Now the Holy Spirit of God took
special care to record seven particular sayings which our
Lord uttered from the cross of Calvary. There are people who
say that He quoted the entire 22nd Psalm. Turn over there just
a moment. There's no record of this, certainly
not recorded that he did, but in your private reading, you
might read Psalm 22. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Verse 2, I cry in the daytime
and in the night season. You remember the hours of darkness
on the cross and the hours of daylight. Verse 7, day that see
me, laugh me to scorn, they shoot out the lip, they shake their
head, saying he trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him,
let him deliver him, seeing he delighteth in him. Verse sixteen,
they pierce my hands and my feet. Verse eighteen, they parted my
garments and cast lots upon my vesture. You can read that, Psalm
twenty-two, that's back in the writings of David regarding the
death of our Lord on the cross and the things that took place
there. Fulfillment of Scripture. But the Holy Spirit took special
care to record seven sayings. Probably many of you can recite
them. And in the four Gospels, Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John, they're not in order. In other words,
John doesn't give all of them. Luke doesn't give all of them.
Matthew doesn't give all of them. But they're in the four Gospels,
and here are the seven sayings. First, our master said, Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do. And then he spoke
to the thief who was crucified with him, and he said to the
thief, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. And then he spoke
to Mary and to John as they stood the cross, and he said, Woman,
behold thy son, and Son, behold thy mother. And then when he
cried, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Because of
the desertion of the Heavenly Father. Then our Lord said, I
thirst. That's the fifth saying. And
then he cried, It is finished. And then, as Charlie pointed
out, There's no way he could have died. No way he could have
died without releasing his own spirit. As he said, Father, into
thy hands I commend my spirit. You don't do that. I don't do
that. He takes it. But no man taketh my life from
me. Christ, even in the flesh, could not die without releasing
his own spirit from the body. Now, I would begin, if you want
to turn to Luke 23, but I would begin by saying this. The fear
that I have in speaking on this subject, this is the fear that
I have, and I expressed it earlier in this service. The fear I have
in speaking on this subject is the possibility of reducing to
doctrine and theology these tremendous, awesome words of our Lord. When
you think, who said these things? Who said it? Who said this, Father,
forgive them? Who said, today shalt thou be
with me in paradise? Who's speaking? This is the Lord
God in human flesh. And think about where they were
said in His hour of agony and suffering and the accomplishment
of our redemption on the cross. He spoke from the throne of Calvary,
these words. And then when you think about
the issues involved in all of these statements, the tremendous
issues involved, it's not a theme for argument or debate. It's
like the Church of Christ. Many of them, I hear them say
that when the Lord said to the thief, today shalt thou be with
me in paradise, I heard one of their preachers say, well, he
didn't say he was going to be in heaven. He asked him a question.
today shall thou be with me apparently. Anything to get around, you know. But this isn't a source of argument. These are the words of the master.
These are the words of the master. These are the words of the master
from Calvary. This is that hour about which
he spoke when he said, mine hour's not yet come. This is the hour
about which he spoke when he said, What have I to do with
thee, man? I was not yet come, and then
shall I pray, Father, deliver me from this hour?" And then
when he, in John 17, he said, the hour's come. And this is
when he said these things. And the issues involved are breathtaking. The enormous load of human guilt
was on my Savior laid. With woes as with a garment,
he for sinners was arraigned. And in those awful hours of death,
he prayed and died for me. He loved me. He embraced my guilty
soul while he was nailed to that cruel tree. Oh, love, amazing
love, beyond the reach of human tongue, love which shall be the
subject of my eternal song. For since my faith I saw that
stream, His flowing wounds supply, redeeming love has been my theme,
and shall be till I die. But if you're taking notes and
you want to remember the direction we're going this morning, I'm
speaking of these seven sayings under three headings. Three headings. First of all, I say that in these
seven sayings, you have the person and work of Christ, clearly defined,
the person and work of Christ. And then in these seven sayings,
you have clearly defined the main doctrines of our faith. All in these seven sayings, the
main things we hold to. And then in these seven sayings,
you have the duties of every believer in these seven sayings. Now, what's the first one? Look
at Luke 23, verse 34. He said, then said Jesus, Luke 23, 34. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive
them. forget them. They know not what
they do. This is Christ, write it down,
the Mediator. This is Christ, the Mediator.
