Our quarterly memory Scripture:
2 Timothy 2:11-13
“Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with Him, we will also live with Him; if we endure, we will also reign with Him. If we disown Him, He will also disown us; if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot disown
Himself.”
Our "memory refresher" Scripture:
John 15:5-8
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.
“If you do not remain in Me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
“If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to My Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples.”
Sermon body:
Please open your Bibles to John 19:28-30 which we will read in a few minutes.
Isn’t it a good feeling to accomplish something worthwhile? Even the Lord thinks so!
What did the Lord say about the first 5 days of creation? (It was good!)
What did the Lord say at the end of day 6 of creation? (It was very good!)
Look at the book of Proverbs and you will see that the Lord looks favorably upon diligent, earnest labor.
The Lord loves to accomplish things and He has built that into us as well even though it may be very painful going through the process as we will see in our Scripture today.
With that in mind let’s go ahead and read John 19:28-30
The part of this Scripture I would like us to look at today is the phrase Jesus spoke from the cross when He said, “It is finished!”
What is finished?
The plan of salvation is finished.
At this point a great transition has been accomplished; the transition from the time of the law to the time of grace.
Why was this accomplished at that very time?
Jesus the perfect Sacrifice had been offered once and for all!
The ONLY sacrifice that could truly take away sin.
The ONLY sacrifice that would never be repeated.
When was this planned?
1 Peter 1:18-20 (NIV), when Peter is talking about what would be needed as a sacrifice for our sin he says,
“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold (you can’t buy your salvation) that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.”
Revelation 13:8 (NIV)
“All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast - all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.”
So, this plan has been a long time coming and was completed on the cross of Calvary when Jesus the Great High Priest sacrificed Jesus the Perfect Lamb of God for the all the sin of humanity! Thank you Jesus!
This sacrifice was never to be repeated in any form but it is to be remembered in Communion and in our worship. We are never to say, “Christ is being crucified again for our daily sins.” He did it once and for all and is now seated at the right hand of God the Father! Jesus’ sacrifice is sufficient for all sin for all time for all people who will accept Him!
That is why we sing:
“In my hands no price I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling.”
“What can wash away my sin? NOTHING BUT THE BLOOD OF JESUS!”
“Would you be free from your burden of sin? There’s power in the blood!”
“I will praise Him, I will praise Him, praise the Lamb for sinners slain!
Give Him glory all ye people, for His blood can wash away each stain!”
“O the Blood, Crimson flood, price of love’s demand.
Shameful sin, placed on Him, the Hope of every man!
O the Blood of Jesus washes me! O the Blood of Jesus shed for me.
What a sacrifice that saved my life; yes, the Blood it is my victory!”
Those who were under the law in the time before Christ could live obedient lives out of love for God but even their sins would not be fully forgiven until the blood of Jesus was shed.
If we try to earn our salvation by good works we revert to the law.
When we revert to the law it is directly against the will of God and is therefore sin.
Now, in the time of grace, God’s unmerited favor, faith in Jesus is our only salvation.
By attempting to earn our salvation by good works we are saying that the Lord’s sacrifice on the cross was insufficient!
In the old westerns when I was a child, the theme of someone being caught in quicksand seemed to come up quite often. They were stuck and would die unless someone came along to help them.
That is a perfect example of us trying to earn the forgiveness of our sins. Impossible.
Our attempts to struggle just take us deeper.
Jesus reached out and pulled us up to safety with His sacrifice on the cross.
It is finished. Even some of those we look up to took a long time to figure that out.
In the Bible it was Paul.
In our history it was John Wesley.
Mark Keathley wrote this in a book called Lake Solitude. Mark says …
I’ve been reading "The Journal of John Wesley". In the entry for 24th May 1738, he wrote a detailed account of his spiritual pilgrimage. As a young boy in the family of a clergyman he had been “carefully taught” that salvation could only be obtained by “keeping all the commandments of God.” Over the years at school and university, he [Wesley] wrote, ‘I now hoped to be saved, by, (1) Not being so bad as other people. (2) Having a kind of religion. And, (3) Reading the Bible, going to church, and saying my prayers.’ I doubted not but I was a good Christian.”
He was eventually ordained as a minister and lived very strictly, as he put it, “I omitted no sort of self-denial.” But this brought him no peace with God. He went as a chaplain to the American Colonies and came under the influence of Moravian Christians and on his return to England in that January he realized that what he was lacking was “faith in and through Christ”. He wrote in his Journal that he resolved to renounce all dependence upon his “own works or righteousness” and instead turned to a “saving faith, a full reliance on the blood of Christ shed for me.” He finally knew he was converted when his heart “was strangely warmed” within him and he testified that “an assurance was given me that He [Christ] had taken away my sins.”
So, we have a choice between hope and hopelessness.
We have a choice between spiritual life and spiritual death.
Jesus cried out on the cross, “It is finished”!
