It is Finished

Q: What does the Bible say about the atonement of Christ?

The Bible reveals that Christ's atonement was necessary for salvation, fulfilling God's justice and the requirements of the law. The atonement of Christ is central to the Gospel, as outlined in Scripture. It was essential for salvation because it satisfied God's justice while fulfilling the demands of His holy law. Romans 3:25-26 states that God set forth His Son to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, demonstrating His righteousness. This act was both necessary and divine, allowing sinners to be reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ, who perfectly obeyed the law and bore the penalty for sin on the cross.

Q: How do we know Christ's sacrifice is sufficient for our sins?

Christ's sacrifice is sufficient because He declared 'It is finished,' signifying that all necessary obedience and atonement were completed. Christ's declaration 'It is finished' from John 19:30 signifies the completion of His work of salvation. He fulfilled all Old Testament prophecies and types by being the perfect sacrifice, fully satisfying God's justice and law. This means that upon His death, there is no further sacrifice necessary for sin, as His blood cleanses us completely (1 John 1:7). Believers are justified and declared righteous in God's sight through their faith in Him, thus proving that Christ's sacrifice is indeed sufficient to cover all sins.

Q: Why is Christ's obedience to the law important for Christians?

Christ's obedience is crucial because it fulfills the law's demand for perfect righteousness, which is credited to believers. The obedience of Christ to the law is foundational for the Christian faith. As stated in Romans 5:19, by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, but by one man's obedience, many will be made righteous. This perfect obedience is credited to believers, meaning they are seen as righteous in the eyes of God due to Christ's fulfilling of the law's requirements. Therefore, when Christians stand before God, it is not their imperfect works that grant them acceptance, but Christ's perfect obedience that secures their standing and assures their salvation.

Q: What is the significance of Christ saying 'It is finished'?

'It is finished' signifies the completion of His redemptive work, fulfilling all prophecies and sacrificial requirements. When Jesus said 'It is finished' (John 19:30), He was proclaiming that His redemptive work was complete. This declaration encompasses the fulfillment of all Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah, as well as the completion of the sacrificial system. By completing the atonement and satisfying God's justice, Christ rendered all prior types and shadows obsolete. Therefore, this statement assures believers that their debt of sin is fully paid and that they can now approach God without fear of condemnation. It is a victorious proclamation of the complete and perfect work achieved through His death on the cross.

