Series on
“Seven Sayings From The Cross”

 
  Scripture Ref.

Luke 23 v 27 - 38


Luke 23 v 27 - 38


Luke 23 v 39 - 45


John 19 v 16 - 27


Matthew 27 v 35 - 46


John 19 v 26 - 29


John 19 v 26 - 30


Luke 23 v 39 - 49 		  Title

Silence: Our Suffering Saviour is Speaking
[Part 1a]

Silence: Our Suffering Saviour is Speaking [Part 1b]

Silence: Our Suffering Saviour is Speaking [Part 2]

Silence: Our Suffering Saviour is Speaking [Part 3]

Silence: Our Suffering Saviour is Speaking [Part 4]

Silence: Our Suffering Saviour is Speaking [Part 5]

Silence: Our Suffering Saviour is Speaking [Part 6]

Silence: Our Suffering Saviour is Speaking [Part 7] 		 
   
 
   
     
       
     
   
   
 

At The Cross! At The Cross! No.1. (Part A)
Silence: Our Suffering Saviour Is Speaking!
Reading Luke Ch. 23 v 27-38.
 
  Introduction:
Bishop Carlyle called language the garment of thought!
And of course we all know that to be true, you can only know my inner thoughts as expressed by my words.
The Saviour reminds us in Matthew 12 v 34.
”For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”
Solomon, in Ecclesiastes 3 v 1-7 recalls for us.
”To everything there is a season, a time to keep silent and a time to speak.”
Is it not therefore so very sad and tragic that we weak mortals have done so much damage with words over the generations?
All too frequently, when silence would have been golden, some have displaced their inward thoughts with words to the deep, deep, outward and inward, lasting hurt of others. Someone says, ah, but I like to speak my mind! Sure, that’s fine provided your mind is a sanctified mind and not a carnal mind.
My beloved brothers and sisters be careful how you use your words.
Matthew makes clear in Ch. 12 v 37.
”By your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be judged.”
Praise God there was one man who crossed the stage of human history, who was perfect in all his words, works and ways, that man was Jesus Christ.
This man, who would be arrested by heartless and cruel men intent upon his everlasting destruction, arrested men through His words by the thousand to everlasting life.
People returned from an encounter with Him saying John 7 v 46.
”Never man spake like this man.”
This man who said, John 6 v 36.
”The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.”
This man who said, Matt. 24 v 35.
“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”
As He speaks from Golgotha’s Hill, He uses such wonderful and precious words as the clothing of His innermost thoughts.
This from Dr. Vance Havner.
”We preach a new Christianity today that stresses similarities, not contrasts: That parallels the world instead of intersecting it; making no demands, unpleasant of its converts. And because of that we are content to sit with Moses and the Prophets on Sunday and live in Egypt through the week. We desperately need to learn afresh: the Cross, the Church, and Christianity are Christocenteric.” End quote!
We commence today, what I trust will be a very profitable study over this Easter period giving to us a fresh insight into the heart of our suffering Saviour! These are the last sayings Jesus ever uttered on earth from the cross before he died. They were seven in number. His words were neither too many nor too few. As we are all aware the number seven in Scripture gives us the idea of completeness, so that here we have a complete explanation of the love of God toward humankind.
This from Dr. Lehman Strauss.
“Of these seven words of our Lord, three were addressed to God the Father and four to men. I like to think of these seven sayings as seven
windows through which we are able to look into the very mind and heart of God. On the darkest day in human history man needed windows through which the light of God could shine. Blessed be His Holy Name, that light did shine! And praise God the light is still shining and ever will shine. And wherever these saying of the Saviour are retold, men are privileged to peer into the mind of the world’s Creator and Redeemer and see the heart of the Christian Gospel.” End quote!
Now, lets endeavour to unpack this amazing and wonderful first saying!
”Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” Luke Ch. 23 v 34.
1. An Amazing Example Of Power!
”Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” Abraham Lincoln.
”The basic difference between physical and spiritual power is that men use physical power but spiritual power uses men.” Justin Wroe Nixon.
     
