saw his mother and the disciple
standing by whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman,
behold thy son. Then saith he to the disciple,"
John is the disciple, "'Behold thy mother.' And from that hour
that disciple took her into his own home." They're recorded seven
statements which our Lord made from the cross. We have them
recorded in these four gospels, which we call the gospels, the
evangelists. Now, we're not certain that these
are the only words that our Lord spoke from the cross. They may
be. They may not be. I do not know.
Some people seem to think that he spoke all the words of Psalm
22 from the cross. But if you look over one page
in your Bible, in John 21, verse 25, this is something we need
to always remember. John 21, 25. And there are also
many other things which Jesus did. and which our Lord Jesus
said, that which, if they should be written every one, I suppose
that even the world itself could not contain the books that should
be written. So when I say that there were
seven words from the cross, seven statements, I'm saying that those
are the seven that are recorded. in the Scriptures. And these
seven statements reveal the person and work of our Lord clearly
and beautifully, His person and work on behalf of His people.
Let's look at some of them just briefly. Luke 23, this is the
first recorded statement from the cross. And here in this statement, you
have revealed to us Christ the Mediator, Christ praying for
His people, praying for us. He's our advocate. He prays for
us. He said to Peter, I prayed for
you. I prayed for you that your faith fail not. There's one God
and one Mediator between God and men. And that's the man,
Christ Jesus. And here on the cross, it says
in verse 34, "...then said Jesus, Father, forgive them." Father,
forgive them. There were people standing at
that cross, helping to crucify Christ and calling for his crucifixion,
for whom he prayed. Forgive them. Forgive them, for
they know not what they do. That's Christ our Mediator, the
one and only Mediator between Almighty God and sinners. John
said, when a man sins, he said, these things are written to you
that you sin not. But when a man sins, thank God
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. If a man sins against the man,
the judge will stand for him or judge between him and the
man. But if a man sinned against God, who's going to stand for
him? Thank God, Christ is and will and does. All right, Luke
23, 43. That's Christ our Mediator, our
Advocate. Now here, Christ the Savior of
sinners. The Savior of sinners. There
were plenty of sinners around that cross, religious sinners
and worldly sinners, all type of sinners. But I guess if a
natural man should pick out the most unworthy and the most helpless
and the most convicted sinner, there would be that thief hanging
on the cross with him. And here in Luke 23, verse 43,
the thief being crucified And you know, he said to the Lord,
remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Here's a man,
somebody said, here's an outcast that the outcast cast out. A
man even evil people didn't want anything to do with. They thought
him so worthless that the only thing to do with him is kill
him. Kill him. Blot him out. And so when he
asked for mercy, the Lord Jesus, verse 43, said to him, "'Truly
I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise.'"
That wasn't a question, that was a statement. And here Christ
saves and forgives and brings to God a great sinner, a great
sinner. This is Christ our Savior, who
said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance,
who came into the world to save sinners, Paul said, of whom I'm
chief. Oh, how we can take comfort in
those two statements. Father, forgive them. I pray you'd forgive them. And
I'm sure of this, those for whom he prayed were forgiven. I can't
imagine Christ ever asking the Father for anything he didn't
receive. Can you? They were forgiven. And when he said to that faith,
today you'll be with me in paradise. He was there. Now John 19. A while ago I read this a few
moments ago. Our Lord is there on the cross
and John is there. John the Apostle. John, in his
book here, never calls his name, his own name, never, ever uses
his name in reference to himself. He always identifies himself
as that disciple whom Jesus loved. On another occasion, he said
the disciple that leaned on his breast at the Last Supper, or
some way, but he will not A humble, meek man. Loving disciple, but
he never identifies himself by name, except in this way here. And here you have Christ the
man. The man born of a woman. Now listen to him. He saw his
mother, and he was born of a woman, in God, in the fulness of time,
God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law. In other words, Christ was born
of woman, the woman saved, the second Adam. And as a man, born
of woman, under the law, he had earthly responsibilities to honor
his mother. to obey his parents, to respect
her and love her and provide for her. This is our Lord, our King of
Kings and Lord of Lords. But this is the man, Christ Jesus. This is the acme, the pinnacle
of history, of all things in the universe, in God's eternal
purpose and plan. covenant mercies, the kingdom
being fulfilled, the death of the Son of God, the death of
deaths, the moment of moments, the highest point in human and
divine history. And this man, this loving son,
in the greatest agony that any man, I guess, has ever suffered,
bearing the sins of all the people of all generations, whom the
Father had given to him, he said he saw his mother. And knowing she was a widow,
Joseph was dead. She was alone in this world.