Read the text again, John 19,
verse 30. When Jesus, therefore, had received
the vinegar, he said, It is finished. And he bowed his head and gave
up the ghost. The Lord of glory had become
a man. He robed himself in human flesh. He was made of a woman. He was
made under the law. He grew up in the flesh, subject
to every trial, to every temptation, to every test of the flesh. Scripture
says he was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. Our Lord lived a perfect life
of obedience to the Father's will. to the divine law. He lived a life of total self-denial
and submission. He said, I always do those things
that please my Father. And the Father said, this is
my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. Yea, even the demons
said, we know who you are, you're the Holy One of God. And when he was brought before
Pilate on trial false witnesses have been paid to testify against
him. After hearing these witnesses
and hearing the Pharisees and the chief priests, even Pilate
said, I find no fault in him. I find no fault in him. He lived
a life despised and rejected. The Scripture says a man of sorrows,
acquainted with grief. His enemies were legions. Everybody
who was anybody rejected him. His friends were few. At last
he was delivered over to his enemies. He was delivered into
the hands of those who despised him, who hated him. For years
their efforts to destroy him had been delayed by the Heavenly
Father because his time had not yet come. For years Every effort
to destroy Him had been delayed by the Heavenly Father because
the time of His crucifixion and that hour that was designated
from all eternity as the hour of sacrifice, substitution, and
atonement had not come. At last it came, and our Lord
prayed and guessed Him in His garden, Father, the hour has
come. Now glorify Thy Son, that Thy
Son may glorify Thee. At last they have Him in their
hands. At last they have him in their
hands to do with, as they will, those who despise him and hate
him. They lead a company of soldiers out in the garden where he is
praying, and they arrested him while in the act of prayer. He
was taken before the civil courts, and then before the religious
courts, and then back before the civil courts, and shifted
from one hand to another. Finally, he was turned over to
the soldiers to do with as they would, to entertain themselves
through the long night, to mock him and ridicule him. They beat
him, they spit upon him, they mocked him, they robed him in
scorn, and then they unrobed him in shame. Then he's brought
back before Pilate, and though declared innocent, he was delivered
to be crucified. He's dragged through the streets
of Jerusalem, which had killed the prophets. Our Lord said,
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and
stonest them that are sent unto thee. Now Jerusalem would stain
itself with the blood of the Master Himself. They take Him
outside the city walls, and there they nail Him to a cross between
two thieves. And the wounds pain Him, and
the fever burns Him, and the sun scorches Him, and people
mock Him and ridicule Him. And they walk about his cross
saying, he saved others himself he cannot save. He trusted in
God, let's see if God will have him now. If you be the Christ,
come down from the cross and we'll believe on you. Earth had
forsaken him. All of his disciples, the scripture
says, had forsook him and fled. David wrote about it. He said,
I looked around me and there was none to help. No man cared
for my soul. He must walk the winepress of
God's wrath alone. He must drink the last bitter
dregs from the cup of God's wrath alone. No one can assist Him
in the divine sacrifice. No one can assist Him in the
substitution. No one can assist Him in the
sin offering. All men had forsook Him. And
then the Father forsook Him. And he cried, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? This is the bitterest of all.
This is the essence of hell, forsaken of God. While he hangs
there in the clutches of sin, in the clutches of Satan, in
the clutches of evil men, the darkest, deepest agony a soul
can possibly know, forsaken of God. He's now totally identified with
sinners. He's now totally identified with
the chief rebel. All our guilt and all our filth
and all our sins are now on Him. And all the accumulated iniquity
of all the elect of all ages is now on Him. He's without hope. He's without help. And He's without
God. My God, why hast thou forsaken
me? You want to know the essence?
The essence of heaven is to be with Him. The essence of hell
is to be without Him. And at last, after all of these
things were accomplished, at last from the depths of agony,
the deepest agony, from the depths of desertion, total desertion,
totally deserted, no one with Him, not even God the Father,
from the darkness and loneliness and suffering of hell. It says
in verse 28, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, cried out, it is finished. It is finished. Underscore those three words.
They tell me that in the original Greek there's only one word.
for this victorious cry of our Lord. But to translate it into
English, it requires three words. It is finished. And yet, it would need all the
words in the world to explain this one word of our Lord, finished. Finished. It is altogether immeasurable. It's too high. It's too deep.