  A. This Is Power Being Abused! “For they know not what they do.”
He could see, if no other, that sin has a powerfully blinding effect on sinners.
You see, they were not ignorant of the fact they were crucifying innocence.
Pilate had said. “I find in Him no fault at all.”
Herod had said, “Lo, nothing worthy of death is done of Him.”
Judas had said, “For I have betrayed innocent blood.”
Of what then were they ignorant? Listen to this from 1 Cor. 2 v 8.
”If they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”
And again from Acts 3v17.
And now Brethren, I believe that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.”
Paul reminds us in 2 Cor. 3 v 14. With respect to the unbelieving Jew.
”But their minds were blinded; for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament; which veil is done away in Christ.”
The Apostle also reminds us of the unbelieving Gentile 2 Cor. 4 v 4.
”In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believed not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”
As the Lord Jesus hung on the cross he could see the blinding propensities of sin and the awful effects it has upon mankind. They were acting ignorantly because of blindness. That of course aroused in the heart of the Son of God a burning passion for lost souls and from the depth of His heart he cries, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”
The dear Saviour is so very aware that all men have the same heartache. They have the same heartache because there is an aching void, that is, every heart has a God shaped vacuum and until that vacuum is filled with God no man can be complete. He realises every man has the same hunger. You see there is nothing in the world that will satisfy any man or woman except what Jesus Christ can supply, He and He alone is the bread of life and He and He alone can satisfy the insatiable hunger the soul seeks in the many pleasures of this passing world. He knows every man has the same hope. Who is the hope of this world? Why Jesus is the only hope of this lost and undone world. And as He hangs on that old rugged cross He gives Himself as, not the best hope for this Old World but the only hope. So the dear Saviour speaks and His words are a prayer, “Father forgive” Displaying His heartbeat of love for a lost and dying world.
This really is an amazing prayer! If you notice the first word of that wonderful prayer is “Father” indicating to us that despite all the awful suffering He has faced, in Gethsemane, in Gabbath, and now on Golgotha He has not lost that abiding consciousness of His eternal Sonship.
Under staggering losses and severe crosses, when right is being suppressed and wrong seems to be triumphing, faith is tempted to doubt God’s dealings with us as a father, because it feels as if He is dealing with us more like a judge, yet not once did the dear Saviour question or doubt His Father’s care and love of Him. Not once did He fail to, even when nailed to an old rugged tree, carry the needs of others to His Father in prayer.
You know those times of illness, you were unable to get up, do anything for anybody, to be a help in any way, could it be you were allowed that bed of illness for the specific purpose of engaging in a ministry of prayer for others! Dear saint of God, never allow yourself the belief that you are beyond usefulness even in the most distressful situation. If we cannot attend meetings, teach a Sunday School Class, help in the Children’s Work, invite others to a service, be a part of the Youth Work or Silver Threads meeting, go on the doors with Gospel literature, remember, while you breathe and are still conscious you can pray!
B. This Is Power Being Aborted! Matt. 28 v 18-20.
”And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
Jesus said, All Power, all authority was given unto me, but temporarily He lays His power aside and bestows power on His disciples.
  
  The right Hon: Sir A.J. Balfour, a British Statesman and essayist, said, “Christ is a rare jewel, but men know not His value; a sun which ever shines, but men perceive not His brightness nor walk in His light. He is a garden full of pleasantness, a hive full of honey, a sun without spot, a star ever bright, a fountain ever full, a brook which ever flows, a rose which ever blooms, a foundation which never yields, a guide who never errs, a friend who never forsakes.” End quote!
This is the one who gives power to His people, and He hangs on a Roman Gibbet to ensure the transfer of that power.
Now these disciples can go out with power and authority from the highest source and do exploits for God, yet they became shorn Samson’s in treadmills, like rocking chair Christians, all movement yet going nowhere.
They had failed to allow the power of God flow through them. Beloved, as the church of Jesus Christ we likewise have been given great power Acts 1 v 8.
”But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
     
  Are we any better than the disciples? Are we guilty of aborting that power? Someone has said, Christians are like tea, their real strength comes out when they are in hot water. Now friends if that is true the church ought to be on its knees, because it’s not until we are on our knees that the Spirit will set us on our feet. Ezek. 2 v 2.
”And the Spirit entered into me when he spoke unto me, and set me upon my feet, that I heard him who spoke unto me.”
Militant marching humanism is on the move, the new age movement is having a field day, false cults are on the increase, the Moslem menace is running riot, moral corruption in every respect is spreading, the slaughter of the unborn is unbelievable. We see the human misery drugs and drink cause; sexual perversion is widely accepted.
Within the church of Jesus Christ we are witnessing daily the assassination of godly character. We witness the increase in unfaithful relationships, the break up of longstanding marriages, splits between office bearers and pastors as never before, the wreckage of strong fellowships, fall out and division in church life is at an all time high.
Groups who wanted to break away from the ties of church discipline and an old fashioned way of doing things, that they might establish what they thought would be a church of power and expansion are falling apart at the seams, leading to disillusionment and deflation. WHY? WHY?
I believe dear folks because we have negated the responsibility of allowing the power of God to flow through us. We desperately need to put power back into our living for the Lord.
”Make sure it is God’s trumpet you are blowing, if it is only yours, it won’t wake the dead; it will simply disturb the neighbours.” Maj. Ian Thomas.
”When William Carey began thinking of going to India as a pioneer missionary, his father pointed out to him that he possessed no academic qualifications that would fit him for such a task. But Carey answered, “I can plod.” How true it is that God accomplishes mighty things for His kingdom through those who are willing to persevere, who are willing to plod faithfully through one difficulty after another in the power of the Spirit.” James S. Hewett.
Whatever it is we are doing for God we would need to do it in the power of the Holy Spirit! That means regaining our confidence in God as creator, controller and conqueror Acts 4 v 24-28. The result? The Spirit will be received, unity will be achieved and the Gospel will be believed Acts 4 v 31-33.
Our life, our home, our church, our world, will never see the beauty of Jesus in us, only through the power of the Holy Spirit.
C. This Is Power Being Appraised! He saved others.
Notice, the Saviour’s power is not appraised by his own, rather by others!
What a testimony! If someone else were asked to give your testimony, what would they say about you and your profession of faith? I am sure we would all agree we live in amazing times. But the tragedy of these times is that the situation is desperate, but the saints are not. If the saints were as desperate as the situation something might happen and we would raise the standard of our testimony.
Dr. Vance Havner gives us this very telling statement.
”The standard of Christianity is so low today, one would have to backslide to be in fellowship!” End quote!
My brothers and sisters I believe the Scriptures portray the days in which we live with more than a hint of emergency that calls for urgency. But how is it with us? We discover restlessness amongst us, always looking for a new and brighter pasture in which to graze. Yet what we need is not so much a new pasture, but renewal in the pasture we are already in, a new thing done in heart and life so that others will be affected by the very life we live for God.
A member leaving his church one Sunday morning said to his pastor, “well, after that sermon today we will be moving on to another church.” “Well,” said the pastor, “I guess it does no harm at all to change the label on an empty bottle every now and then.”
Beloved, I am convinced as disciples we need to be recalled to the great renunciation of Matt. 16 v 24.
”Then Jesus said unto His Disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.”
 
