
lifetime, brothers and sisters, almost all of their life, they're
in poverty, they have bad health, they suffer in their family,
they get old and just barely make it, and then they get decrepit
and full of pain, and they die and perish. They perish. Just like this man. Oh, but here's
something competent. This other thief that the Lord
had saved went from torture to glory. Heaven was his end. Heaven was his home. Isn't it a wonderful thing to
realize that you may live your life so full of affliction, so
full of trials that you'll be miserable in this lifetime, but
that has nothing to do with your final resting place, your final
home. There was a man that was a bagger
that was full of sores that had to beg for the crumbs he got,
but heaven was his home. And here was a man that way. That way. Can you imagine how
he suffered? Can you imagine his misery? And
yet when he breathed out his last breath, where did he go?
How do we know where he went? The Lord Jesus said, You'll be
with me in paradise. I'd rather have this man's assurance,
to be honest with you, as the assurance of any of the prophets
of the apostles. Would you? He had assurance from
the lips of the Son of God Himself. This day you shall be with me
in paradise. And if you have that assurance,
if you're in Christ and Christ is in you, then he has a home
reserved for you. No matter what you have to suffer
in this lifetime. A man's life does not consist
in the abundance of the things that he possesses. Not health,
not money, not gifts, not temporal advantages. A man's life consists
in this. His life is Christ. And having
Christ, he has the word for his assurance that when he leaves
this world, he can go to glory. Look here in verse 33. Here's
something else. This surprised Pilate. But when
they came to Jesus and saw that he was dead already, they break
not his legs. They went to Pilate to beg his
body. Pilate said, he can't be dead already. You mean he died
before the other two died? And he called the centurion to
make sure that he was dead. He was amazed that Jesus of Nazareth
had died so quickly. Well, why did he die so quickly?
Well, when we consider that he didn't die because he was exhausted. Was he exhausted? Well, you know
he was exhausted. That's not what killed him. He
didn't die from the pain, from the beatings. You know something? He only died
when he willed to die. That's it. That's it. No man
takes my life from me. I have power to lay it down,
and that's what he did, didn't he? And I have power to take
it up again. He lay down his life. He knew everything that was taking
place upon that cross. He knew that he had to die before
these two things, and so he died. He was born at the right time,
Brother Larry said, the fullness of time, and you know something?
He died at the right time. the moment that he should die,
he died. And here in verse 34, look at
this, And one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side,
and forthwith came thereout blood and water, pierced his side, and blood and water poured from
his side. A fountain, the Scripture calls
it, a fountain opened. And here it is, an open fountain.
The death of our Lord Jesus is so important for you and us to
know and believe. Our Lord gives us all kinds of
proofs for it. In the Old Testament, He tells
us of His death. He made His grave with the wicked
and with the rich in his death. You've brought me unto the dust
of death. We come to the New Testament.
The Son of Man came to minister and give his life a ransom for
many. Verse 30 tells us that he gave
up the ghost. He died. And the centurion told
Pilate, he's dead. But here his death is confirmed
to us again. Look at that gaping hole in his
side. What does that tell us? He's
dead. He didn't fall into some kind
of swoon and revive in the grave. He was dead and now the vessels
in his body, his pores empty the water and the blood and it
drains out of that hole. down at the foot of the cross.
He's dead. He's dead. He died not for Himself. He died
not as a mere example. But He died for our sins. He died to reconcile us to God. He died to bring us to the Father. And, if He didn't die, We have
no assurance of any of those things being accomplished. He
accomplished all of this through His death. See the importance
of His death? And we have all kinds of proof
of it. And notice what came from His side forthwith. Immediately
there came forth blood and water. And this is the way the Lord
Jesus Christ saves us. Blood to satisfy. and water to
cleanse us, blood to justify us, and water to sanctify us. Water in the Scriptures is something
that cleanses. In regeneration, there is not
only a justification, but there is a cleansing. And you and I
need both of those, don't we? We not only need to be justified,
we need to be sanctified. We not only need to be delivered
from the curse of our sin, we need to be delivered from the
love of it. That's what this is talking about.
Blood to justify us. Water to cleanse us. To cleanse
us. It's just as important for us
to be saved from the love of sin as it is to be saved And where do we find both justification
and sanctification? At the cross. At the cross. You'll never be any more holy
than when you look to Christ. You'll never be any more justified
than when you look to Christ for your justification. You want
to be holy? You want to hate sin? You want
to continue your life not loving it? Then look to Christ. There's
where you'll find not only justification, but cleansing. There's where
you'll find purification. Some tell us that Christ saves
us and we go to the Law of Moses to be sanctified. We find those
both at the cross. And look what He said in verse
35, and I'm almost finished. Look in verse 35. And he that
saw it bore record." That's John. He bore record. And this record
is true. And he knoweth that he saith
this truth that you might believe. Might believe what? What does
John want us to believe? That Jesus is the Messiah. That
Jesus is the Christ. And by the fulfilling of these
scriptures, it proved that he was indeed the Christ. These
two scriptures. Look in verse 36. Here's what
John said. I'll bear witness to it. This
is what I want you to believe. Verse 36. For all these things
were done that the scripture should be fulfilled, a bone of
him shall not be broken. You'll find that in Psalm chapter
34 and verse 20. A bone of him shall not be broken. That was a prophecy concerning
the Christ when He hung upon the cross. Remember back in Exodus
chapter 12 when they killed the Passover lamb? They had regulations,
certain specifications when they picked out a lamb. Remember all
that. But one of them was this. When you kill this lamb, and
when you skin this lamb, and as you're eating this lamb, beware
of this. that not a bone of him is broken. Why? Well, right here it is. The Scriptures predicted a long
time before this happened. And John said, I want you to
believe this. I want you to show you how infallible
the Scriptures are and that Christ came and he fulfilled these Scriptures. And then he tells us something
else. And look in verse 37. And again, another scripture
that said, They shall look on him whom they have pierced. This is found in Zechariah chapter
12 and verse 10. They shall look on him whom they
have pierced. And here they are looking on
him. They pierced him. That soldier
pierced him. And there they were looking at him. But Zechariah
went on to say something else. They shall look on him whom they
have pierced. And they shall mourn for Him. They're going to mourn for Him.
And that's what happened in Acts chapter 2, when Peter says, you've
taken the Lord, and by wicked hands you've crucified Him, you've
slain Him. And boy, they saw Him lifted
up. And what did they do? Their hearts were pricked. And
they said, we've sinned against God. What must we do? What must
we do? You know where true mourning
for sin comes? At the cross. at the cross. Listen to this old song. And
now the scales have left my eyes, now I begin to see all the cursed
deeds my sins have done, what murderous things they be. It
was you that pulled the vengeance down upon His guiltless head. Break, break my heart, Oh, burst
my eyes and let my sorrows bleed. T'was you my sins, my cruel sins. His chief tormentors were. My
crimes became the nails and unbelief the spear." We may look at the
law and feel our guilt as well we should. But I tell you, we'll
never feel the corruption of sin and we'll never learn to
hate it. as we do when we look to the cross. Therefore, we learn
to mourn over sin. The scriptures cannot be broken. What a sure foundation for our
faith and our hope. God will fulfill his word by
using his friends or by using his enemies. He'll fulfill it
by the deeds of the righteous or by the deeds of the wicked.
Things that may seem casual and go unnoticed by us as a little
sparrow falling from the air, or a hair falling from our head,
or a sponge to the Savior's lips. All of this and more and everything
God uses to fulfill His Word. It cannot be broken. Why are
these things written, John said? That you might believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God. And believing, you might have
life through His name. God bless you. Let's pray.