It is infinite. It's not a wail. It's not a cry
of defeat. It's finished. It's a victorious
cry of one who's completed what he came to do. Finished. Hear it from the lips of our
Lord. You hear it from the sacred Word of God. I pray this morning
that you might hear it from the Holy Spirit in order that you
might learn what it means. I have three points to this message.
It is finished. What did he mean? As I said to
you, it's immeasurable, it's infinite, it is beyond human explanation,
but I think there's some things that the God, the Holy Spirit,
has shown me that I can pass on to you. What our Lord meant
when he was when he gave himself in death on that cross and uttered
this word, finish, finish. Jesus, knowing that all things
were now accomplished, said it's finished. First of all, all the
types and the promises and the prophecies of the scriptures
were now fully accomplished. All the types and promises and
prophecies of the Old Testament Scriptures were fully accomplished
in Christ. My friends, this whole book from
Genesis to Malachi, from first to last, from both the Law and
the Prophets, all things in this book were accomplished in Him.
From the first promise in Eden's garden of a Redeemer, the seed
of woman, who would suffer the bruising of his heel and yet
would defeat Satan in his power and government, to the last promise
in Malachi speaking of the Son of Righteousness with healing
in his wings, all accomplished and fulfilled in Christ. That's
what he was saying. From the first blood sacrifice,
whoever offered it, I don't believe Abel's blood offering was the
first one. He learned that from his father,
I'm sure. From the first blood offering that any person ever
offered, and we can go even prior to that, and we can see the sacrifice
of the animal which God slew to cover Adam and Eve's nakedness. From that first sacrifice to
the last Passover, this night that Christ our Lord was arrested
And the night he was put on trial and the day he was crucified,
till that very time, every one of these sacrifices, every atonement,
every sin offering, every burning of incense offered in the temple
of all times, from the turtle dove to the red heifer, were
all accomplished and abolished. They were accomplished and fulfilled
in Christ. There isn't a prophecy in this
Old Testament concerning redemption. There's not a dream given to
a prophet. There's not a vision beheld by
a king that is not fully accomplished in Jesus Christ. That's what
he meant. When our Lord Jesus Christ was
born of the woman made under the law and lived through his
life, a life of sinless perfection, the only man who ever has or
ever Went to that cross and died under
the cruel curse of sin deserted by men and God When he had finished
his sufferings he cried Knowing that all things were accomplished
it finished He meant this book right here in its types in its
prophecies in its promises in its visions it finished It's
all accomplished. It's all fulfilled My friend,
you take away Christ for one moment, take Jesus Christ in
his virgin birth, in his substitutionary death, in his resurrection, in
his mediatorial work, in his kingship, in his office as prophet,
priest, and king, you take Christ away for one moment, and I'll
give this Old Testament to any person, any wise man living,
or any group of men, and I'll say to them, take this book,
Take this book, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy,
Joshua, Judges, take this book, the Psalms, Isaiah, take this
book and construct in your imagination one person that will fit all
that is foreshadowed and all that is prophesied. He must be
a prophet like Moses. He must be a champion like Joshua.
He must be a king like David. He must be a priest like Melchizedek. He must be a Joseph, a Solomon,
a Jonah, a Judah, a Samuel. He must be a lamb slain but a
king to reign. He must be a blood sacrifice
and the priest that offers it. He must be the incense that burns
and the tabernacle in which it burns. He must be both identified
with sinners and yet without fault. He must be the Son of
Man and the Son of God. And I say unto you, there is
but one, and that one is Christ, who meets all these requirements,
who fulfills all these prophecies. And when our Lord Jesus Christ
died on that cross, these prophecies and types and patterns were not
only explained and not only fulfilled, but they were abolished. And
that's what our Lord is saying. is accomplished. The types are
fulfilled. The sacrifices are all fulfilled
and abolished. It's finished. It's finished. All that God wrote, all that
God prophesied, all that God typified is finished. It's all
complete. And when you read the Old Testament
scriptures and read of the rock that gave forth its water, that
rock is Christ. When you read the Old Testament
scriptures and read of the manna that fell from heaven, that bread
is Christ. When you read the Old Testament,
read about Him slaying the Passover lamb and putting His blood on
the door and then later commemorating that night by slaying the Passover
and eating the meat and putting the blood on the altar, that's
Christ. When you read about the Old Testament priest putting
on his white linen and going under the veil into the presence
of God, that's Christ. When you read about that tabernacle
that Moses called the tent of meeting, the place where God