And he looked over at John. John was there. He said, Woman,
behold your son. Son, behold your mother. Take
my mother home and keep her. That's touching it. That's our
Lord. That's our Lord. That's the Lord
of Lords, the King of Kings. That's the Savior. That's the
Redeemer. That's the true Adam, the second Adam, one who redeemed
us. Him you can love. Him you can
trust. He'll care for you. Even in the
darkest hour, in the heaviest trial, in the greatest storm,
He'll never forget you. He loved his people. He loved
his mother. And he said, John, you take care
of her. And it says here that disciple took her into his own
home. And you know something? John
outlived all the disciples. They were all martyred. And I'll
just grant you this. As long as Mary lived, John lived
to take care of her. I'm just sure of that. And then
he was cast, he was outcast, he was exiled to an island of
Patmos. And that's where he died. That's
where he wrote the book of Revelation. But all the apostles, he took
care of Mary. Let's go back to Mark, chapter
15. Mark, chapter 15. Here is Christ, our sin offering. When you get on this ground here,
it's like reading John 17, the prayer of our Lord. This is holy
ground. It says in verse 33 of Mark 15,
when the sixth hour, that was noon, He was on that cross, When the sixth hour, high noon,
was come, there was darkness over all the land until the ninth
hour. From noon till three o'clock
in the afternoon, there was darkness. The sun would hit its face. This is when our Lord, bearing
the sins of His people, the filth and the guilt and the rebellion
of all His people, in His soul, in His body on that tree, He
made His soul an offering for sin. And that's when, understand
this, I do not believe it, I do, preach it, I do, when the Father
left him alone. When he said the Father forsook
him. And at the ninth hour, Jesus
cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabbathanai,
which is interpreted, my God, My God, why hast thou forsaken
me? This is Christ our sin offering. It says, and here's the reason,
in Isaiah 59, here's the reason. Why did the Father, why did God
turn His back on Christ? Why did He forsake Him on the
cross? Here it is, Isaiah 59, 1 and 2. It says, Behold, the Lord's hand
is not shortened that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy that
it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated
between you and your God. Your sins have hid his face from
you that he will not hear. That's speaking to us, and that's
true. But that's true of him who bore our sins. That's true
of Him upon whom our sins were laid, the Lamb of God, the scapegoat. When the Old Testament priests
brought that scapegoat before the congregation, laid His hands
on the head of that scapegoat, He confessed the sins of Israel
and laid them on that scapegoat. That's typical picture of Christ,
who bore our sins in His body on the trail, made His soul an
offering for sin. Our sins were transferred, transferred
from us to Christ. And God cannot look upon sin.
And there it is right there, your sins. And they were His.
Because He took my place. They were His. They were laid
on Him. They were transferred to Him. And here, every Old Testament
sacrifice It's fulfilled. It's pointed to Christ. All right,
John 19, back to our text. The fifth statement, John 19,
verse 28. Remember when Brother Ron read
this? Verse 28, after this, Jesus,
knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scriptures
might be fulfilled. And my friend, that's the key
word in this work. All that Christ did was a fulfillment
of the Scriptures. He died for our sins according
to the Scriptures. He was buried and rose again
according to the Scriptures. And as you're reading, you'll
hear this repeated over and over again, that the Scriptures might
be fulfilled. And then in the book of Acts
it says when they had fulfilled, when these Jews and Pharisees
and Roman soldiers had fulfilled everything that was written of
Christ in Moses, in the Psalms, and in the law, in the prophet,
they took him down from the tree. But not until they had fulfilled
everything that was written of him, the seed of woman, The woman
saved, the sin offering, the Passover, the rock smitten, serpent
lifted up. And here it says, after this,
Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the
Scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst. This is Christ,
the sufferer. He was tempted and tested and
tried in all points as we are. He made his living by the sweat
of his brow. He knew what it was to be hungry.
He fasted. He knew what it was to be weary.
