Well, it's good to see everybody
out this morning. Remember those who requested prayer. I just
got the word from Malcolm at Donna Jane's. They don't know
the extent of her cancer yet. They know she has cancer, but
they don't know the extent of it. So remember her in your prayers. Charles Wilder, who was here
visiting a couple of weeks ago, has fourth stage terminal pancreatic
cancer. Tracy Wright starts her chemotherapy
next week, I think it is. They put the PICC line in already,
so she'll be starting pretty soon. And Dee Parks, no word
on Dee, so I guess the situation's about the same with him. But continue to remember these
folks. Happy birthday this week to Fred. Fred's Right now he's a sexagenarian. And that sounds pretty cute. But soon he'll be a septagenarian.
And that sounds like an infection. And according to the scriptures,
four score and ten is what you get, and after that it's nothing
but trouble. Also, Stan has a birthday this
week. How old is Stan going to be? That's hard to believe. He was just a pup when I came
up here. Let's begin our worship service with hymn number 125.
Next week is the last Sunday of the month, is that right?
So next week we'll have the Lord's table and no afternoon service.
Hymn number 125, Jesus paid it all, all the debt I owe. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength
indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and
pray. Find in me light all in all. Jesus paid it all, all the debt
I owe. Sin has left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow Lord, now indeed I find Thy power at
night alone Can change the leper's spots And melt the heart of stone
Jesus paid it all, all the debt I owe. Sin hath left a crimson
stain. He washed my garments white in
the blood of Calvary's Lamb. Jesus paid it all, all the debt
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed me white as snow. And when before the throne I
stand incomplete, Jesus died my soul to save. My lips shall still repeat Jesus'
name. After Scripture reading and prayer,
we'll sing hymn number 37. If you have your Bibles, turn with me
to a familiar portion of Scripture that I'm going to use as a starting
point to my message this morning. First Corinthians chapter 2 and
verse 2. Paul says, I, for I determine
not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven,
we bless you and thank you for great mercy and grace for ruined
and wretched sinners who without hope and without help in this
world. We are thankful for electing
grace. that chose your people from the foundation of the world
unto salvation. We're thankful for saving grace, which considered your elect only
in your grace and not in themselves. We thank you for abounding grace, for we know where sin did abound,
grace did much more abound. We thank you for sufficient,
effectual, ever-present grace. For you have said, regardless
of the situation, your grace is sufficient for us. Help us,
Lord, to remember what you've done for us, to rehearse it in
our minds continually, not to look to ourselves in anything
and for anything, but to look to him who sits at thy right
hand, having purged our sins. Father, we pray for those who
are sick, these who have been mentioned on the prayer list.
We ask, Lord, that you would be pleased to minister to them
as only you can. Our desires in these situations,
because of how you made us, is that they be healed. we know
also that you have given us your spirit and we have seen and understood
through your word that your will will be done and we pray that
prayer thy will be done on earth even as it is in heaven we pray lord you'd help us to
worship you this hour we sing Pray and hear the word of God. Pray
you'll cause me to say right things concerning you. Uplift
and honor the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray in his precious name.
