Kentucky Conference: 1982
Table of Contents
Association with Christ
Matthew Mark Luke John Seven Words of Jesus
Address—C. Hendricks
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Tonight I'd like to look at a scene which stands between 2:00.
Two eternities. It's a scene which is.
And I can say this without any fear of contradiction. Unparalleled.
In the history of mankind, it's the greatest sin.
That man has ever committed, and it's a scene where we see expressed as nowhere else.
The love.
The Mercy.
The compassion.
The grace.
Of God and also the majesty of God.
The truth of God.
The righteousness of God. The holiness of God.
All these attributes of God meeting.
At the cross.
The cross.
Which is.
Without compare.
In the history of man.
The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There we see.
The creature.
Raising his.
Hand with deadly intent and striking a blow.
At his creator.
There we see sin impossible to be exceeded by the creature.
When they cried out against Him, the Lord Jesus.
Who had come in infinite grace.
And love for mankind.
And crying out, Crucify him, crucify him. We will not have this man to reign over us.
I would like to read tonight.
The seven utterances.
Of that Blessed One on the cross, the first we'll find recorded in the Gospel of Luke.
Chapter 23. Luke's Gospel.
Chapter 23 and I'm going to read these 7 utterances.
1St and then we'll go back.
And take them up as the Lord enables in verse 34.
Then said Jesus.
Father forgive them.
For they know not what they do.
These seven utterances I should say before continuing.
Can be broken up into three.
One and three.
The first three have to do with his prayer.
For poor men and women.
For his interests in them.
The middle one, the 4th 1.
Is his cry.
Of abandonment on the cross.
And then follow three other utterances.
Which that Blessed 1 uttered.
Having to do with finishing the work.
That God had given him to do.
So the first utterance is Luke 2334.
Father forgive them.
For they know not what they do.
The second utterance is in verse 43 of the same chapter.
And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee.
Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
Now if you turn to John 19, we have the third utterance.
Verse 26 When Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciples standing by whom he loved, he sayeth unto his mother woman.
Behold thy son.
Then saith he, do the disciple, Behold thy mother.
And then we come to the.
Two gospels, Matthew and Mark, and they only record 1 utterance.
And they both record the same utterance.
Chapter 27 of Matthew. Matthew 27, verse 46.
And about the 9th 9th hour Jesus cried with a loud voice saying Eli, Eli, Lama, Sebastian, I, that is to say, my God.
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My God, why hast thou forsaken me? That's also recorded #4 is also recorded in Mark 15. I'll read it verse 34. And at the 9th hour Jesus cried with a loud voice saying Eloah Eloi, Lama Sebastian I.
Which is being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? That's the 4th utterance, his cry of being forsaken of God. And then if you turn to John 19 again.
You'll find the 5th utterance.
And the 6th utterance, verse 28. After this Jesus knowing John 1928.
Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith.
I thirst and the 6th utterance is in verse 30. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said.
It is finished.
He bowed his head and gave up the ghost. It is finished.
And the 7th utterance is back in Luke 23.
Where we began Luke 23.
Verse 47 And when Jesus had cried, with a loud voice, he said, Father.
Into thy hands I command my spirit.
And having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
Well.
These seven.
Utterances of the blessed Lord Jesus on the cross. How full of meaning they are.
The first 3.
Having to do with.
The first one having to do with his persecutors.
Cry of forgiveness.
The next a promise.
A word to that repentant thief on the cross. Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
And then, as he looked down in John 19, he saw his mother standing there.
John records that neither did his brethren believe in him.
And he saw his mother.
And he commits his mother to John.
And he tells John that he should take care of her. So those first three have to do with.
His thoughts for us?
And for those who were near to him, those who were right around the cross.
First, his enemies.
Then a repentant thief.
And then his mother after the flesh.
Committing her to the care of John.
He couldn't commit her to the care of his brothers.
Because they were not.
Believers.
And then comes.
But Matthew and Mark alone record.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
And then we have in John 19 again.
He remembered a scripture that was unfulfilled from the 69th Psalm.
That the scripture might be fulfilled, he sayeth, I thirst.
Because that scripture said in my thirst.
They gave me vinegar to drink.
And then he cries. It is finished.