  We sing so enthusiastically, “to the old rugged cross I will ever be true, its shame and reproach gladly bear.” Then we fold up the reproach in the hymnbook and go home.
In World War 1 Theodore Roosevelt made a notable speech in which he spoke of some Americans with a divided loyalty, as hyphenated Americans. He said, “if you are an American and something else you are not an American.”
If we are Christians and something else then we are not Christians!
”Be such a man, and live such a life, that if every man were such as you, and every life such as yours, this earth would be God’s paradise.”
Phillips Brooks.
”We are too busy to pray, and so we are too busy to have power. We have a great deal of activity but we accomplish little; many services but few conversions; much machinery but few results.” R. A. Torrey.
                   
  I thought I looked and saw the Master standing, and at his feet lay an earthen vessel. It was not broken, not unfitted for service, yet there it lay, powerless and useless, until he took it up. He held it awhile, and I saw that he was filling it, and soon I beheld him walking in his garden, where he had “gone down to gather lilies.” The earthen vessel was yet again in his hand, and with it he watered his beautiful plants and caused their fragrances to be shed forth more abundantly. Then I said to myself, “Sorrowing Christian, hush! Hush! Peace, be still! You are this earthen vessel, powerless, it is true, yet not broken, still fit for the Master’s use. Sometimes you may be laid aside altogether from active service, and the question may arise, what is the Master doing with me now? Then may a voice speak to your inmost heart, ‘He is filling the vessel, yes, only filling it to be ready for use.’ Don’t ask how he will use you. Be silent. Is it not all too great an honor for you to be used by him at all? Be content, whether thou art employed in watering the lilies or in washing the feet of the saints. It doesn’t really matter. Surely it is enough for an earthen vessel to be in the Master’s hands and employed in the Master’s service.”
C. H. Spurgeon.
Mark what has been the practice of the Devil from the beginning, most cruelly to rage against God’s children, when God begins to show them his mercy. And therefore marvel not, dearly beloved, though this should happen to you. If Satan fume and roar against you, whether it be against your bodies by persecution, or inwardly in your consciences by a spiritual battle, do not be discouraged, as though you were less acceptable in God’s presence, or that Satan might at any time prevail against you. No! ... I have good hope, and my prayer will likewise be, that you may be so strengthened, that the world and Satan himself may understand and perceive, that God is fighting your battle. John Knox.
 
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At The Cross! At The Cross! No. 1. (Part B)
Silence: Our Suffering Saviour Is Speaking!
Reading Luke Ch. 23 v 27-38.
 