Now, my friends, because of God's infinite holiness, and because
of our great guilt, there's got to be a Mediator. Turn to Isaiah
chapter 40. Now, yesterday, now Friday, Friday,
a pastor friend drove up here to see me, and we were sitting
in my office at home talking. He was sitting over there, and
I was sitting at the desk. And he was distressed by the
lack of interest, lack of interest in the gospel which we're trying
to preach. He was distressed because in
his area, nobody, nobody seemed to have a real vital interest
in the gospel of redeeming grace. And I said to him, as I say to
you right now, Eastern Kentucky, I'm speaking
of Eastern Kentucky because I live here and I know this area. I've
lived here for a long time. I came here in April. 1947, that's
40 years ago. And I know this area, and I know
the people of this area. I've preached all over this area.
I've preached here, up Sandy, across the river, out that way,
all over this area. I know people up in Martin, and
Allen, and Piteville, and you name it. Elkhorn, everywhere. Louisa, Paintsville, Prestonsburg,
all over. Lynch, left beaver, right beaver. I know these people. And I know
this about them. They're all religious. They are
religious in this earth. They're what we call Bible-thumpers
and Bible-believers. They believe the book, the blood,
the blessed hope. They talk about heaven. They
talk about hell. They talk about Calvary. They
talk about blood. They talk about the cross. They
talk about salvation. They talk about all these things.
But this generation of people in eastern Kentucky do not know,
they absolutely do not know, three critical, crucial, vital
things to know in God. Three crucial, critical, vital
things to know in God. The first place, they do not
know, absolutely do not know. They know their God. They know
the God of their denomination. They know the God of their preachers.
They know they're God of their tradition, they know they're
God of their custom, and they're God of their mothers. But they
do not know the God of the Bible. They do not know that God, the
awesome, eternal, almighty, sovereign, omnipotent, unapproachable, incomprehensible,
invisible God that dwelleth in a light to which no man can approach.
These people in this part of the country are on a familiar
plane with their God. He's familiar, and they're familiar
with Him. And they can talk about Him in
slang, or curse words, or flippantly, or emotionally, or whatever.
They know nothing of the eternal God. They don't now. And they
don't know anything. This generation in this part
of the country knows nothing of sin. They know nothing of
sin. It's like one fellow said to
a preacher friend of mine, and that preacher friend said to
him, he's a churchman, he said, are you a sinner? And the man
indignantly looked at him and said, when I got saved, I went
out of the sinning business. That's Eastern Kentucky. They
don't drink, they don't curse, they don't run around, they don't
use profane language, they don't do certain things, so they don't
sin. This generation knows nothing about the principle of sin, the
depth of sin, the carnality of sin, the corruption of sin, the
awful state of sin, the curse of sin, the problem of sin, the
nature of sin. They know nothing about what
sin is. You see, anything you do outwardly, or say outwardly,
or any conduct you perform outwardly, that's not sin. That's the results
of sin. That's the product of sin. Sin
is why you did it. Sin is what you are. Sin is the
condition of the heart. Sin, in the heart, is what God
hates. The living God pays no attention
to sin. creatures, whether an ant runs
right or left, whether an ant runs up a hill or down a hill.
It's the condition. It's the state of the creature.
It's the rebellion in the heart. It's I, me, mine. That's our problem. And this
outfit doesn't know anything about that. And I'll tell you
something else. This generation and this part
of the country know nothing of the need of, the necessity of,
the absolute requirement of a mediator of God's own choosing, who on
the basis of His piety and His righteousness and holiness and
His identification with us and His association with us and His
representation of us and His love for us can somehow, by His
grace, come where we are and bring us to that awesome God.