Amen. How great thou art. Oh Lord my God When I in awesome
wonder Consider all The world Thy hands have made I see the
stars I hear the rolling thunder Thy power throughout He sings my soul, my Savior God,
to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! He sings my soul, my Savior God,
to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! When through the woods and forest
glades I wander and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees. When I look down from lofty mountains
grandeur and hear the brook Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! sent Him to die, I scarce can
take it in. That on the cross, my burden
gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my Savior, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! When Christ shall come With shout
of acclamation Then I shall bow in humble adoration,
and there proclaim, my God, how great Thou art. Then sings my
soul, my Savior God, to Thee. ? How great Thou art, how great
Thou art ? Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee ? How great
Thou art, how great Thou art I'm gonna ask Steve and Malcolm
to receive the office this morning, please. Let's pray. Father, again, we
approach in the name of Jesus Christ, our great king and master,
who loved us and gave himself for us, who died in the room
instead of his people, and freely gave them all things. We are
thankful that he paid the debt they owed. We are thankful that
you have given him to your people, and with him you've freely given
them everything. As we return unto Thee, that
which belongs to You, which You have given to us, let us do so
with thanksgiving. We pray in Christ's name, amen. These words of Paul in 1 Corinthians
chapter 2 and verse 2, you're all familiar with, were a statement
of his doctrine and practice. Paul was a preacher. He was an
apostle, but he was a preacher. In the scope of his ministry,
the subject and message was narrow and void of the periphery of
time and circumstance. If you're familiar with the letters
to the Corinthians, which we studied recently, you'll know
that these churches were in foul shape in many ways, but his determination
among them was to know nothing among them save Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. In truth, he had but one thing
to say, and if you read his epistles, you'll see that he said it over
and over again in different ways. In one place in 1 Corinthians
chapter 9 he said, Necessity is laid upon me. Woe is unto
me. Judgment without mercy is unto
me if I preach not the gospel. In another place he said, We
preach not ourselves but Christ. And yet another he said, God
forbid that I should glory save in the cross of Christ by whom
the world is crucified unto me. and I am crucified unto the world. Here in this text, Paul preaches
Christ enthroned in glory as the very same Christ who went
to the cross and redeemed His people. He preached Christ and
Him crucified, or Christ who was crucified. If you meet Christ today, you're
not going to meet Him on the cross. That's a historical fact. It's done. It'll never happen
again. Where remission of sins is, there
is no more sacrifice. If you meet him today, you're
going to meet him where he is. And he is enthroned, having received
glory from the Father, waiting till all his enemies be made
his footstool, whereupon they will bow the knee and cry that
he is Lord over all. The entirety of the gospel is
the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what
this book is about. It is the focus and theme of
all that God has said. It is the sum and substance of
all true gospel preaching. His message, Paul's message preached,
or rather the Lord's message preached in his hometown, showed
that he was a preacher of the gospel. He quoted Isaiah 61 and
said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed
me to preach the gospel. Now, He IS the gospel. The gospel
is ABOUT Him. It is the record of Him and His
work. And He said, God has anointed me to tell you about it, to preach
the gospel. We hear a lot about anointing
today. It is a little more than entertainment of the flesh. Our
Lord made it clear that if the Spirit of the Lord is upon you,
it is because He has anointed you to preach the gospel. The Spirit of the Lord takes
all things of Christ and show them unto His people. If a spirit
causes you to do anything other than preach the gospel, then
it is not the Spirit of the Lord that is upon you, but another
spirit, a false spirit, a counterfeit spirit, the spirit of darkness
and not the spirit of light. I cannot tell you the times men,
when we're having discussions about this very thing, about
preaching the gospel, being instant in season and out of season,
men have said to me that there's more to preach than the gospel,
more to preach than Christ. To me, that's just pure evidence
that the Spirit of the Lord is not upon those men, because the
Spirit of the Lord upon a man gives him the gospel to preach. Since preaching of the gospel
is the declaration of the person and the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and those two are inseparable. You can't preach Christ without
preaching His work. You can't preach His work without preaching
Christ. You can't do it. You can't talk about one without
the other because they're inseparable. He's Jesus. That means He's the Savior. That's
His work. He's Christ. That Greek word
means anointed. He's the anointed one. to save
his people and he's Lord to ensure the fact that if he came to save
his people, his people are going to be saved because he's Lord
of the living and Lord of the dead. Since preaching is the declaration
of the personal work of Christ, the best and purest form of it