He knew what it was to be thirsty. He knew what it was to suffer
pain. The fall of Adam brought upon
us weakness, disease, sin, pain, suffering, and here Christ is
suffering. Turn to Genesis 3. Now this is
just, this is so, this is the result of the fall, Genesis 3,
and our Lord is identified with us in all of this. Now listen
to it. Genesis 3, verse 17, unto Adam
God said, Genesis 3, 17, unto Adam God said, Because you've
hearkened to the voice of your wife, And ye have eaten of the
tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of
it." Cursed is the ground for your sake. Cursed is the ground
because of you. When the floods and droughts
and storms and earthquakes shake this world, we can just say it's
cursed because of us. That's our fault. That's right. In sorrow shall you eat of it
all the days of your life." Here's the Son of God, His lips breaking
open, His tongue cleaving, He said to His jaws, to the roof
of His mouth, thirsty, a man thirsty, hungry, in pain. Sin did that. And thorns also,
and thistles shall it bring forth to you. Plow your garden, and
weeds will outgrow your corn. The thorns and the thistles and
the briars, you can cut them up, take them out, and they'll
come right back. That's because of us. And in
the sweat of your face shall you eat your bread, till you
return to the ground. For out of it was thou taken,
For thus thou art, and to thus thou shalt return." And our Lord
Jesus Christ, our representative, is everything we are. He's a
man. In every trial and trouble and
temptation and battle you walk, He walks. He was tried and tested
in all points, such as we are, and yet He never sinned. He suffered. He suffered. Christ the sufferer.
All right. Now look at the next line. Verse 29. Now they were sent
a vessel full of vinegar. If you read up on this, it's
sour wine. This is a soldier's drink. It's
a strong drink. It's vinegar. That's a sour wine. The soldiers, many of them, were
paid in vinegar. And they had there at the cross
a vessel full of vinegar. I know they put a lot of stock
on this about other things, but it was there at the cross in
the keeping of the soldiers. Sour wine. And it says, he cried,
I thirst. And they filled a sponge with
vinegar. That old soury, sour wine. That old bitter tasting drink. They did it. Not out of kindness,
I guarantee you, but out of contempt and hatred for him. And they took a sponge and filled
it full of that vinegar and put it on a stick or a pole, and
there is he. You can imagine his agony and
that suffering. His back lacerated, his beard
plucked out, his crown of thorns pressed into his brow, the nails.
Stretching his hands and feet, I thirst. And they took that
vinegar and shoved it into his mouth. That's what you were talking
about, Cecil, hatred and contempt this world has for the Son of
God. And they put it to his mouth. And when he had received the
vinegar, he said, it's finished. This is Christ our Redeemer,
our victor, captain of our salvation. The battle's over. It's finished. It's done. It's complete. It's perfected. It's accomplished. He bowed his head and gave up
the ghost and he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. That's Christ our intercessor.
our forerunner who went into the presence of God, the man
Christ Jesus. But what's finished? Well, I
say four things. Number one, the whole will of
God in regard to the kingdom of glory. The whole will of God
in regard to the covenant, the kingdom, redemption, the will
of God. You know, he said, In Hebrews
10, lo, I come. In the volume of the book, I
come, O Lord, to do thy will. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that of all he hath given me, I'll lose nothing but
raise it up at the last day. And he said, that's done. It's
finished. The redemptive will of God is
complete. Complete. Perfected. Accomplished. Don't exhort sinners to try to
add anything to it. It's finished. Secondly, the
whole work of redemption. He said, I finished the work
you gave me to do. A righteousness perfected. A
sin offering perfected. An atonement. The blood on the
mercy seat. Sin put away. Separated from
us as far as the east is from the west to be remembered no
more. Thirdly, The Levitical law, with
all of its types and sacrifices and ceremonies, is finished. It says he taketh away the first.
The old temple, the veil in the temple, separating the holy of
holies from the holy place, the altar out there, the showbread,
the candlestick, the labor, the incense, sweep it all in the
garbage. That's too hard. We'll sweep
it all somewhere, because it's finished. It's over. It's over. Christ reigns. Salvation is in
Him and Him alone. We look to Him. We come to Him. We rest to Him. He is our altar.
He is our Sabbath. He is our high priest. He is
our mercy Savior. He is everything. He is everything. And the old Levitical law is
finished. And then it says, he who knew
no sin was made sin for us, fourthly, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. That's finished. He hath made
us accepted in the beloved. That's finished. It's like a
man painting a portrait. When he signs his name, it's
finished. Man building a house. He puts
the lock on the door and turns the key and walks away. It's
finished. That's what my Lord did on the cross. He finished.