  2. An Amazing Example of Preaching!
“Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”
A. Preaching that leads to Salvation!
Sure, this was a prayer to the Father but it was also a preaching to the crowd around the cross. Do you recall the effect these sayings and this Saviour had on the centurion responsible for the carrying out the crucifixion that dreadful day?
As he stands beneath the Cross of Christ, having carried out his task well, having been faithful to his masters as far as his duty was concerned, having crucified Christ he now begins to consider Christ. He had never before witnessed such personality. As he listened to these seven sayings from the cross they must have had an amazing affect upon him. He had never witnessed such pain. Here is someone who is despised and rejected of men, judged and forsaken of God. He was indeed a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, smitten of God and afflicted, yet Jesus is more concerned about others than Himself. This centurion had never witnessed such power. Some of those Calvary miracles were happening as he stood there. So as he carries out his duty he must have been considering deeply the events of the day. This personality, the awful pain suffered, the amazing power released, which in turn had a convicting effect upon him because the next thing we hear is, this centurion is confessing Christ. Luke 23 v 47 puts it best.
”Now when the centurion saw what was done he glorified God, saying, certainly this was a righteous man.”
How did he know that? Who revealed that to him? Why the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. What’s happening? The Spirit of God is working in this mans heart bringing him to faith in the Christ of the Cross. This is without doubt a preaching to salvation directly from the cross and from the lips of our dear Saviour. That’s why I say, silence, our suffering Saviour is speaking!
A. Preaching that leads to Salvation!
Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 1 v 18.
”For the preaching of the (word) of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”
Someone asked Luther: “Do you feel that you have been forgiven?”
He answered: “No, but I’m as sure as there’s a God in heaven.
For feelings come and feelings go, and feelings are deceiving;
My warrant is the Word of God; naught else is worth believing.
Though all my heart should feel condemned for want of some sweet token,
there is One greater than my heart whose Word cannot be broken.
I’ll trust in God’s unchanging Word till soul and body severs;
For though all things shall pass away, his Word shall stand forever!”
End quote!
Luther was absolutely right. We have been saved from the penalty of sin, we are being saved from the possibility of sin, and we can be saved from the practice of sin and praise God one-day we will be saved from the very presence of sin.
Our text should read. (1 Cor.1 v 18)
”For the word of the cross which is the power of God for this Salvation.”
It’s the word of the cross, the “logos”, the word, the same word who became flesh, in whom dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead and who died on the cross. It’s the words of the word. The eternal word of the cross enables the sinner to find salvation from the penalty of sin and it’s that same eternal word of the cross that will provide power for that saved sinner to live with victory over sin.
Beloved, this is a power that can and must be visualised, vocalised and vitalised, the message is, there is power in Jesus Christ and His precious Salvation to make us all a mighty power for God in this age.
Is that power active in you and me? Can it be seen and heard and is it mighty for God? We are called upon to be witnesses, but for a witness to be credible they must be believed.
In driving piles, a machine is used by which a huge weight is lifted up and then made to fall upon the head of the pile. Of course the higher the weight is lifted the more powerful is the blow which it gives when it descends. Now, if we wish to impact our age and society with ponderous blows, we must see to it that we are uplifted as near to God as possible. All our power will depend upon the elevation of our spirits. Prayer, meditation, devotion, communion, are like a windlass to wind us up aloft. It is not lost time which we spend in such sacred exercises, for we are thus accumulating force, so that when we come down to our actual labour for God, we shall descend with an energy unknown to those to whom communion is unknown. Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
B. A Preaching that leads to Sanctification!
       
  Paul writing to the Corinthians said. 1 Cor. 1 v 2.
”Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.”
If you have ever attempted a study of what has been called the deeper Christian life, to find out the truth one tends to read many sermons, look through many
books and commentaries on the theme in order to get it right. But by the time you have studied the subject at some length through the eyes of so many disagreeing expositors you end up somewhat confused. You look at all these phrases such as, the victorious life, the spirit filled life, the surrendered life, perfect love, the baptism of the spirit, two natures, eradication of the sin nature, entire sanctification and the rest of faith. You are in danger of becoming a disciple of a phrase instead of a person. Then you read 1 Corinthians 1 v 30.
”But of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.”
You see, strictly speaking sanctification is not something but someone.
I believe our God is on the look out for a people today who will be quiet enough to hear Him speak, brave enough to tell it to others, and honest enough to live it out, displaying what real sanctification really means.
Many are the Elijah’s collapsed under the juniper tree in need of being summoned to Horeb to learn the lesson of the still small voice.
This from Dr. Vance Havner.
”There is a lot of fanfare and activity today, there is a flood of words and a famine of ideas. The preacher is told to adjust---adjust to what? To this Punch and Judy farce of modern church life, this meaningless marathon of breathless Christians, too exhausted to run and too scared to rest, and not willing to work.
Daniel was not invited to Belshazzar’s feast, but he was the only man in the Kingdom who could read the writing on the wall. Blessed is the man who spends time with God and understands the message for the age.” End quote!
C. A Preaching that leads to Service!
Beloved, listen, listen!
We have a Mandate from the Sovereign! Matt. 24 v 44.
”Therefore be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.”
We have a Motto for the Soldier! Acts 21 v 13.
”Then Paul answered, what mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? For I am ready, not to be bound only but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”
We have a Maxim for the Servant! 2 Tim. 2 v 21.
”If a man, therefore, purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and fit for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.”
When the Lord Jesus uttered those amazing words on the cross, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” He was saying, listen, listen, Salvation is precious to all, Sanctification is powerful in all, and Service is personal for all.
You see, a ship is safe in harbour, but the truth of the matter is, ships are made for the sea. Harbours are not only the safe destination for incoming ships; harbours are points of departure for ships. Beloved, the church is indeed a haven where weary souls may tie up for repair and renewal, a place to strengthen the inner man and to bring solace to the soul. But the church is also
the starting point of our week from which we sail out into the unknown to serve our glorious master. There was a time on the Lord’s Day when we stood amazed in the presence of our dear Saviour, today it seems as though we want to sit in His presence and be amused. We once came to church that we might be edified, now all we are looking for is entertainment.
We must come into God’s House to hear, but then we must go out to hearers!
We are not to be salt cellars but salt shakers to scatter the precious truths of God everywhere we go.
The cry comes down the centuries, even from as far back as the book of
1 Chronicles Ch. 29 v 5.
”And who, then, is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord.”
And yes, it will cost us to give to our dear Saviour the kind of consecrated service he requires of us. The Psalmist reminds us there is to be.
  