met man and man met God, that's Christ. When you read about the
ark floating on the water delivering from judgment, that's Christ.
When you read about Moses lifting up the brazen serpent, that's
Christ. It's all fulfilled. Secondly, it's finished. Our
Lord is saying that the perfect obedience to the law is finished. and the satisfaction which he
rendered to the justice of God was finished. Now I want you
to listen carefully to what I'm about to say. I don't want to be one who tries
to simplify the atonement. That's impossible. The atonement
is too profound for an angel to understand, let alone for
a human mind to comprehend. I don't want to be one who commercializes
the atonement. I hate to hear men and women
sitting around arguing about the extent of it, the limit of
it, and so forth. It's infinite. It's divine. It's past understanding. But
there are two things about the atonement of which I'm sure.
There are two things about the sacrifice of Jesus Christ of
which I am quite certain. Number one, it was absolutely
necessary. in order for men to be saved.
It's absolutely necessary because of who God is. It is absolutely
necessary in order for men to be saved that the perfect law
of God should be honored and should be kept. For no man can
see God's face except in perfect righteousness. Who shall stand
in His presence? He that hath clean hands and
a perfect heart. No man shall see God. No man
shall stand in the presence of God who does not have a perfect
holiness. Without holiness, no man will
see the Lord. In order for God Almighty to
receive men under Himself and women under Himself, He cannot
receive any except those who are pure as He is, as holy as
He is, as righteous as He is, for two cannot walk together
except they be agreed. Heaven is a holy place, made
by a holy God, is prepared for holy people. Of that I am as
certain as I'm standing here. So Jesus Christ as a man, as
a human being, undertook to give us what we didn't have. He undertook
to keep this law in a perfect manner for his people. He undertook to come down here
into this world and be tested and tried and tempted in all
points and yet never to violate either in thought or attitude
or imagination or word or conversation or conduct or deed or motive
or any way to violate God's perfect holiness. And that's exactly
what he did. That's exactly what he did. He
perfected for us a righteousness. In Him, we're holy and without
blame. In Him, we're faultless. In Him,
we're unreprovable. In Him, we're unblameable. In
the body of His flesh. That's what the Scripture says.
God Almighty is not going to take you into His presence because
you did the best you could. That's not good enough. God will
take you into His presence because you are in Christ, and Christ
did what you couldn't do, he perfectly obeyed God's law as
a man. That's the first thing of which
I'm completely confident, that no man shall see God without
a perfect holiness. And I don't mean patched-up holiness,
and I don't mean a holiness by human standards, and I don't
mean a holiness devised by a congregation or denomination. I mean the holiness
of God. perfect love, perfect faith,
perfect humility, perfect submission, perfect generosity, perfect joy,
perfect gentleness, perfect kindness, as holy as God. And that's the
only people that are going to stand in God's presence are those
that are as holy as God. And you don't have that. The
Scripture says what the flesh could not do, what the law could
not do because of the flesh, its weakness, God sending His
Son into the world condemned sin in the flesh. He did it.
He is God. He's equal with God. And His
holiness and His righteousness is imputed to us. Now, the second
thing of which I'm confident, it was necessary in order for
man to be saved, in order for men to be saved, not only that
God's perfect law be honored and kept but that the justice of God be
satisfied. Sin must be punished. The Scripture
says the wages of sin is death. The soul that's in it, it shall
surely die. God Almighty cannot forgive sin,
put away sin, and pardon sin, without punishing sin. Not and
be God. Sin must be punished. He said,
I will by no means clear the guilty, Every transgression shall
receive a just recompense of reward. The justice and righteousness
of God will not allow the mercy and love of God to be placed
upon any sinner without satisfaction. Sin will be paid for. Sin will
be punished. That's what the scripture says.
You turn to chapter 3 of Romans and read verse 25 and 26, you'll
learn the gospel. And if you don't learn what this
means, you don't learn the gospel. Romans 3, 25 and 26, if you don't
know what it means, you don't know the gospel. Now that's being
perfectly frank, but that's so. If you don't know what Romans
3, 25 and 26 means, you don't know the gospel. You might look upon God as an
old white-haired granddaddy sitting up in heaven doing his best to
overlook your transgressions, but that's not the God of the
Bible. The God of the Bible is holy, he's righteous, he's just,
he's true, he's love, he's mercy, he's grace. But one attribute
cannot be exalted at the expense of another. God Almighty cannot
show love and violate righteousness, and he cannot show mercy and
violate truth. Sin must be punished. He says
in Romans 3.25, He set forth His Son to be a propitiation,