This outfit doesn't know anything about that. And so they're busy
running up and down the aisle trusting Jesus, accepting Jesus
as their personal Savior. I think if I hear that again,
I'm going to scream. I'm accepting Jesus as my personal Savior. You've never bowed to Him as
Lord. You've never owned Him as King and Sovereign. You've
never kissed the sun unless to be angry. You've never worshipped
at his feet. You've never embraced him as
your king. You've never submitted to him, committed to him, bowed
to him, surrendered to him. You've accepted him, and he ain't
up for acceptance or rejection. I'm preaching to a dead, dumb
generation of religionists, and you know it. They can't comprehend
what they don't know. That's sad, but I told the preacher,
that's your problem. Look at Isaiah 40. Listen to
it. Isaiah 40, in verse 6, and the voice said, Cry! Cry! And I said, What shall I cry? What shall I cry? What's the
message? John, what's the message? Everybody wants to be a preacher.
Tell me, preacher, what's the message? Everybody wants to appear. I don't know very many people
that don't want to appear. What's the message? God wants me to
preach. What does He want you to preach?
Well, I don't know, but I'm going to go with Him so. Well, He tells you what to cry.
He gives you three things. Verse six, cry! What shall I
cry? All flesh is grass. Yours and
your mama's too. And your uncle's, and your aunt's,
and your good neighbor's, and your preacher's, and your deacon's.
They're grass. What's grass fit for? Anybody
save grass around here? You cut your grass and you just
let it go. Or you gather it up in the hopper
or whatever it is and put it in the garbage can. Anybody save
grass? That's what your flesh is worth,
grass. That's all it is. And your goodliness thereof,
your glory, your goodness, your morality, your piety, all you
got to brag on is as the flower of the field. Once the smell's
gone, it's no good. Once that old flower's wilted,
it's no good. The grass withers, and the flower
fades, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely
the people is grass, grass, grass. Tell them that, he said. Tell
them they're no good. Tell them in the flesh, well,
it's no good. Tell them I won't have them. Tell them they're
unprofitable. Tell them there's not anything about them or of
them that I'm interested in, God said. Tell them. That's what
you tell them. And then verse eight, he said,
you tell him this, that grass withers and that flower fadeth
and everything identified with the flesh is going the way of
the flesh. But, the word of my God. Stand just a little while. Here it is. Here's the ultimate
end. Here's the foundation. Here's
the rule. It is right here. What saith
the Lord? What saith the Lord? That's grass. Well, I'll tell
you what I believe. That's the flower of the faith.
What does God say? That's what you've got to believe,
what God says, the word of the Lord. And I'll tell you there,
He's not just talking about the written word, He's talking about
the living word, Christ. And I'll tell you something else.
Oh Zion, listen to this, verse nine. Oh Zion, it bringeth good
tidings. Get up! to the high mountain
old Jerusalem that bringeth good tidings. Lift up your voice with
strength. Lift it up. Don't be afraid.
Say to these cities of eastern Kentucky, say to Judah, say what
to them? Behold your God. That's the third
point. You take a good look at what
you are, a good look at your distance from God, your nothingness,
your absolute nothingness. Oh, we want preachers to brag
on us and We want them to praise us, and we want them to recognize
us. There ain't nothing worth recognizing. There's nothing
worth praising. You're just grass. There's a
flower to field. But I'll tell you what, we base
it on the Word, and we behold our God. And you know what's
going to be the response when we see where we are and who we
are and what we are and who He is? Yes, they're not a mediator. Is there not somebody that will
represent us to Him? And here He is. That's what He's
standing. Father, He's standing, Charlie, between heaven and hell.
He's standing between goodness and evil. He's standing between
life and death. He's standing between holiness
and evil. And He turns, with one hand,
to God the Father, and the other hand on those with whom He's
numbered. And He said, wash them, and forgive them,
and love them, and receive them for my sake." That's what he
said. Oh, how we need, how we need
a mediator. That mediator has to be of God's
choice. That mediator has to have somewhat
to offer, and that mediator has to be heard in that obeyed his
piety. All right, look at the second
thing in Luke 23, 43. And this thief said, Lord, you're
not going to stay dead. You're coming into a kingdom.