 
  i. The Sacrifice of Penitence! Psalm 51 v 17.
”The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”
That’s the first step leading to a consecrated life for God. A spirit controlled by the Holy Spirit and a heart willing to hear the Word of God and obey it.
Isaiah 66 v 2 reminds us, that that is exactly what God is looking for in His people!
ii The Sacrifice Of Person!
”Present your bodies a living sacrifice”
The Macedonians first gave themselves unto the Lord!
The second step toward a consecrated life is giving up ourselves continually, a living sacrifice.
A little boy, having listened to the Minister’s sermon of that morning, as the offering plate was passed, realising he had no money quickly found a piece of paper and pencil and hurriedly wrote the words, ‘I give myself’. The minister said to his office bearers, that is the biggest offering we have received for many a day.
Lord Jesus, look down from the skies
And help me to make a complete sacrifice;
I give up myself and whatever I know;
Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
     
  iii. The Sacrifice of Praise! Hebrews 13 v 15.
”By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name.”
We try to work up such a sacrifice by artificial means; those who lead the singing sweat and plead trying to produce a song from the heart that just is not there. The Psalmist said in 119 v 54.
”Thy Statutes have become my song in the house of my pilgrimage.”
The third step to a consecrated life is giving God the fruit of our lips by giving continual thanks to His wonderful name.
When the children of Israel were taken captive to Babylon in Psalm 137 they said “There we sat down by the rivers of Babylon, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.” It was as they sat by the rivers of Babylon with a heavy heart because of their sin, their captors said, sing us a song, a song of mirth or a song of Zion, sing us a happy song or sing us a holy song, they could do neither. Why? Because they had lost their song.
”Happiness is caused by things that happen around me, and circumstances will mar it; but joy flows right on through trouble; joy flows on through the dark; joy flows in the night as well as in the day; joy flows all through persecution and opposition. It is an unceasing fountain bubbling up in the heart; a secret spring the world can’t see and doesn’t know anything about. The Lord gives his people perpetual joy when they walk in obedience to him.” D. L. Moody.
3. An Amazing Example of Prayer!
“Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” Surely was an amazing example of prayer at such a time in the life and near death of our dear Saviour.
A. This is a prayer to the Father!
And in this prayer, our suffering Saviour displays for us the wonderful appreciation he has for His Father.
Some time before this occasion he had taught the disciples this very thing.
In Matthew chapter 6, in what is commonly called ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ we have the Lord, in response to the disciples ‘Teach us to pray’ giving them an appreciation of---
God’s Person: Our Father!
God’s Purposes: Thy Kingdom come…Thy Will be done!
God’s Provision: Give us…our daily bread!
God’s Pardon: Forgive our debts!
God’s Purity: Lead us not into Temptation!
God’s Protection: Deliver us from Evil!
God’s Power: Thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory!
(I draw this from Dr. John Phillips Exploring Series)
Beloved, we desperately need a renewal of such an appreciation of our Heavenly Father. That in the darkest hour, in the deepest agony, through desperate times, with a discouraged heart, in a despondent mind and with a detracting interest we will know there is nothing too large or too small to bring to Him in prayer.
We are coming to a King; large petitions with you bring.
Prayer releases power! Acts 1 v 14 + 2 v 41.
Prayer reveals secrets! Daniel 2 v 14-22.
Prayer replenishes His Church! Acts 4 v 31-37.
Prayer repels the adversary! James 4 v 7-8.
Prayer reclaims ground! Zechariah 3 v 1-7.
Listen to this from George Muller! “I have been praying for sixty-three years and eight months for a friends conversation. He is not saved, but he will be! How can it be otherwise, for I am praying to my Heavenly Father”. That’s the appreciation Muller had of his Heavenly Father, that friend was saved at George Muller’s funeral!
  
 
  B. This is a prayer to Forgiveness!
Sinners were in need of Salvation: Jesus was showing us that there is none past praying for however far down in sin they have fallen, however wicked they have become. This is not a request for God to wink at ignorance, it’s not a request for the blanket pardon of sin, it’s not a prayer to thrust forgiveness upon people, but it’s a prayer that says, all who will repent can be saved and have the wonderful joy of knowing their sins forgiven and the assurance of a home in Heaven.
Saints were in need of Submission: You see, it’s on the basis of forgiveness the church would not only be formed but also move forward.
Did you notice when we were looking at the Lord’s prayer in Matthew Ch.6 v 14-15 the Lord Jesus took time to point out His thinking on forgiveness?
”For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
Now this is nothing at all to do with our Redemptive forgiveness, that has been taken care of and nothing in the world can change that. This is to do with our every day forgiveness and simply put means, if I cannot forgive others then sin becomes a barrier between my Heavenly Father and me.
                   