Will you accept that and place your trust in Him for the forgiveness of your sins and live a life of thankfulness and obedience or will you try to do it on your own and fail forever?
Final comments and ending prayer.
------ Additional materials not used in this sermon --------------------------------
The Bible tells us that the salvation that would come through Jesus the Messiah was planned before the foundation of the world.
Now, I don’t even pretend to have an understanding of the foreknowledge of the Lord.
How could He know in advance what would take place?
How would He know that we would fall into sin and rebel against Him?
Some say that it is that the Lord exerts absolute sovereignty over absolutely everything that takes place.
For example, if you left your car window open on a hot day and a spider descended from a tree into your car and then later when you were driving down the road that same spider descended from your car visor causing you to take your eyes off the road and run into a fire hydrant which started gushing water that put out a grass fire that had just started nearby, they would say that the Lord orchestrated each and every one of those things.
Does the Lord really exert that kind of control over every situation? Are we all just preprogrammed robots who believe when the Lord wants us to believe and rebel against Him when He chooses for us to rebel; who obey when the Lord chooses for us to obey and who sin when the Lord causes us to sin?
When I misspell a word or mispronounce a name is the Lord causing me to do that?
When I disappoint the Lord with an attitude did He cause me to do that?
I don’t think so, but, one thing I certainly don’t know is how the Lord foreknew that we would need a Savior who would come to earth as Jesus and be the perfect sacrifice for our sins.
But, the Bible clearly says that the Lord knew from before the creation of the world that Jesus would be the one and only perfect, complete sacrifice for our sins!
So, what was Jesus talking about when He uttered, “It is finished” from the cross?
Jesus was saying that the provision for the forgiveness of all of the sins of humanity had been completed! The perfect sacrifice had been made. No longer was any sacrifice necessary. It was done! It is finished!
Looking back into history we see that a sacrifice for sin has always been needed since the very first sin committed by Adam and Eve.
Sacrifice since the first sin (Genesis 1: 21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.)
Sacrifices throughout the entire OT
No sacrifice was sufficient
A perfect sacrifice was needed
Jesus, the perfect Sacrifice
No additional sacrifice necessary or even possible!
We can do nothing to atone for sin – we can only trust in the blood of Jesus
If we try to atone for our sins with our deeds we declare Jesus’ sacrifice to be insufficient, we declare that the merits of Jesus’ sacrifice was insufficient!
We diminish Jesus’ sacrifice when we say that our deeds are needed for the forgiveness of sin and for our salvation.
Jesus’ sacrifice + nothing else is sufficient
Think about this … If I make it into heaven partly on the merit of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross of Calvary and partly on my good deeds, how will I know if it was Him or me?
If we were to get into heaven based on our merits we would be just like nearly every other religion in the world! My good deeds outweighed my bad deeds so I got in.
But it’s never about me and it’s never about you! It’s about JESUS!!
So, in the book of Revelation, when we see the myriad of angels and the host of people who have been saved all bowing before the throne of God, what are they saying?
Are they saying, “I’m here because I was good enough?” NEVER!
Revelation 5:9-10 NIV
“And they sang a new song, saying: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because You were slain, and with Your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”
Our efforts detract from attention to Christ
Hebrews 10:11-14
“Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when This Priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time He waits for His enemies to be made His footstool. For by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.”
But when This Priest (Jesus serving as the Great High Priest)
Offered for all time one sacrifice for sins (all sins past and present)
(only acceptable sacrifice ever)
One sacrifice for sins (Jesus was the sacrifice as well as the sacrificing Priest)
The Bible does tell us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, not as a sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin but as an act of worship and thanksgiving!
Romans 12:1 NIV (from memory – Therefore I urge you, brothers ….)
So, this is what it all boils down to:
Biblical Spiritual Reality
1) Jesus Christ’s once-and-for-all sacrifice on the cross is sufficient for the forgiveness of my sins and for my salvation
2) Out of this great salvation I will live my life in gratitude and all that I do will be in done in the spirit of worship and thanksgiving to the Lord for that great salvation.
This is the order of the new creation in Christ when we are born again or saved.
I was a sinner by nature and even though I tried to do good I was still a sinner by nature going and I was just going through the motions of being a righteous person … but … I was still a sinner by nature.
When I became a new creation in Christ I changed from being a self-worshipping person to a Christ worshipping person and I am no longer just going through the motions of being a righteous person. My actions are now the natural actions of someone who has been changed into a new creation; they are natural.
Non-Biblical Spiritual Deception
1) Even though Jesus died on the cross for my sins my good deeds are required for my salvation.
This is the deception of the devil …
If I am a good person God will let me into heaven. I just need to be kind and generous.
Many people have tried to be good enough to merit salvation and have found it to be a life of misery and spiritual disappointment.
So, do you believe Jesus when He says, “It is finished” or are you still trying to earn your way into heaven?