I'm getting what I deserve, but remember me when you come into
your kingdom. And our Lord said, now listen to this, today shalt
thou be with me in paradise. You know, my friends, I get the
impression when I hear most people preach. That Jesus of Nazareth,
Jesus Christ, I get the impression he's a pretty helpless little
fellow. Pretty helpless. But I'll tell
you this, Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, here, in his, humanly
speaking, weakest moment, in his frailest moment, in the moment
when he's been turned over by the Father into the hands of
men to spit upon, and scourge, and mock, and ridicule without
responding or replying, and then drive nails in His hands and
feet, and lift Him up between heaven and earth on a cross,
and mock, and jeer, and dance around His cross, and make fun
of Him while He suffered as He hung there between heaven and
earth, He's been turned over into the hands of men and under
the hands of God's just law. Even the Father turned His back
on Him. Here He is now. But do you know, in that hour,
He demonstrated, and I think as powerfully as it can be demonstrated
in His humanly speaking, I say weakest moment, His kingship
and sovereignty. This thief approached him as
a servant. He called him Lord. This thief
approached him as a sinner, as a sinner, saying, I'm getting
what I deserve, right? This thief approached him recognizing
his sovereignty and kingship. You're coming into a kingdom.
This thief approached him suing and pleading for mercy. Lord,
remember me. And our Lord, in His sovereignty
and right to do with His own what He will, He turned and He
said. He didn't take anyone into counsel. He didn't confer with anyone,
Brother Charlie. He didn't even ask the Father.
He just turned to that thief and said, Does anyone know what's out here
on the bulletin board on the right side? If you do, raise
your hand. Anybody read that bulletin board out front on the
right side? Does anybody know? You know what it says? You know. Isn't that amazing that you face
that thing all these days and only spend there a week? The Son giveth life to whom He
will. Do you believe that? That's what
I'm saying. I'm saying that this statement
of Christ Settles the issue of this free willism or grace. Settles
the issue of your decision or God's decision. Our Lord turned
to one thief. There were two thieves. There
was a multitude of people around him. He turned to one thief and
said, today you'll be with me in paradise. He saved whom he
will. The Lord gives life to whom he
will. To whom he will. I'll tell you, if you can approach
him You know, in Matthew 8, there's a story of a leper, and he came
and he said, Lord, if you will, you can make me whole, if you
will. Now, I'll tell you, the character
in which the Lord was accused was king. They said he'd made
himself king. The character in which the Lord
Jesus Christ was mocked in the soldier's hall was a king. They
put a robe on him, a crown of thorns, Scepter in his hand,
and bowed to me. The crime for which he was crucified,
and the superscription or charge written over his head was what?
Killing. And that's the character in which
you're going to receive him, and believe him, and bow to him,
or go to hell. I'm telling you the truth. Now,
you accept him as your personal savior, 99-9 if you want to,
but you're going to be saved when you bow. to Christ as Lord. And you go back and trace your
salvation to that time when you accepted Jesus as your personal
Savior. And I'm telling you, I'll tell
you from this pulpit from the Word of God and from what I know
about God Almighty and His grace. I hope you've learned it before
you have to hear it as a judgment. I never knew you. I never knew
you. I never knew you. Salvation is
not a decision. It's not a profession of faith,
it's not a mental acceptance to some Bible facts. It's life from above, given by
the King. Sovereignly given. Sovereignly
given. The Son giveth life to whom He
wills, and He's the King. Out to the gracious King approach,
whose scepter pardon gives. Who pardons but the King? I see
that in the newspaper all the time. Here's a man on death row,
and they're waiting on the governor to make up his mind. Is he going
to give him a reprieve, or is he going to let him burn? Why
don't you give him a reprieve? Why doesn't he give himself a
reprieve? Why doesn't he make his decision? Now, I'll tell
you where a decision is going to be made, down at the state
capitol. One man is going to make it, and that's the governor.