is found at the fountainhead. There the water is purest on
Calvary's tree At the time when our Lord most fully glorified
His Father, we hear the words of the God-man. He spoke and
we have recorded for us what His last words were. On a natural
level, men put stock in the last words of men. A dying utterance
is often taken as evidence under the law. A person has a dying
utterance. What must be the words of our
dying, dying savior? What weight should they carry
as the one who's dying in the room instead of his people? I
remember the story of a dear friend of mine whose wife, his
beloved wife, was dying of cancer. And she was on her deathbed with
only a few hours left to live. And he sat down beside her and
said, honey, you're getting ready to go out in eternity. I think
you might have some wisdom for me, since you're getting ready
to meet God. She told him, the only righteousness
I have is Jesus Christ my Lord, and that'll suit me. That'll
suit me. What gravity must the final words
of our Lord carry, if his sojourn on this planet has come to this
tree at this time, to do what he has come to do. This is what
he came to do. He came to die. He didn't come
for any other reason. I want us to consider this morning
the seven sayings of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross because
these are his last words as a human being here upon this earth. This is what I call the perfect
finale of his ministry here on earth. What did he say? What eternal wisdom did he impart? He set the standard for every
gospel preacher for on that lonely wooden tower, which was actually
a throne and an altar, he declared who he was and what he came to
do in these seven statements. He declared his person, and he
declared his work, and he in agonies and blood in these final
seven statements preached the gospel. The Good News. Let's begin in Luke chapter 23
and verse 34. Our Lord, hanging there on the
cross, looked down at the multitudes around Him, at those few disciples
who were hiding in the bunch, and said, Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do. Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do." Here he speaks as the mediator between
men and God. He's the only being who, being
God, as God, speaks directly to God, can touch God, and does
not find it robbery to be equal with God. And he's the only one
who is God that can touch man, that can be touched by man. as
he held John to his bosom, John the beloved disciple. He is the
only one who can speak on behalf of man, because man has nothing
to say, and yet he as a man has something to say. There is one
mediator between men and God. The mediator is Jesus Christ,
the man, is what it says in 2 Timothy chapter 5, the man Christ Jesus. As mediator, what he did on the
cross, gave him right and authority over all humanity. All humanity. Why aren't those who sin against
God and are not among the elect in hell now? We all deserve to
be there. Why aren't they there? Because
they're in the hands of the mediator. He has authority over all flesh
to give eternal life to as many as God has given him. But here
he is the daysman, if you will. That Job said, Oh, if I could
just have a daisman, somebody to speak to God for me, somebody
who could talk to me and talk to God too. A referee, somebody
to stand between us. That's Jesus Christ. You can't
deal with the absolute God. He is spirit. To hear his voice,
to see his face is to, is to die. But you can speak to Christ
because he's a man. He is the Mediator of the New
Covenant, the New Testament, the Covenant of Grace, who by
means of death reconciled men to God. He reconciled His people
to God. Did He make reconciliation possible?
He reconciled His people to God by the blood of His Cross. He
is the Mediator who God ALWAYS hears. He said, The Father ALWAYS
hears me. He is the Advocate. When we sin,
He is the Advocate with the Father. The Father ALWAYS hears Him concerning
us. And it's always good. On that
day, all the elect of God were forgiven. Every one of them were
forgiven because Christ the Mediator interceded for them. That's who
He was speaking about when He said, Father, forgive them for
they don't know what they do. And we didn't know. We had no
idea. We were there. We crucified Him. We hated Him. We despised Him.
We didn't know what we were doing. Look at Luke chapter 23 and verse
43. Jesus said unto him, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, This day thou shalt be with me in
paradise. That's the second thing he said. Now he said these words
of Christ the King. Pilate had mockingly posted that
title over his head on the cross, but on that day, unbeknownst
to Pilate, he was also a prophet. He is prophet, priest, and king.
The dying thief saw this one who hung on agonies of blood
as king and addressed him as such when he said, Remember me
when you come into your kingdom. He saw that one hanging on the
cross and by all indications our Lord was so mutilated and
bruised that he didn't appear to be a human being. I don't know what a cat-of-nine-tails
does to the body, but the Roman scourge was a horrible instrument
of torture. It was five or nine ropes put
on a handle, and each rope was a piece of glass or a piece of
metal, and what it did, It didn't stand back and hit you with the
tip of it. They hit you and wrapped it around you. And then they
pulled. And as they pulled, it just plowed
furrows in your flesh. 40 times 9 is 360. 360 furrows plowed in his flesh. Bone was exposed. Flesh was exposed. He was beaten by the strong army
of the Roman soldiers. They took sticks and hit him. They pulled the beard out of
his chin. That would hurt, wouldn't it?