a sacrifice, a mercy seed through faith in His blood to declare
God's righteousness for the remission of sins that have passed through
the forbearance of God. That's talking about the Old
Testament people and their sins, sins committed before Christ
died. God put up with them waiting on the cross. God suffered through them waiting
on the cross. That's what these types were
saying. That's what these atonements in the Old Testament were saying.
There's going to be a cross. There's going to be a cross.
There's going to be an atonement. There's going to be a blood,
an effectual atonement. That's what the Lord's Table
says. There's no salvation in the sacrament, in the communion,
in the Lord's Table. It says there has been a cross.
There has been an atonement. There has been bloodshed. When these Old Testament people
brought the blood, Abel, Isaiah, all the rest of them, put it
on the mercy seat. That blood didn't put away their sins. It
had no saving efficacy. It had no saving power. The Word
of God says that. It's impossible for the blood
of bulls and goats to take away sin. God can't put away human
sin by animal blood. No animal can be identified with
me. God cannot punish an animal for
my sins. Can you see that? When these
Old Testament people brought these sacrifices, they weren't
saved by those sacrifices, though every drop of blood that was
put on a Jewish altar was saying, there's going to be an atonement,
there's going to be a sacrifice, there's going to be an effectual
redemption, there's going to be a calvary. That's what God
was looking at. And when Christ came, All of
those sins were put away, that were put up with by the forbearance
of God. Now when we gather around the
Lord's table, and we don't do it often enough, that bread and
that wine have no saving efficacy, it has no saving power. You can
bathe a man in that wine. You can choke him with that bread
and it won't save him. There's no saving power. Christ is not in that bread.
Any more than he was in that animal. Christ is not an animal. That bread represents Christ.
That animal represents Christ. That bread is saying, we have
an atonement, we have a sacrifice, we have an effectual deliverance. Alright, why the blood? Look
at verse 26. And God sent forth His Son to be the sacrifice,
to declare, to manifest, to let this whole world know His righteousness. that he might be just and justifier. Now everybody wants to look at
God as justifier and forgiver and pardner, but you can't look
at God as the pardner if you don't know God is the just one.
God is the righteous one. So those two things I know about
that cross. When Christ said it's finished,
it's finished, he said that perfect righteousness, that perfect holiness
that God demands of you And me, that perfect obedience that God's
law must have, is finished. Christ as a human being, as a
man, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, with eyes and ears
and a tongue and a heart and lungs and all of these faculties
that we have, He walked this earth in human flesh and He perfectly
obeyed this law. He perfectly pleased His Father. He perfectly did everything we
couldn't do, supposed to do but don't do. And when he died on
that cross, he said, it's finished. That life of holiness, that life
of perfect obedience, that life from its conception to its death,
it's finished. It's a spotless life. And then
he's saying the atonement, the sacrifice, the sin offering is
finished. The debt's paid. It's finished. You see that? There remaineth
no more atonement to be made. If you look for another, there
is not another. It's finished. The third thing. Our Lord said it is finished,
and in saying that, He meant that He had totally destroyed,
totally destroyed. And if you love Him and know
Him, you'll appreciate this. He has totally destroyed the
power of sin with which you are personally
acquainted of Satan, with whom you're personally acquainted,
and death, with which we will be acquainted. But our Lord has
destroyed the power of sin. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. He has destroyed the power of
Satan. Satan cannot touch you without
God's permission. And death, Christ said, he that
liveth and believeth on me shall never die. Our Lord met sin,
horrible, persistent, fleshly, rebellion, God-hating sin. Our Lord met sin, sin of the
heart, sin of the mind, sin of the flesh. Our Lord met sin. And sin nailed Him to the tree. But in nailing Him to the tree,
He nailed sin to the tree. They are nailed to the cross.
They are nailed to the cross. Oh, how much He was willing to
bear with what anguish and loss Jesus went to the cross and He
carried my sins with Him there. They are all nailed to the cross.
I don't have, either on the books of heaven, I don't have, and
you who believe in Christ, we do not have, either on our record
or in the presence of God, or in the catalog of God, or in
the memory of God, or in the knowledge of God, one sin. That's
right. That's what Scripture says. The
Scripture says they blotted out. Isn't that what it says? The
Scripture says God Almighty says, I will forgive their sin and
remember them no more. They're not in the memory of
God. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanseth us. I don't have in God's record