  The Scriptures say, Matt. 6v15. “If you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses.” The church will move forward on the basis of forgiveness but there is nothing that will hold back growth in the church like an unforgiving spirit.
”Alas! if my best Friend, who laid down his life for me, were to remember all the instances in which I have neglected him, and to plead them against me in judgement, where should I hide my guilty head in the day of recompense? I will pray, therefore, for blessings on my friends, even though they cease to be so, and upon my enemies, though they continue such.” William Cowper.
C. This is a Prayer to Furtherance!
As He prays this amazing prayer on the cross, surely it will have a telling effect on His disciples whether they hear it from a distance or up close. And what Jesus is saying in this prayer, among other things, whatever men do to you, say about you, or make of you don’t go back, rather keep on going on. Nothing the sinner, the saint, or Satan does to you should cause you to quit, give up or go back. So later, after the resurrection when Jesus met with His disciples he gave them some great encouragements.
He made His passion known to them! Go to the uttermost parts of the earth.
He made His presence known to them! He convinced them of His Resurrection, of His Rapture and His Return.
He made His plan known to them! Start in Jerusalem, move to Judea, and then on to Samaria. Start in the Community, move to the country and then spread the message to the continent.
He made His power known to them! “Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.”
He says to His disciples, now get going, keep going and don’t stop going until I get back or call you home!
In the final years of our imprisonment, the North Vietnamese moved us from small cells with one or two prisoners to large rooms with as many as 30-40 men to a room. We preferred this situation for the companionship and strength we could draw from our fellow prisoners. In addition to moving us to new quarters, out captors also let us receive packages and letters from home. Many men received word from their families for the first time in several years. The improved conditions were a result of public pressure put on the North Vietnamese by the American public.
In our cell was one Navy officer, Lt. Commander Mike Christian. Over a period of time Mike had gathered bits and pieces of red and white cloth from various packages. Using a piece of bamboo he had fashioned into a needle, Mike sewed a United States flag on the inside of his shirt, one of the blue pajama tops we all wore.
Every night in our cell, Mike would put his shirt on the wall, and we would say the pledge of allegiance. I know that the pledge of allegiance may not be the most important aspect of our day now, but I can tell you that at the time it was the most important aspect of our lives.
This had been going on for some time until on of the guards came in as we were reciting our pledge. They ripped the flag off the wall and dragged Mike out. He was beaten for several hours and then thrown back into the cell.
Later that night, as we were settling down to sleep on the concrete slabs that we our beds, I looked over to the spot where the guards had thrown Mike. There, under the solitary light bulb hanging from the ceiling, I saw Mike. Still bloody and his face swollen beyond recognition, Mike was gathering bits and pieces of cloth together. He was sewing a new American flag. John McCain.
 
  My brothers and sisters, surely this is the kind of commitment our dear Saviour displayed on the Cross, and is it not the kind of commitment he asks of us today. This kind of commitment will lift our precious Lord Jesus high before a fallen and lost world.
Years I spent in vanity and pride,
Caring not my Lord was crucified;
Knowing not it was for me He died
On Calvary.
But, Now I’ve given to Jesus everything,
Now I gladly own Him as my King,
Now my raptured soul can only sing
Of Calvary.
 
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At The Cross! At The Cross! No. 2.
Silence: Our Suffering Saviour Is Speaking!
Reading Luke Ch. 23 v 39-45.
 
  Introduction:
The first saying from the lips of our suffering Saviour directs our complete attention to our dear Saviour alone! His first prayer was a prayer for those who hated and crucified Him, He was praying for His foes, all of them. No other prompting brought about such a wonderful prayer than that He was fulfilling absolutely His office of Mediator and High Priest. He not only lays Himself out on a Cross as the Sacrifice, which God demanded for sinners, He also at that very same time begins to plead with His Heavenly Father for their Salvation. “Oh what a Saviour that He died for me”.
The Apostle Paul reminds us in 1 Timothy 2 v 5.
”For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
How beautifully our suffering Saviour begins His Heavenly role even while breathing His last earthly breath. And dear folks, if that first word from the cross was a prayer for His foes, then this second word from the cross was an answer to His own prayer for even one of those who would turn to Him in repentance. That repentant thief became the first fruits of our Lord’s intercessory prayer for sinners. Surely our suffering Saviour is displaying in a marvellous way His Lordship.
Beloved, right at the commencement of this study may I call each of us to such a point in life, acknowledge our wonderful Saviour as Lord in your life if you have not already done so. He is Lord, no question of that, have you acknowledged Him as such?
We live in a world where everyone is trying to get away from it all, but one does not have to go to Disney World to get away from it all. We do not have to escape from reality; we can live in another realm even while living in the waste-howling wilderness we call a world, we can live in a world of spiritual reality and blessing.
To live in that world we must hoist the flag of Lordship. Perhaps without being aware of it, the dying thief set the best example of Lordship ever.
It was an old mountain preacher who followed an unusual outline in his sermon text. He was preaching on Mark 4 v 36.
”And there were also with Him other little ships.”
The main ship, he declared, is Lordship. If that ship leads, all other ships will fall in line. Discipleship, Membership, Worship, Fellowship, and Stewardship. The reason beloved we fall down on all the other ships is, we have not yet hoisted the flag of Lordship.
George Muller was asked once as to the secret of his constant happy service for his Lord and master! Muller replied.
”There was a day when I died, utterly died” As he spoke, he bent lower and lower until he almost touched the ground. “Died to George Muller, his opinions, preferences, tastes and will, died to the world, its approval of censure, died to the approval or blame even of my brethren and friends, and since then I have studied to show myself approved unto God.”
End quote!
Let the dear Saviour draw you to Himself today with these same cords of love that flow from that ‘Old Rugged Cross’.
Actually there are a number of cords of love that flow from the old rugged cross as we hear this saying from the lips of the Lord. Let me take time to
unpack three of those in order to display what Jesus can do for us.
 