And then Luke records the final utterance. Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.
Well, let's look at these in a little more detail as the Lord enables us.
Let's go back and read from verse 27 of Luke 23.
And there followed him a great company of people and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him.
But Jesus turning unto them, said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.
Behold, the days are coming in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bear in the paps which never gave suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains fall on us, and to the hills cover us. For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?
And there were also two other malefactors led with him to be put to death, and when they were come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him.
And the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left.
Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
And they parted his raiment and cast lots.
Father forgive them.
For they know not what they do.
If you'll turn back to Matthew 27 for one verse, a verse which brings out.
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The solemn guilt.
Of the people of Israel.
In verse 24.
Of Matthew 27 when Pilate saw that he could prevail, nothing.
But that rather a tumult was made.
He took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying.
I am innocent of the blood of this just person. See ye to it.
Then answered all the people and said his blood be on us.
And on our children now there's an interesting verse passage, I should say, in the Old Testament.
They cried out.
As Pilate, this Gentile governor washes his hands before the multitude.
And he said, I am innocent of the blood of this just person. See ye to it. And they all cried out. His blood be on us and on our children.
I like to take.
But we have in Numbers 30. Please turn back to Numbers chapter 30, verse 2. If a man vow A vow unto the Lord, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth. If a woman also vow A vow unto the Lord, and bind herself by a bond, being in her father's house in her youth.
And her father hear her vow and her bond wherewith she hath bound her soul. And her father shall hold his peace at her. Then all her vows shall stand. In every bond wherewith she hath bound her soul shall stand.
But if her father disallow her in the day that he heareth not any of her vows, in the day that he heareth not any of her vows or of her bonds wherewith she hath bound, her soul shall stand, and the Lord shall forgive her, because her father disallowed her.
And if she had it all, and husband, when she vowed or uttered aught out of her lips, wherewith she bound her soul, and her husband heard it, and held his peace at her in the day that he heard it, then her vows shall stand.
And her bonds, wherewith she bound her soul shall stand.
But if her husband disallow her in the day that he heard it, then he shall make her vow which she vowed, and that which she uttered with her lips, wherewith she bound her soul of none effect.
And the Lord shall forgive her.
Israel stood in the place.
Of this woman.
Who had a husband, and here was the husband of Israel, the Lord Jesus.
And he heard their vow, He heard their cry, His blood be on us and on our children. And he disallowed it. He said, Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. He disallowed it so that that vow would not stand, so that there could be forgiveness for that guilty nation and the most wondrous truth.
Is that when the Gospel was proclaimed, beginning at Jerusalem, the guiltiest place on the face of the earth?
That was stained with the precious blood of Christ. All to think that here he was the husband of Israel on that cross, and he heard that cry, his blood beyond us and on our children. And he looks down upon his tormentors, He looks down upon his persecutors, and he says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
So that's one way we can look upon that first utterance of the Lord and the Cross.
He disallowed the vows so that mercy and forgiveness might be available to that guilty people who had presented to them all the wondrous works of the Lord Jesus during his life. When he was down here, he raised the dead, and he gave sight to the blind. He cleansed the lepers to the poor. The gospel was preached, and he said, Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.
And here they were, that people, led on by the enemy of our souls, the Devil himself.
To commit the greatest crime that was ever committed in the annals of time. To crucify the Lord of glory. And he heard that vow, and he disallowed it. Disallowed it.
There's another way of looking on it, he says. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. It was a sin of ignorance.
There was there were sins in the Old Testament for which there were no offerings provided.
Sins which were not sins of ignorance, but he says.
Father account this sin to be a sin of ignorance. They know not what they do, so that mercy might still be available and be able to flow out to them that guilty people.
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Father forgive them.
For they know not.
What they do?
The first utterance of the Lord on the cross.
Now let's read from verse 39.
And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.
But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dust not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation, and we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds.
But this man hath done nothing amiss.
And he said unto Jesus, Lord, Remember Me when thou comest into thy Kingdom.
And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
What a wonderful utterance.
This man who had heard those blessed words proceeding forth from the lips of the crucified Savior. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. He had witnessed. He had witnessed that one on the center cross.
They had both railed on him.