And my governor is going to make the decision. Now what happens
to you? You say, what shall I do with Jesus? Not one thing. But
I'll tell you a major question is what's he going to do with
you. And what I do, like the thief, I say, Lord, I'm getting
what I deserve. You're coming into a kingdom,
remember me. I do like the leper there in
Matthew 8, and I'm not telling you to do what I haven't done.
Fall on your face at the feet of King Jesus. and quit running
around accepting him as your personal savior and fall at his
feet and kiss the sun, lest he be angry, and recognize him in
his rightful character, he has the crown right. Did you know
that? Jesus Christ has the crown right. He is the governor. He
is the king of kings and lord of lords. I'm telling this generation
that. He's king. And he's going to
bow, either here or at the judgment. That's Ed Cecil. The Lordship
of Christ. That's what he declares right
here. Even in this hour, you'd think he's got no time for anything
or anybody. Oh, the king has. The king saves
whom he wills. All right, here's the third one.
Turn to John 19. John 19. Listen to this. Here's
Christ, the lover. Here's Christ, the provider.
Here's Christ, who cares for his own. You know, you think,
there's no man suffered like he suffered. There's no man agonized
like he agonized. Because he made his soul an offering
for sin. This isn't like that time you
were in the hospital, and you were hurting, and they were diminishing
to you, and so forth. You were lying there, and you
didn't want to be bothered. Your wife was there, your mother
or father or your brother or sister, and you just wished they'd
go out and leave you alone. You were hurting and distressed. You just wanted to sleep. But
our Lord, not only in pain physically, but His soul was an offering
for sin. Agonizing. This was the time
of the greatest time. And evidently Joseph was dead,
and Mary was alone in the world. She stood below the cross. And
here in John 19, 26, I want you to listen to it. When Jesus saw
his mother, now, here you know the agony he's under. And when
he saw his mother, when he saw his mother and the disciple standing
by whom he loved, he said to his mother, Woman, behold our
son. And then to John, behold our
mother. And from that hour, that disciple
took her into his own home and cared for her. What do I see
here? I see that Christ, even under
the penalty of sin and the agonies of death, bearing the wrath of
God, shows His love, His care, and His concern for His people.
His love, care, and concern for His people. He's always loved
us. He always will love us. But nowhere
is His love shown like it's shown and manifested at the cross.
And it doesn't matter about the circumstances. He loves His own. And you're careful. The hymn
writer said, such love is too great, too great for thought. It's height, it's length, it's
breadth, in vain assault. Here's Christ the provider, Christ
the lover, Christ who cares for his own. He said, I'll never
leave you. I'll never forsake you. And you know, I think sometimes
this may go through our minds. What does God care about me? You know, here, I live here in
the mountains of Kentucky and I'm just, I'm not really known
or I have no influence or power or recognition or all these things.
I've got my kids and I live in my house here and so forth. So
what does God care about me? Wait a minute now. This is the time about which
Moses wrote, Abraham saw, Isaiah wrote. This is the time God planned
from all eternity. This is the time that God in
Christ is redeeming his people, his kingdom's established. He's
accomplishing redemption. And he looks down at one little,
grieving, sorrowful, fifty-year-old woman, and seems to take time out. from
critical, spiritual, kingly, eternal issues, and make sure
she has a place to sleep and something to eat. Now, that's
what I'm talking about. You talk about love and care
and concern. Christ has for us all. You see,
somebody said he can, with one hand, take a roll of thunder
and make it hurt across a nation or continent, or lightning, or
hold back an ocean, or hold back the frigid avalanche and storms
and deal in all the issues of the universe and all the galaxies
way out there and keep the sun and the moon doing what they're
supposed to and the stars. And yet not one little sparrow
falls to the ground without his attention. Not even a leaf in the fall. with what He directs it to. That's my God. That's my Lord.