or God's memory or on my person one sin. Scripture said He cleansed us
from all sin. Our Lord met sin and destroyed
it. It doesn't even exist. Secondly, He met Satan. Satan
assaulted our Lord with all the forces of hell. Our Lord stood
alone. as he was hounded by the dogs
of hell. And they tried everything on
him. Satan tried flattery. Let's make him king! Hosanna! They cast the palm branches in
front of him. They said, Hosanna to the king! Satan tried flattery. He tried
power. He said, bow down, I'll give
you the kingdoms of the world. Look out there. Look out there.
Aren't they beautiful? I'll give them to you. I'll give
them to you. Our Lord met Satan in every area. Flattery, power, those places
where we fail, those places where we fall, those places where Satan
baits the hook, and we take it hook, line, sinker, bobbin, and
pole, the whole thing. He baited the hook with flattery.
He baited it with flesh. He baited it with power. He baited
it with pain. All right, I'll strip you. I'll
humble you. I'll humiliate you. He baited
it with all the weapons in his arsenal. finally took him to
a cross and nailed him to the tree, bruising his heel. But our Lord Jesus Christ met
Satan on his own battlefield, and he tried every weapon in
his arsenal, and our Lord Jesus Christ in death destroyed him. He destroyed him. He stripped
him. He destroyed him. Then our Lord met death. Death
pursued him. until finally on that cross,
Christmas Evans said, death stood back as the dear spotless Son
of God hung on that cross in human flesh. And death stood
back with a fiery dart of death and plunged it into his heart
until the point of it fixed into the cross. But when death pulled
that fiery dart out, he left the sting behind. Christ had
defeated him. Sin is finished for the believer.
Satan is defeated and destroyed and awaiting eternal execution
and death is finished. Christ said it's finished. The
atonement is complete. The righteousness is worked out.
Sin is put away. There is no sin. There is therefore
now no condemnation to them who are in Christ. Who can lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? Who is He that condemneth? That's
the good news of the gospel. Christ died and He said, it's
finished. It's finished. It's finished.
What's finished? Righteousness. What's finished? Sin. What's finished? The law is honored. What's finished? The types are finished. The prophecies.
What's finished? Satan's finished. Death is finished. Go over yonder to those people
who are torturing themselves, that Hindu who's about to prostrate
himself on a bed of spikes, trying to appease God, trying to atone
for his sins, trying with the pain and blood of his own flesh
to make himself acceptable to God. Tell him it's finished! Tell him to cease from these
efforts, to cease from these pains. Cursed blood has been
shed. There's no need for him to shed
his blood. Christ's suffering is complete.
There's no need for him to suffer. Go and tell those people who
kneel in silence while an earthly priest goes through the motions
of the Mass, lifting up an unbloody sacrifice, holding up the juice
of the vine and the unliving bread, and trying to appease
a holy God by our penance and by our works, and by this unbloody
sacrifice, and tell them, cease from that folly! It's finished! Once for all he hath made an
atonement. Once for all we have a high priest
who's gone into the presence of God, Paul said, and made an
atonement and obtained eternal redemption for us. Cease from
this fally. Go to those people who call themselves
Protestants, who go about to merit heaven by walking an aisle
and shaking a preacher's hand, by giving their tithes and their
offerings their silver and their gold, by teaching Sunday school,
by their baptisms, by their good works, by their laying on of
hands, by their seeking the gifts, and tell them, Stop! God needs
none of this from you. Don't try to pin your rags, your
filthy rags of righteousness to His perfect robe. His perfect
robe is complete. Put it on. The debt's been paid. We're not
redeemed by silver and gold from our vain conversation received
by tradition from our fathers, but we are redeemed with the
precious blood of Christ. It's finished! I don't know about
your redemption, mine's finished. Go to the harlot, go to the bum,
go to the prisoner, go to the man languishing there in jail
and tell him, come ye sinners poor and needy. Weak and wounded
sick and sore Jesus ready stands to save you full of pity love
and power. He's able He's willing doubt
no more Come you needy come and welcome God's free bounty Glory
fire the table is spread. Don't you bring your cookies?
Mr. Spurgeon said one time a dear
old lady in the church a widow lady invited him to come by her
house for tea one day and But he knew she was poor. He knew
she didn't have much. So before he left home, he told
his wife, said, look up there in the cupboard and give me a
few cookies to take along with me. Over in England, they eat
tea. They don't drink tea. They say,
come down, we'll eat some tea. What they mean is they always
have cookies with tea. You don't just serve somebody
a cup of tea without cookies, cheese and crackers or something.
You always serve something to eat. And this dear lady asked
him to come for tea. So he told his wife, give me
those cookies now and then. He stuffed his pockets full of