  Bob Weber, past president of Kiwanis International, told this story. He had spoken to a club in a small town and was spending the night with a farmer on the outskirts of the community. He had just relaxed on the front porch when a newsboy delivered the evening paper. The boy noted the sign Puppies for Sale. The boy got off his bike and said to the farmer, “How much do you want for the pups, mister?” “Twenty-five dollars, son.” The boy’s face dropped. “Well, sir, could I at least see them anyway?” The farmer whistled, and in a moment the mother dog came bounding around the corner of the house tagged by four of the cute puppies, wagging their tails and yipping happily. At last, another pup came straggling around the house, dragging one hind leg. “What’s the matter with that puppy, mister?” the boy asked. “Well, Son, that puppy is crippled. We took her to the vet and the doctor took an X-ray. The pup doesn’t have a hip joint and that leg will never be right.” To the amazement of both men, the boy dropped the bike, reached for his collection bag and took out a fifty-cent piece. “Please, mister,” the boy pleaded, “I want to buy that pup. I’ll pay you fifty cents every week until the twenty-five dollars is paid. Honest I will, mister.” The farmer replied, “But, Son, you don’t seem to understand. That pup will never, never be able to run or jump. That pup is going to be a cripple forever. Why in the world would you want such a useless pup as that?”
The boy paused for a moment, then reached down and pulled up his pant leg, exposing that all too familiar iron brace and leather knee-strap holding a poor twisted leg. The boy answered, “Mister, that pup is going to need someone who understands him to help him in life!”
Crippled and disfigured by sin, the risen, living Christ has given us hope. He understands us--our temptations, our discouragements, and even our thoughts concerning death. By His resurrection we have help in this life and hope for the life to come. James S. Hewett.
   
  Beloved to have the greatest blessing from His precious help we need to acknowledge, “He is Lord, He is Lord, He is risen from the dead, and He is Lord.” And I’m sure we need to add that second verse, “He’s my Lord, He’s my Lord, He is risen in my heart, and He’s my Lord.”
1. Here Is A Message For The Sinner!
“Today thou shalt be with me in Paradise.”
That statement should stir the heart of every sinner whatever state of sinning he is at. For here is a message for you. This statement says, now listen, listen, there is a choice to be made here. Jesus says in response to the dying thief’s, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom.”
“Today…Paradise” The call and the choice came from the dying thief, the response and the regeneration came from the Saviour.
Allow me to say dear folks, Salvation is never by chance but Salvation is never without choice.
We need to give some serious thought to the message that is coming from the cross here. I trust it will stir our hearts.
A. There Could Be Millenniums Of Misery!
Tradition says the penitent thief was being put to death for insurrection. He is an example of what a man feels, believes and confesses in order to be saved.
Matthew reminds us in chapter 27 v 44 that there was absolutely no difference in the two thieves, both are said to have reviled our Lord. Then as both hang either side of the Man of Calvary something happens to one of those wicked men. Conviction grips his heart, the very fear of God falls upon him, and he repents, calls upon the Lord and at once is promised Paradise. Here beloved is the sinfulness of man and the sinlessness of the Son of God being brought together in the Sovereignty of God through grace and truth. On the other side we have the second thief who rebels, rejects and refuses God’s Son and therefore Salvation, and for him there lies ahead Millenniums of Misery!
Dear unsaved soul today, lay fast hold on this, the pleasures of sin are but for a season, but the penalty of sin is for all eternity!
Dear Saint of God, will you grasp hold of this as well, we have been saved out of this world, to go back into this world to win others from it, and that’s the only business we have in this world.
We have fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters, friends and relatives and neighbours, these may never hang on a cross of wood, but like that other thief they are lost souls, who will spend Millenniums of Misery in Hell if they die without Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.
My dear friends, it is high time to awake out of sleep today and realise there are two pathways that lead from that ‘Old Rugged Cross’, one leads to Heaven, make no mistake about it the other leads to Hell.
B. There Can Be Miracles Of Mercy!
As we gaze upon the cross just now we know those sinners are suffering for their own sins; but the God-man is suffering for the sins of others. Now, right here are two basic elements of Salvation. If a man does not see or sense his own sin and guilt, he most certainly will not see or sense his need for Salvation. And secondly, if Jesus Christ is not the sinless one, then He is totally powerless to save others.
Dr. Percy B. Crawford, who was once one of America’s most powerful youth evangelists recounts. “As a boy I had gone often to Sunday School and Church, but never did know in those early days a sense of guilt and lostness. Some years later as a young man while attending the church of ‘The Open Door’ in Los Angeles I heard a guest speaker who was filling in for Dr. R.A.Torrey, who by the way, preached the Word of God with great power and conviction. The Holy Spirit convicted me and when the invitation was given, I walked forward and that same hour believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and was wonderfully saved.
Undoubtedly there were many others in that large crowd who were so convicted but who were not saved. If you were to ask me why, my answer is quite simply, I do not know. Why is it that some of you here who have heard the message of the gospel have believed and received Christ as Saviour and some of you have not! Most certainly Jesus Christ is able to save to the uttermost all that will come unto Him. And even today in this building there could be Miracles of Mercy, for Jesus said, “those that come unto me I will in no wise cast out.” End quote!
Psalm 136 v 1
”Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy endureth forever.”
 