That's Jesus Christ. And He cares if I hurt. He cares. He cares if I don't have a place
to live. That's the reason He said, don't wring your hands
and say, what shall we drink? What shall we eat? What shall
we wear? The heathen do these things. Your Father knows you
have these needs. He'll provide them. Does Jesus care? Does he? Woman, you go stay with John. John, you look out after him
now. Don't let anything happen to
her. You getting what I'm saying?
Well, I tell you, if you really believe that, you can rest. But we've accepted him as our
personal Savior. And we don't know much about
him as king and lord and father, lover and caring one. See, that's
what's wrong with this sashaying down the aisle and saying you
got saved. That's what's wrong with that. There's an emptiness
that nobody can fill. There's a loneliness that nobody
can fill up. And there's a weakness nobody
can help. And there's a deadness nobody
can give, which nobody can give life. Him, that's different. All right,
Matthew 27. Let's look at this one for a
moment, Matthew 27. I've got to hurry. Matthew 27,
verse 46. Christ the Substitute. About
the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli,
lama, sabathanai. That is to say, my God, my God,
my Now, preach this, I do. Explain
it, I cannot. Believe this, I do. I believe
this. Understand it, I cannot. What are you saying, preacher?
I'm saying what Martin Luther said. He's sitting at his desk,
looking at this verse of Scripture you're looking at right now,
and a verse we look at so flippantly, because we've accepted Jesus
as our personal Savior. But Martin Luther wanted to know
Him as Lord. He wanted to know the why. He wanted to know the where.
He wanted to know wherefore. He wanted to know God. He was
concerned and interested. He didn't just make his reservation
for heaven like you do your reservation at a basketball game. He made,
he wanted to know this Lord. And he sat and looked at this
one day and his wife brought lunch to him and he said, I don't
want it. He's sitting there looking at this bird. And long in the evening, He finally
stood up. This is what he said. And he
hit the desk firmly, powerfully. He said, God, forsaking God,
no man can understand that. But I can believe it. You see, he, Christ, was numbered
with the transgressors. He was so identified with us.
You hear what I'm saying? Christ Jesus became a man. Fully, totally, completely a
man. With a man's nature, with a man's
flesh and bone. Tempted and tried in all points
as we are, and made like his brethren. There was never one
miracle ever performed to ease his pain, distress, or meet his
needs. They were met as a man. He literally
worked in a carpenter's shop. He thirsted, he wearied, he wept,
he hungered, thirsted, that's right. And he was our representative.
He was a son of man. And he walked on this earth under
the law, tempted as we are, yet without sin. And our sins were
laid on him. He was made sin for us, the just
for the unjust. And when he was so numbered and
identified with us, and partaker of our guilt, and see God treated
him and us under the same contempt
and wrath, and literally turned away from him. Now, is that what
Scripture says? Thou hast forsaken me, separated
from God. This is the essence of hell.
This is the punishment of sin. This is the curse of the law.
Why do men go to hell? To be separated from God. Why
are men cast out of the presence of God? To be separated from
God. Why are they? Because they're sin. They're made sin when they're
born in Adam. And Christ, by imputation, was
made sin. And therefore, God turned His
back on them. He made His soul an offering
for sin. And that's what's happening here. This is Christ the substitute.
Christ the substitute. And this is the reason, and this
does away with all the arguments or conflict about particular
redemption or general atonement. You see, Christ's righteousness
is sufficient for us, and Christ's death is sufficient for us. And
Christ is our representative in holiness, and he's our representative
on the cross, bearing the wrath of God. And when the switch is
pulled and a man dies, The law has no more, no more claim. When the switch is pulled and
a man dies, the law has no more, justice has no more claim. It's
finished. See? And that's what Christ did.
He literally, under the wrath of God, died for us. That's our
substitute. That's what we preach, substitution.