Rip it clean out. They put a crown of thorn upon
his head. Isaiah, when he spoke of him in Isaiah 53, said his
visage was marred more than any man. He looked like he was a
lamb slain, one drawn and quartered on this old thief. And God gave
him clarity of thought and faith to believe. Look at the king. Look at this mass of bleeding
human flesh and saw a king and said, remember me when you come
into your kingdom. Remember me. He occupied the king's place
that day. he took that old murdering thief
to paradise with him that day as a member of his kingly court.
That day the convicted felon was set among princes because
the king of kings who has authority over all said today you'll be
with me in paradise. You reckon it's going to happen? I think so. Look at John chapter
19 In John chapter 19 and verse
26 and 27 it says, When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and
the disciple standing by him whom he loved, that's John, he
said unto his mother, Woman, behold your son. He looked at
his mother and said, John's now your son. And then he looked at the disciple
and said, John, this is your mother. Take care of her. And from that hour that disciple
took her into his own house. These are the words of Christ
as the Servant of God. You would serve God, follow the
example of the perfect Servant in this hour of pain and humiliation
as mine was only the care and welfare of others. For sure,
he was taking care of his mother, but in another place, he pointed
to his disciples and said, these are my mother and my brother,
and speaking of his beloved. What an example he set for us.
We're so often caught up in our own little world. We serve God,
according to scripture, pretty much singularly in this world,
by caring for the household of faith. Our Lord said to those
he separated on his right hand and would take to glory, He said,
when I was hungry, you fed me. When I was in prison, you visited
me. When I was sick, you visited me. Of course, I didn't know
what he's talking about, because I'd never seen him sick or hungry
or any of those things. And I said, Lord, when do we
see that? When do you see you hungry or in prison or sick? He said, inasmuch as you've done
it unto the least of these my brethren, you've done it unto
me. You've done it unto me. This is the language of Scripture.
Philippians 2 makes it clear in verses 1 through 5, to have
the mind of Christ is to esteem others better than yourselves
and to think on the things of the others and not only on your
own things. What did Christ do on the cross?
He looked at John and said, Take care of Mama. He looked at his
mom and said, This is your son from now on. I'm going to be
gone. Look at Matthew chapter 27 and verse 46. He's at about the ninth hour. Jesus cried with a loud voice.
Ela ela lama sabachthani. That is to say, my God, my God.
why hast thou forsaken me?" The ninth hour. That's about
three o'clock in the afternoon. These are the words of a man
who was made to be sin for his people. Who knew no sin. But the sin of his people was
imputed to him, laid on him according to Isaiah 53. He was made to
be sin for us, saith the scripture. And people debate about that.
They come up with new things about that. They think they got
the answer to that. Let me be very clear. I've been
preaching for 45 years here in this pulpit. And the first day I read that
to this day, I can't begin to explain it. It's a wonder. A magnificent thing. How the
spotless Lamb of God without spot or blemish, who
knew no sin and did no sin, who never had an evil thought, who
everything he did, he did for somebody else. He lived his life
for somebody else. He died his death for somebody
else. He was made to be sin. And because he was made to be
sin, God Almighty had to turn his
back on him. This is the words of the substitute
for sinners. There's no explanation. It's
simply to be declared in worship and wonder. Here our Lord stood
in the room instead of His people having received the punishment
of hell that was due us in those three hours of darkness. Scripture says it pleased the
Lord to bruise Him when he has made his soul an offering for
sin, he shall see his seed, and the Lord shall prolong his days,
and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. And
he shall see all the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.
For by his knowledge my righteous servant shall justify many, because
he shall bear their iniquities." This is the language of Scripture.