Redemption. Righteousness. Sanctification.
And all things. It's done. It's done. Verse 31. It was late in the
afternoon now on Friday. 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Darkness
from noon till 3 o'clock. In verse 31, the Jews therefore,
because it was a preparation, preparation of the Sabbath, see
the Sabbath began at six o'clock in the evening when the sun went
down. The Sabbath was from the sundown Friday night to sundown
Saturday. Alright, they had three bodies
on the cross, on crosses. Sunset and it was the high Sabbath. This is the Passover This is
the high Sabbath. This is one they talk about over
there in Exodus the Sabbath of the Passover Christ our Passover's
died for us, but for them, it's a dead body on a cross To defile
their Sabbath day. So listen the Jews therefore
because it was the preparation of the Sabbath and Passover,
that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath
day. My goodness alive! Can you imagine
dead bodies? I know we've crucified the Lord
of Glory. I know we've spit upon the face
of the King of Kings. But they're not concerned that
they've crucified the Lord Jesus, they were concerned about those
bodies defiling their Sabbath day. That's how hypocritical
and And evil religion is. Religion without God. Religion
without salvation. Religion without a heart. They
kill these men. What's the Son of God? Die. And now they said to Pilate,
let's get those bodies down off that cross. It's almost time
for us to go worship. Play church. And pray. Call on God. For that Sabbath was a high day.
And they besought Pilate that their legs... Tell you what to
do. They said, break their legs. And that will hasten their death.
His man hanging on a cross is the only support of those legs.
So the soldiers come and take an iron bar or something and
break both his legs. And that just rips the life out
of him. Rips the life out of him. So
he said, Go out there and break their legs so they can die more
quickly. Get them off those crosses so
we can go to church and worship. So verse 32, the soldiers came
and break the legs of the first thief and of the other one. But when they came to Jesus,
they saw he was dead and they break not his legs. Now why didn't
they break his legs? Well, it wasn't compassion, I
can tell you that. It was because God wouldn't let
them. Turn with me to Exodus 12. Christ is our Passover. You see, these men, even in what
they did, they did what God determined before to be done. And here in
Exodus 12, verse 46, Moses is talking about the Passover
lamb, and he says in Exodus 12, verse 46, "...in one house shall
it be eaten, and thou shalt not carry forth aught of the flesh
abroad out of your house, neither shall you break a bone thereof."
Don't break the bone of the Passover lamb. Not a bone shall be broken.
And that's what it says down here in my text, in verse 30,
5, and he that saw it, John 19,
35, look at it, and he that saw it bear record, his record is
true, John, I'm talking about myself, and he knoweth that he
saith true that you might believe, for these things were done that
the scriptures might be fulfilled, a bone of him shall not be broken. And again, another scripture,
they'll look on him whom they pierced. A soldier came to him,
he'd broken the bones, Why did he do that? He went over there
and broke this man's bones, went over there and broke that man's
bones, and then he came and stood. I tell you, the centurion stood
because he said, this man was the Son of God. One of those
soldiers. The centurion said, surely, this
man was the Son of God. But he didn't break his legs.
Because the scripture says, not a bone of him shall be broken.
He's a Passover lamb. God's in control. Total, absolute,
sovereign control. All these things. Scripture is
fulfilled. But look at verse 34. But one
of the soldiers, and why did he do this? Why did he do this? Why did they not break his leg?
It's the providence of God. Now listen. One of the soldiers,
verse 34, with a spear. He's already dead now. But he
takes a spear and pierces his side, right here under the heart. And forthwith came thereout blood
and water. Well, I'll tell you two reasons
why he pierced his side. God ordained it. First, to remove all doubt that
he was dead. They didn't break his legs. They
break this man's leg and this man's. Didn't touch his legs.
Not a bone should be broken. But, they take him down from
the cross and put him in a tomb, not being certain that he's dead.
There'd always be a doubt, wouldn't there? So that's one reason. He rammed that spear clear up
into his side and out poured blood and water. Second reason,
the blood and water. I look carefully at this. Some
say this is a natural result. I don't know anything about this,
but this is what it says. When the pericardium is pierced,
that's a sac surrounding the heart. It contains a clear liquid. But when that's pierced, that
clear liquid comes out with blood. But the blood and water that
flowed from his side is a picture of our justification and our
sanctification. In all of the sacrifices there
were two things, blood and water. Water to cleanse and blood to
justify. And when Christ's side was pierced
in his death, in his suffering, in his sacrifice, the blood and
water from thy wounded side which flowed, be of sin the double
cure, save from wrath and make me pure." That's what we're saying,
Michael. That's what we're saying. Rock of Ages cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy wounded side which flowed, be of sin a double cure, save
from wrath and make me pure. Now here's two other things.
