He Died That Day - Part Five

 

So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”

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Now I am quite well aware of the application of the death of Christ for sin, but let me point out that there is also a great application with reference to the Old Testament Scripture. When the Lord had checked, rechecked and double-checked the Law everything was accomplished, the Prophets-everything was accomplished, the Writings-everything was accomplished, the Psalms-the last thing that had to be accomplished was, "They gave me vinegar to drink." And Jesus, it says, in order "that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. 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, It is finished" (John 19:28-29).

 

"The Old Testament is accomplished! Everything is fulfilled! All that is written of Me has now been established."

 

Oh, yes! other things are finished too. We sing in one of our hymns, "It is finished, all the signs and shadows of the ceremonial law; It is finished, it is finished." Many things were finished. My sins were finished. The guilt was put upon Him and it's no longer on me. He was wounded for my transgressions, and bruised for my iniquities and the chastisement of my peace was on Him and by His stripes I am healed. And when Satan accuses me, I say, "It is finished!"

 

Oh, let me plead with you if you have unconfessed sin, if you have a lie on your lips. (And I know that there are people who have lies on their lips.) You can come to the Lord and say, "Jesus Christ, You died for this and I know what I am. `Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like one!"' If you come to the Lord and confess this, let the Lord begin to work in your life. Then the Lord can do for you what you cannot do for yourself. And the Lord God Almighty can restore you to fellowship, to power, to joy. He can mend broken homes. He can do all these things but you've got to let Him have it His way.

 

"He said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost" (v. 30). Oh, what wonderful truths we have here, of Christ and the Scripture, the written Word and the living Word! How He meets our needs! I don't care what your need is, He can meet it.

 

You know, I believe that it is impossible to shock me anymore. I go out all over the country preaching in churches and when I go to a town, elders, deacons, and ministers sometimes, who can't go to someone in their own town come and talk to me. An elder doesn't want to go to his own preacher and say, "Preacher, I've been your elder and I've been doing this-and-that and I need to talk to someone about it." He doesn't want to go to his own preacher, but he will come to the visiting preacher. And I've had three murders confessed to me, and innumerable adulteries and thefts; and men who came and said, "I'm seven thousand dollars short in the bank and they are going to find that my account is out of order. What can I do? What can I do?" I'd say it's impossible to shock me anymore.

 

I know what the human heart is, first of all, because I know the Word of God. Secondly, I know my own heart. A verse says, "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man" (1 Cor. 10:13). Now if you want to know psychology, you go look in the mirror and watch yourself, and look at yourself, and say, "God Almighty, is the whole human race as bad as that?" And God says, "Yes, it is." We sing it:

 

"Guilty, vile and helpless we; Spotless Lamb of God was He;

`Full atonement' can it be? Hallelujah! what a Saviour!

Lifted up was He to die, `It is finished,' was His cry;

Now in heaven exalted high; Hallelujah! what a Saviour!"

 

Now this is your Saviour. This is the one that died there. He looks out over you, over your sin, over your life. "He knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust" (Psalm 103:14). He took the vinegar. He said, "It is finished." And He died.

This is your Saviour. This is my Saviour. Let Him be our Lord.

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