To begin with, in fact, Luke is the only evangelist that records that one repented.
If you only had Matthew and Mark, you'd think that they both went to hell. But Luke gives us to see that one repented in the very last moment of his life here he was also crucified on a cross. But there was something about that man on the center cross.
There was something that he had never witnessed before in all his life.
He was a thief.
He was a malefactor.
Along with the other one.
And.
Those words just think here was one who was.
In the indescribable agony of crucifixion.
There isn't any death, I don't believe that is more painful, more awful.
Than crucifixion.
And he could look down upon those that had nailed him to that cross of ignominy and shame.
And cry, Father, forgive them.
For they know not what they do.
And then all this, those words, the very.
Presence, the very look of the Lord Jesus as we sang. Look unto him and live.
He looked, he was on another cross and he looked, he looked at the one on that center cross.
And one of them said, If thou be Christ, save thyself in US.
But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Does not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds. But this man hath done nothing amiss. Somehow he knew the Lord Jesus had done no wrong. He was on that cross, and he saw through the veil of his humanity.
And he saw something of his glory.
And he cries, Lord.
Lord.
Lord.
Remember Me?
When thou comest in thy Kingdom.
And the Lord Jesus gives a marvelous answer.
He doesn't give him the assurance that he would remember him when he came in his Kingdom. If that were the case, he would still be waiting. The Lord has not come and his Kingdom yet. 2000 years have rolled by and the Lord has not come in his Kingdom yet.
He's coming soon.
But instead he says, you don't have to wait for the Kingdom today. Thou shalt be with me in paradise right now. Today I'm going to take you into my presence. You're going to enjoy without any delay, without any waiting of 2000 years for the day when I will be exalted in this scene when I am rejected. But just think of the immensity of the man's faith. He was crucified along with the Lord Jesus. Here was Christ crucified in weakness.
Apparently helpless.
He couldn't do anything to save himself. And he's another one on the cross and he looks at that one on the center cross and he says, when you come in your Kingdom.
Remember Me? He saw that he was a king. Maybe he read the inscription over the cross. This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.
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It was written in Hebrew, the religious world, and Greek, the cultural world, and Latin, the political world. It was written in the language that that included everything you might say down here.
And he read that possibly and saw that.
The Lord Jesus says, today, shalt thou be with me?
In paradise, what a word to the dying thief.
There were two there on either side of the Lord Jesus. 1 did not repent.
The other did. They didn't both repent. That we do not presume.
Only one that we do not despair.
There was 1.
And how wonderful that is. Now turn to John 19, where you have.
Another precious touch.
In John 19 verse 25.
The third cry.
Of the Lord Jesus on the cross.
Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother.
And his mother's sister Mary, the wife of Cleathus and Mary Deline.
When Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciples standing by whom he loved.
He saith unto his mother, Woman, Behold thy son. Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother. And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home. The first utterance we read, it was a crowd. It was those that were around the cross, and he looked down upon them, those that were not.
You might say immediately next to it, but those that were at the cross.
And he cries. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
And then in the second case, the dying thief, it was one who was hanging on a cross right next to his.
And he repented and came into blessing. And now?
First it was his people after the flesh, Israel.
Those that he loved, those that he was the Messiah too, He came unto his own. His own received him not.
But John says as many as received him there was the thief on the cross. To them gave he power to become the children of God, even to them that believe on his name, and now was the very one that bore him.
The one that was privileged.
The Virgin that bore the Christ, his mother, his brothers after the flesh.
Were unbelievers, for neither did his brethren believe in him. And as he looks down, he sees John, and he sees his mother standing there by the cross. The Angel had said to Mary that a sword shall Pierce through thine own soul. Also that the thoughts of many hearts should be made manifest.
And a sword was piercing through her soul at this time. And all the compassion.
The law of the tenderness of that one, just think of it, the indescribable sufferings of crucifixion. And he could look down and have compassion on that crowd that was crying out for his blood. He could tell that thief who had repented today thou shalt be with me in Paradise. And he could look upon his sorrowing mother, a sword piercing through her soul, that the thoughts of many hearts to be were to be made manifest.