And you want to learn the gospel, learn two words. Learn substitution
and satisfaction. Christ is our substitute to enable
God to be just and justifier, to make us holy, to satisfy and
honor God's law, and to put away sin. And he did it as a substitute
and satisfier. All right, turn to John 19, 28.
Let me give you this. I'll let you study the rest of
them, but I will give you just a touch of it because we've got
to go. John 19, verse 28. Listen. After this, Jesus, knowing that
all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled,
said, I thirst. I thirst. This is Christ the
man. It's humanity. Humanity. He said this, that
the Scriptures might be fulfilled also. This is the fulfillment
of Scriptures. Importance of Scripture. But let me tell you
this. This, I thirst! That's the cry
of a man. That's the cry of a weak man.
That's the cry of a suffering man. That's the cry of a dying
man. Now, our Lord made the springs and the creeks and the rivers.
Our Lord made the raindrops that fall from the sky. Our Lord made
the dew that covers the flower. Can God thirst? As a man, He
can. Well, if God were thirsty, would
He ask men for water? Would you ask a man for a drink
of water? He asked a woman for a drink of water one time. As
a man, he would. There's Christ the man. You see
it? Christ the man. Alright, John 19, 30. Let me
show you this. When Jesus, therefore, had received
the vinegar, he said, it's finished. It's finished. Here's Christ
the Redeemer. And I can enforce this with two
statements. Number one, What was the first
recorded words our Lord ever spoke? First recorded words in
the Bible that He said when He was a boy. First word. Mary and
Joseph found Him in the temple disputing with the doctors, and
they came in and said, while we've sought you everywhere,
you've grieved us. He said, the first time He spoke,
recorded, He said, wished you not that I be about my Father's
business. My Father's business. Well, his father was a carpenter.
No, his father's God. And his father's business has
been turned over to him to redeem a world. And when he finished
the business, he said it's finished. See? It's finished. It's finished. That's what he
said. It's finished. That's Christ, the Redeemer. He left nothing
for you to do. It's finished. And then last
of all, I read it to you a moment ago, Christ said, into thy hands
I commend my spirit. Now my friends, listen to me
just as I close. It's one thing to kill the lamb.
It's one thing to roast it with fire. It's one thing to lift
the veil and go into the Holy of Holies. It's one thing with
the censer and the incense and the blood to sprinkle the mercy
seat. It's a whole different thing
to come out. It's not too much of a problem
to go into the presence of God, but it's a pretty big, tall order
to come out alive. He said, no man can see me and
live. There's some fellas John went
into the temple, they didn't come out. There's some fellas
went to the altar, but they didn't come back, because the holiness
of God wouldn't admit them. Our Lord Jesus Christ, as our
Lamb, literally gathered up, He ungathered, took all our sins
on Himself. That's what He said. He was made
sin for us. He's numbered with the transgressions.
And He went to that cross bearing. And he met God, and God bruised
him and killed him. Garcia. But God raised him. That means what? That God accepted
what he did. That's what it means. And that's
the reason the disciples run up and down the country preaching
the resurrection. He's risen! He's risen! Our great high priest
is risen! Now, if he'd be not risen, you'd
be getting your sins. You see, he took them. And he
took them before the holiness of God. And he satisfied everything
the holiness of God demanded. And God killed him. And then
God raised him from the dead, saying to the whole universe,
I accept what he did. And you know what? God didn't
accept me when I came down front and accepted him as my personal
Savior. He accepted me and the Beloved.
And I didn't accept him, he accepted me. He accepted me in Christ. You see the difference? Hey,
I want to say to all the hoop-de-doos and the falling on the floor
and the waving of the hands and the kicking the heels and all
this sort of religion that I'm surrounded with in this outfit
and all these folks on that awful, awful television station just
corrupting the very name of God Almighty in this community. I
want to say, intercepted my beloved, there's a God, behold your God,
and we're way away. And it's going to have to be
a mediator, His good pleasure and purpose to bring me to God.
And I'll tell you, for starters, fall at His feet. For starters. That's for starters. All right,
let's stand and sing a closing here on number 233.