throughout in Romans and 1 Peter and 1 John all speak of this
wondrous thing called substitution. Substitution simply means this,
that Christ stood and took our punishment for us. It was due
us. One man explained it. God pulled
out a nine millimeter with a full clip and started pulling the
trigger and Christ stood between us and the gun. and took the full load. We just
sang it. Jesus paid it all. All the debt
I owe, sin, had left a crimson stain upon us and He washed it
white as snow. Look at John chapter 19 and verse
28 Lord said this, and Jesus, knowing
that all things were now accomplished, and the Scripture be fulfilled,
said, I thirst. This was from Psalm 22, that
the Scriptures might be fulfilled. He said, I thirst. Why did He
say, I thirst? Because the Scripture needs to
be fulfilled. In these few hours on Calvary, over a hundred prophecies
from the Old Testament were fulfilled. in a few hours. that the scriptures might be
fulfilled. Nothing can touch the believer that has not touched
Him. Nothing. Whatever you call, whatever
your sorrow, whatever your need, whatever has broken you, whatever you feel, He's felt. He's felt. He was the perfect
human being. Look at John chapter 19 in verse
28 through 30. And after this, Jesus, knowing
that all things were accomplished, the scripture might be fulfilled.
And there was set a vessel of vinegar, and they filled a sponge
of vinegar upon Hissop and put it in his mouth. And when Jesus,
therefore, had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished. That is actually one word. The
same word in verse 28 is translated ACCOMPLISHED. It is also in verse
28 translated FULFILLED. And here it is FINISHED. The
word is the same word used in Hebrews chapter 10 when it says
of the Lord's sacrifice, He hath PERFECTED FOREVER. them that are sanctified. Imagine
the scene, if you will. Here on the cross of Calvary,
this one hangs, mutilated by men, having suffered the wrath
of God under three hours of darkness which no man has seen. He cries
with a loud voice, having seen everything accomplished and that
the Scriptures had been fulfilled. He cries with a loud voice. Perfect! That's what He said. IT IS FINISHED! PERFECT! PERFECTED! He's done
exactly what He came to do. IT IS FINISHED! And then it says,
He bowed His head and gave up the ghost. These are the words
of Christ, our surety. IT IS FINISHED! The One who assumed
our dead in eternity and singularly bore the responsibility of paying
it all. It is finished, done, perfect, accomplished, nothing
left to do. Concerning the Father's will, it is finished. Lo, I come in the volume of the
book. It is written of me to do thy will, O God. He taketh
away the first and establishes the second. Concerning the salvation
of his people, he shall save his people from their sin. It
is finished. Concerning the fulfillment of
all types and promises of scriptures, knowing that ALL THINGS WERE
ACCOMPLISHED, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled, He said,
It is finished. Concerning the matter of putting
an end to sin, for it says of Him that when He came, when Messiah
comes, He shall put away sin. He shall finish transgression,
put an end to sin, and He cried on the cross, It is finished. And Daniel 9, it also says He
will bring in everlasting righteousness. It is finished. For He has been
made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,
concerning the matter of eternal redemption. It is finished. For
He entered once into the holy place, not made with hands, and
offered His own blood, and obtained eternal redemption for us. It
is finished. concerning the curse of the law.
He was made a curse for us, and the curse has been removed from
us. It is finished. Concerning the matter of the
end of the law for righteousness, Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. It is finished. That's what that
word end means. Look at the Savior's last words
in Luke chapter 23, verse 46. And when Jesus had cried with
a loud voice, it is finished is what he cried. He said, Father,
into thy hands I commend my spirit, and having said this, he gave
up the ghost. These are the words of Christ,
our propitiation. This is how our debt was paid
in no other way. It was not paid with his life. He lived a perfect life, but
his life didn't save us, because that ain't what we owed. We didn't
owe our God a life. We owed Him a death. We owed
Him a death. That was our debt. How we had
born into this world in sin and we owed God a death for that
sin. Christ our propitiation. What
is propitiation? Satisfaction. Appeasement. That's what propitiation means
used four times in the New Testament. Now God has satisfied us, see?
He gave up the ghost. Now the punishment and penalty
of the law is fulfilled. The soul that sinneth it shall
die, and now he who has made sin for us has died for us. Death is finished, finished altogether. The final enemy is destroyed.
Death, eternal death, it is no more. The elect shall not see
death. They shall go to sleep in this
world and awake in the next. Those in hell will seek it, desire
it, but shall not find it. where the worm dieth not, and
the fire is not quenched." When Christ died, the law was set
aside, and death was dealt a death blow. From the cross, the Lord
preached the gospel, pointing to Himself and His service to
Almighty God. Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name. Amen. th th Thank you. Okay. th th Thank you.