And he says, Woman, behold thy son, and son, behold thy mother. And so he commits Mary to the care of John. And he tells John, take care of her. Now turn with me to to Matthew 27, What we've been looking at The first 3 cries were before.
The darkness enveloped Golgotha's heel, now in Matthew 27.
Verse 45.
Now from the 6th hour.
That's 12 noon our time.
There was darkness over all the land unto the 9th hour. That's three in the afternoon our time.
And about the 9th hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice.
Saying Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani.
That is to say, my God, my God.
Why hast thou forsaken me? You'll notice in Luke's Gospel.
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The first utterance, his father forgive them.
The last utterances, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.
And all through the life of the Lord Jesus, whenever he addressed God, it was always Father.
Was always father.
I believe this is the only instance.
When he addressed him.
As God.
And there's a reason for that.
Because.
During those three hours of untold darkness.
All our sins.
By our I mean all those sins of believers from Adam onwards.
Replaced upon him.
During those three hours, he was made sin.
During those three hours, all that was in God against sin.
Fell upon him.
All the unmitigated wrath of a holy sin hating God.
Fell upon that blessed One.
The storm of divine judgment against sin.
Burst in all its fury upon Christ at the cross.
And during those three hours?
During those three hours.
He did not use the term father.
But he cries out. My God.
My God.
God, blessed man.
Who was none other than God over all blessed forever God and man in one person.
But all the weight of our sins were placed upon him.
And all the judgment of a sin hating holy God.
Which will fall upon your soul if you do not receive Christ as your Savior.
It will fall upon you in hell.
In Hell.
But here.
Those of us who believe the gospel, and you can have the sense of this in your own soul tonight. If you believe the gospel, if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, if you look as we just sang that hymn, look unto him and be saved. Look unto the one who hung on that cross and bore the fury of that storm.
The unmitigated wrath of a holy God against sin.
And who cries out at the end of those three hours of darkness? Unparalleled.
Darkness.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
What was it for him?
Well.
The hymn writer has put it.
Tis darkness to my intellect, his sunshine to my heart.
We cannot fathom, we cannot enter in or understand what transpired during those three hours of darkness.
When all that was in God against sin fell upon Christ.
When he was made sin.
And he offered himself as a sacrifice for sin on the cross.
Not only did he bear our sins in his own body on the tree, but the whole question of sin.
The whole question of good and evil was gone into between God the Father.
And that Blessed One on the cross.
And settled forever.
Says in John 129, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
He hasn't removed the sin of the world yet.
He hasn't taken it completely away from his universe, but the work which forms the basis for his doing it was accomplished on the cross. I'm going to read a verse in Hebrews 9. You can turn to it or not, but in Hebrews 9.
I read 2 verses.
Verse 26.
Then must he often have suffered?
Since the foundation of the world, but now once in the end of the world, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Verse 28. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin unto salvation.
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The truth that we usually enter into quite readily is the 28th verse. Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. We can look upon the Lord Jesus on the cross as our substitute bearing our sins. We can say with Peter, He himself bear our sins in His own body on the tree.
You bear the sins of many, doesn't, we can't say bore the sins of all.
But he bear the sins of many. Are you one of the many?
Are you one of those who can turn from your wretchedness to Christ and see that He bore your sins in His own body on the tree?
But verse 26 is much larger, much broader, much fuller.
It says he has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He did a work.
Of such infinite value to God.
Of Such magnitude before God.
That someday every trace of sin will be rid from God's fair universe.
We read in Revelation 21 I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the 1St heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sin.
There's no more death, there's no more sorrow, and there's no more suffering. All the effects of sin will be removed.
Peter tells us.
That there's a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Are you headed for that place? The only way you can be is to look at the man that was hung on that centre cross that bore the judgment of God against sin.
That cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He did not use during those three hours of darkness the term which speaks of intimacy, fellowship, communion.
Because.
It was nothing but wrath.
It was nothing but the judgment of a holy and a righteous God.
Which fell upon him.
In the garden, he anticipated that, and it says his sweat became, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
As he anticipates the awfulness of that judgment Lords Day morning, we read in John 12, he cries, Father save me from this hour.
In the garden he said, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless not my will but thine be done.
Just think of it, that perfect one, looking into the awfulness of drinking that cup of divine wrath against sin.