In 1 Corinthians 5, 7, it says Christ our Passover was sacrificed
for us, right? Christ our Passover. Passover
blood put on the door. Blood on the door. Our Passover,
you justify. But there's two things. And the second one is this. There's
a rock that followed Israel. And Moses smote the rock. And
what came out? Water. Blood and water, all the
way through the Old Testament. And John made so much of it,
he said in verse 35, and he that saw it, he bare record, his record
is true, he knoweth what he saith is true that you might believe.
These things were done that the scriptures might be fulfilled. Now, verse 38, I want to touch
on this, just a moment. Because I mentioned it this morning.
And you talked about these chief rulers who believed on Christ
but didn't confess Him. And I named Nicodemus, and I
named Joseph of Arimathea, and I named Gamaliel. Verse 38, after
this, Joseph of Arimathea. And Matthew says he was a rich
man. Matthew 27, 57, Joseph of Arimathea was a rich man. Secondly,
Mark said, listen, I won't turn to read these, I'll just, you
trust me. Mark says in chapter 15, he was
an honorable counselor who waited on the kingdom of
God. Joseph of Arimathea was a rich
man, he was an honorable counselor who waited on the kingdom of
God. Luke said in chapter 23, you look it up later, Joseph
of Arimathea was a good man, a just man, and had not agreed
with the Sanhedrin to crucify Christ. But he hadn't confessed
it for fear of the Jews, lest he be cast out of the synagogue. But something happened here,
I believe. Let's pray that people did know
Christ, and His name not mentioned again
throughout the Bible. We don't know what happened to
it. But I sort of believe, listen, it says, and him being a disciple
of Jesus, a believer, but secretly for fear of the Jews, he came
and besought Pilate that he might take the body of Jesus. Now that's
identification. And he's going to have some trouble
out of this. This man came to Pilate and said, I want his body.
And he took it down. From the cross, and Pilate gave
him leave. He came and took the body. Now
here comes another man, verse 39, Nicodemus. This may be when
these men were brought to Christ. This may be when they confessed
it. Maybe. Why not? I don't know. It's not said that they didn't.
And Nicodemus came too. He'd been coming by night, but
here he comes right out in the open. He'd been coming by night. Every
time Nicodemus' name is mentioned, it's, He came by night. But this
is not night. And He came, Nicodemus came,
which at the first came to Jesus by night. There, see, there it
is again. And He brought a mixture of myrrh and alloys and a hundred
pound weight. And they, the two of them, I
think ashamed that they hadn't confessed Him. Ashamed that they
didn't. Stand with the disciples. They
came and took the body and wound it. The disciples had fled. They had fled. They came and
took the body, wound it in linen clothes and spices, as is the
manner of the Jews to bury. Now in the place where he was
crucified, there was a garden. In that garden, a new sepulchre,
a new grave, where nobody had ever laid. Had to be. Because
when the angel said, he's risen, it had to be Christ, not somebody
else. Sometime in those caves, this was not a hole in the ground,
this was a cave. And they rolled a stone over the door of the
cave and buried Christ. But it was a cave in which no
man had been buried, and it belonged to Joseph of Arimathea. He said, put him in my grave.
Put him in mine. Pete, that's what I was talking
about this afternoon. It may be that these men came to know Christ. It takes some folks a little
longer to get it from here to here, and perhaps they did. But I know this, they identified
with Christ then. Now what they did after that,
and what they encountered after that, and what price they had
to pay, I do not know, but I know that They came to headquarters
and they said, we want his body and put it in my tomb. Our Father, I would thank you
for your word. I would thank you that you've
given us the word to read, to study, to preach, and more than
that, You've given to us in our hearts a genuine love for this
book and for Thy Word, and a confidence in Your Word.
We believe Thy Word, and therefore have we spoken. And I pray You'd
take the messages today and make them a blessing to Your people.
and bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we have
met, in whose name we preach, in whose name we come to you,
in whose name we pray, in whose name we hope, in whose name we
are saved. In his name, amen.