cookies. And he got to the dear old soul's house and she welcomed
him in. Her pastor, she was glad to see
him. He came in and sat down. She went back to the kitchen.
And he said, before you go, he said, I brought along something
for us. And he handed her the cookies.
You know what she did? She taught him a lesson. She
took his cookies and walked over and dropped them in the waste
can. She said, I invited you to tea. I didn't invite you to
bring it. Almighty God says, come ye needy,
come and welcome. God's free bounty glorified. Don't you bring your good works
and your silver and gold and your talents and don't even bring
your heart. They say give Jesus your heart.
I tell you what, you need Him to give you a new heart and get
rid of that old rotten heart. It's all the free bounty, true
belief and true repentance, every grace that brings you now without
money. Come to Jesus. And by, let not
conscience make you linger, nor fitness fondly dream. All the
fitness he requires is to feel your need of him, and this he
gives you. Tis the spirit's glimmering beam. Come ye weary, heavy laden,
bruised and mangled by the fall. If you wait till you're better,
you'll never come at all. Not the righteous, not the righteous
sinners Jesus came to call. There aren't many people in this
world who can understand this gospel. It has to be revealed. There aren't many people in this
world who can comprehend this gospel, this good news. They
hated it when he was here. They hated it in the Dark Ages.
They hated it in the Middle Ages. They hated it in the Reformation.
They hated it in the founding of this country, and they hate
it now. Because men, like Paul said, are going about to establish
their own righteousness. They're seeking some way, either
by coming down an aisle, or by baptism, or by the Lord's table,
or sacraments, or communion, or by tithing, or giving, or
attending church faithfully, or by reading the Bible every
day, or by getting on their knees and praying, or by doing good
works, or cleaning up their life. They're trying some way to appease
God. They're trying some way to present
to make and to establish and to present to God a righteousness. They're trying some way to do
what God says in order that God will do something for them. And
every day they say, Lord, if you'll bless me, if you'll prosper
this little business, venture now, go to church. And Lord,
if you'll do this, I'll do that. If you'll do this, I'll do the
other. Cease from this folly. This thing
of redemption is a free gift. Our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished
it. Our Lord Jesus Christ completed
it. Our Lord Jesus Christ effectually established it. And it's the
gift of His grace. And when He said it's finished,
He didn't mean that you were going to add anything to it,
not even your faith. That's so. I can't make that
real to you, but I'll tell you this, when God does, Your heart'll
leap for joy. There'll be a peace that passeth
understanding that'll flood your heart and your conscience. There'll
be a desire to study this Word. There'll be a desire to please
Him. There'll be a desire to know Him more. There'll be a
joy in serving the Lord. You'll wear the bracelets of
Christ and the yoke of Christ with the greatest joy in the
world. Knowing Him in His full atonement, in His finished work,
knowing Him in His finished work will do more for you than any
pledge card or revival meeting or rededication or reformation
or anything else. It will make that which has been
a drudgery to be joy. It will make that which has been
a burden to you to be your dessert. That's right, it's finished.
Our Father in Heaven, bless the word that we've tried to preach.
We know, dear Lord, that we cannot open men's hearts and pour in
the truth. There's a way that seemeth right
unto men, and the end thereof is death and destruction and
damnation. Our thoughts are not Thy thoughts,
and our ways are not Thy ways. And, Father, You must, by Your
Spirit, You must reveal the effectual substitution of our Lord, the
effectual sacrifice that destroyed sin and Satan and death, that
was finished when our Lord died on that cross. And you must convince
men and women that to even think of adding any of our filthy rags
of self-righteousness to His complete sacrifice, to His unselfish
obedience, is to violate his gospel and is to drag through
the mud his precious grace and mercy. O Lord, show us our passiveness
in this matter of rediction, but the activity of our souls
in this marriage union with Christ, how we love him. It's his love
that constrains us, not his law, but his love. In His name we
pray and for His glory. Amen.

It is Finished

What does the Bible say about the atonement of Christ?

How do we know Christ's sacrifice is sufficient for our sins?

Why is Christ's obedience to the law important for Christians?

What is the significance of Christ saying 'It is finished'?

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It is Finished

What does the Bible say about the atonement of Christ?

How do we know Christ's sacrifice is sufficient for our sins?

Why is Christ's obedience to the law important for Christians?

What is the significance of Christ saying 'It is finished'?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

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