And crying out, O Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass for me.
Dear Sinner friend, it was not possible if you're saved. If your soul was going to be saved and mine, it was not possible.
That he not empty that cup of wrath against sin.
Had he not gone to the cross? Had he not been who he is?
Because if we understand what transpired at the cross, we have to believe that He is the eternal Son of God.
No creature could have sustained the judgment.
That fell upon him during those hours. Impossible.
He was no creature, He was a man. He assumed manhood and took it up and united it to his deity. Now He is God and man in one person. And that man who hung on the cross, who was God over all, blessed forever. He didn't use his deity on the cross to lessen the sufferings, but to enable him to sustain.
The awfulness of divine wrath against sin.
As it was poured out upon him.
No creature could have made atonement for your sins and mine. No creature. He was God. He was man in one person. And as the dependent man, as the one that received it all from the Father's hands, he went to the cross. And this middle cry, this cry of abandonment.
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Tells us.
Of a suffering that went infinitely beyond anything that man could do to him.
Anything that man could do to him when he cried out. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
They had done their worst. They had done all that they could do. They had nailed them to a cross. They had spit in His face. They had crowned his blessed head with a crown of thorns.
They had heaped every possible indignity that you could heap upon that Blessed One, the thief on the Cross, another who was dying, rightfully railed on him. They both did until 1 repented.
But all when he entered into those three hours of darkness, when God, as it were, see, caused the sun to cease to shine.
And he pulled the curtain over the universe.
None could look upon him during those three hours.
When it was a transaction between God the Son as man and God the Father a transaction.
When he offered himself by the eternal Spirit without spot to God, you say I don't understand that.
Well, neither do I, and I don't believe any of us do.
Understand what really transpired there.
But it was.
It was God putting away sin.
Through a sacrifice of such infinite value as could only meet his eye.
It says, and let's turn to it in John 13. John 1331.
Therefore, when he Judas was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified?
And God is glorified in him.
Now is the Son of Man glorified? What was the glorification of the Son of Man? It was when that blessed One who had become a man in perfect submission and dependence upon God his Father.
Went to the cross and accomplished.
Accomplished not now in the joy of communion, but in the face of divine wrath against sin.
The will of God which he had come to do.
He accomplished.
That will.
It was the perfection of obedience.
Obedience.
Which rose to new heights.
Obedience, which was more than you see in the life of the Lord Jesus, who has the perfect meal offering, always did the will of His Father in the joy of communion, in the unclouded joy of the Father's face. But now he was accomplishing the will of God in the face of divine wrath against sin.
And that's why he cried out in the garden.
Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.
Or if we can only get a sense in our souls of the infinite price.
That has been paid.
To accomplish our redemption.
The infinite cost.
That was.
Exacted of God himself.
For we read in the 53rd of Isaiah it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Now as the Son of Man glorified.
Glorify the glory of man.
Is independence and obedience to God when the Lord Jesus came into this world?
He came.
LO, I come to do thy will, O God, in this book. You see a man down here in the four gospels that never did anything for himself.
You see a man whose every movement, whose every heartbeat, whose every thought, whose every word, whose every action was for the Father's glory, and it culminated at the Cross.
Culminated at the cross, and that's where the Son of Man was glorified. That's where you see the perfection of obedience on the cross.
And that's why it says in Philippians 2.
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When he was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name.
At the name of Jesus every knee should bow heavenly and earthly and infernal beings, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Have you owned that tonight? Is there one in the room that has not owned the worthiness of the Son of God, The worthiness of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who came down, down, down? He could not have gone lower.
He went so low that we read he was made sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Now as the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
At the cross all that was in God against sin was there told out. His truth, His Holiness, His Majesty, His righteousness, His love, His mercy, His compassion was all told out at the cross.
And God is now glorified.
As as he could never have been glorified without such a work.
Christ has glorified God in the very place of sin.
And that cry.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me, Sinner?
There's one here tonight. Without the Savior, He was forsaken that you might never be forsaken.
The wrath of God fell upon him.
That the favor and the mercy and the blessing of God might rest upon you. And if there's not, if there's if there's as much as one here tonight that hasn't received the Lord Jesus, gaze upon him as the one that bore the wrath of God for sin on the cross.
And believe and be saved. Now turn to John 19 for the last three utterances.
Verse 28 after this.
Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished.
That the scripture might be fulfilled saith.
I thirst. There was a scripture. Everything had been accomplished.
Every scripture had been fulfilled but one. Only one remained.
There was a scripture in the 69th Psalm, as we mentioned before.
In my thirst.
They gave me vinegar to drink.
And he remembers that that the Scripture might be fulfilled. He magnified the word of God. The Scriptures remember, he says elsewhere, the Scripture cannot be broken. And so he cries out, I thirst.
And.
It says in verse 29 Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar, and they filled a sponge with vinegar and put it upon hyssop and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, and this is the 6th cry, it is finished.
Now in the Greek language, that's one word. It's the cry of the victor. It's the cry of triumph to tell us die finished. He cries out.
Finished.
And then he says, Father in Luke 23 again into thy hands.
I commend my spirit.
One scripture yet to be fulfilled.
And he cries out, I thirst. They gave him vinegar to drink. The fulfillment of that scripture, the last expression.
Of the enmity of the heart of man towards Christ.
After he had borne the fury of that storm, After the three hours of darkness.
After the darkness had subsided, one scripture remained.
And he says I thirst.
And they gave him vinegar to drink.
Then he says it is finished.
And he bowed his head.
And gave up the ghost.
And for the last one, as we've already mentioned, back to Luke 23.
And now you notice.
In verse 46.
Well, let me read.
Verses 44.
And 45 as well. And it was about the 6th hour.
There was a darkness over all the earth until the 9th hour.
And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst.
And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice.
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He said father he now uses the term of relationship, the term of communion.
Term of fellowship.
The storm was gone.
You know, in the Old Testament.
All those sacrifices, all those lambs and all those.
Bullocks and all those offerings they all pointed forward to Christ and the fire consumed the sacrifice.
But on the cross, the sacrifice consumed the fire.
There the victim took the wrath of God and consumed it for us. Can you say that? Can you say no judgment now for me, because the Lord Jesus has borne my judgment on the cross?
He has taken every drop of divine wrath against sin.
And drunk, drunk it to the very dregs.
And then having done that work.
He says father.
Again, the term of communion and fellowship. And I want to say this, that though during those three hours he doesn't use the term of communion, he uses the term.
Because it was God and all that he is against sin.
That was judging sin.
During those three hours.
There was never a moment.
When He was not more pleasing to his Father and to his God, He was absolutely the delight of God during those three hours. Think of what it meant to God as he looked down upon His Son when he had to withhold the expression of his fellowship, when it was nothing but unmitigated wrath.
And judgment against sin when the wrath of God fell upon Christ.
When God himself had to turn his face away, does that mean that he was not delighted in his son? Oh no.
The Lord Jesus says in John's Gospel chapter 10. Therefore doth my Father love me?
I lay down my life, that I might take it again. At the cross. The Father found a fresh motive of love to his Son, when he saw the perfection of obedience even in the face of the wrath of God.
And now having come out of that in the last utterance.
Luke 2346 when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, and I believe that was when he said he is finished.
He said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.
And having said thus, he gave up the ghost while we looked a little tonight.
At a scene without parallel.
In the history of the human race.
We've looked at the work that was done by the Lord Jesus Christ altogether alone.
Alone.
Alone he bear the cross, alone its grief sustained, his was the shame and loss.
And he the victory gained. Have you trusted him? Have you looked away from yourself to the cross, to the one who hung there?
Who bore the wrath of God against sin?
Who showed his compassion to poor guilty sinners?
Father, into thy hands I command. My spirit is his last utterance. In his first utterance, Father, forgive them.
For they know not what they do.
Because of that.
The gospel is still going out to a lost, perishing, guilty world.
Because of the compassions of Christ. And it's going out because of the work that he did for your soul and mine.
Let's sing number.
23 Behold, behold the Lamb of God on the cross, on the cross for us. He shed his precious blood on the cross, on the cross. Oh, here the overwhelming cry, Eli Lama Sebakthanai.
Draw near and see the Savior die on the cross. On the cross.
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