  We are, like everyone who believes on His name, miracles of mercy. Like the man we read of in Acts Chapter 3, who sat daily at the Temple gate called Beautiful. He was carried there daily to beg for alms! He could not walk, therefore he could not work and because of his bodily state he was not allowed, according to Levitical Law, to worship. He was indeed in a sorry state. Just when he had been laid at the gate one day, Peter and John came towards the Temple. Noticing this poor wretch they pause with him and listen to his cry for alms. What was their response? “Silver and gold have we none, but such as we have we give unto you.” What was it they had more than anyone else? Why it was Jesus! They made an offer this poor man could not refuse, on reaching forward and lifting this dear soul to his feet he, through Jesus name became a ‘Miracle of Grace.’ What was the response? Why he stood upright and leaped and walked, entering into the Temple for the first time with them and praised God. He is without doubt the evidence of a miracle of grace. As indeed my brothers and sisters are we, and I trust there are yet many more such miracles of grace to come.
       
  C. There Certainly Are Monuments Of Mystery!
‘Tis mystery all the Immortal dies, who can explore this strange design?
Could we with ink the ocean fill or were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill and every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry
Nor could the scroll contain the whole though stretched from sky to sky.
Yes, without doubt there are monuments of mystery that we will never be able to understand while here upon this earth. But dear sinner friend do not let your not knowing everything you want to know keep you from knowing the one who died for you on that old rugged cross. Mysteries will be solved in a day to come. You see I don’t know all there is to know about electricity but I am not going to sit around in the dark until I do.
I don’t know how black cows can eat green grass and give white milk, but I still love ice cream. Yes, there are mysteries aplenty even to this dying thief, yet as he hangs on that Roman cross one of those amazing mysteries are revealed to him and he sees Jesus as the Son of God and the Saviour of the world. At once his cry goes out, Lord remember me! And just as quickly comes the reply, today! Instantly, no weighing up the pros and cons, immediately Jesus said, today, you will be with me.
What a message for the sinner!
Harry Houdini, the famed escape artist from a few years back, issued a challenge wherever he went. He could be locked in any jail cell in the country, he claimed, and set himself free in short order. Always he kept his promise, but one time something went wrong. Houdini entered the jail in his street clothes; the heavy, metal doors clanged shut behind him. He took from his belt a concealed piece of metal, strong and flexible. He set to work immediately, but something seemed to be unusual about this lock. For thirty minutes he worked and got nowhere. An hour passed, and still
he had not opened the door. By now he was bathed in sweat and panting in exasperation, but he still could not pick the lock. Finally, after labouring for two hours, Harry Houdini collapsed in frustration and failure against the door he could not unlock. But when he fell against the door, it swung open! It had never been locked at all! But in his mind it was locked, and that was all it took to keep him from opening the door and walking out of the jail cell. (Zig Ziglar.) James S. Hewett.
Could it be dear friend, there are mysteries that are keeping you in bondage, keeping you from breaking free from the sin that holds you so tightly, keeping you in the Devil’s prison. Then listen, listen, the door has already been opened by the Lord Jesus who died an atoning death for you, all you must do is repent and believe and walk into the freedom of God’s wonderful eternal blessings that will be yours forever.
2. Here’s A Message To The Saint!
There were two men hanging either side of the Dear Lord Jesus, one frowned upon the cord of love flowing from that lovely Saviour, the other fastened upon the cord of love flowing from the Saviour. It is this man I want the child of God to hear, for surely this is a very powerful message to the saint of God.
”God creates out of nothing-wonderful, you say; yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful. He makes saints out of sinners.”
Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
”The hero is one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by. The saint is the man who walks through the dark paths of the world, himself a light.”
Felix Adler.
A. Hear His Cry!
Here is a man who accomplishes more in minutes than many of us do in years!
This man does not have a lifetime of listening to preachers, reading books, attending seminars, and discussing with friends. He’s not sitting in the beautiful surroundings of a lovely home or church building with a brand new Bible with lots of time to read it and make up his mind about certain things.
He has looked and listened intently from the very moment they were hung together on those three ugly crosses on Calvary’s Hill and as he gazes on the Man of Calvary, his decision is made.
  
 
  i. He recognises the Saviour:
When he looked to Jesus as he was, weary worn and sad, he found in Him a resting-place and He has made him glad. He had found the Promised Messiah, the one who had come to seek and to save the lost of which he was one. He responds immediately and finds a response to his cry just as immediately, he has found one, who can save, satisfy and sustain for time and Eternity.
ii. He responds to the Son:
As he hangs there in agony, he hears the voice of this man crying to the Father.
”Father forgive them for the know not what they do.” He is convinced, without any doubt at all, this is the Son of God.
You see, some will live for a lie, but no man knowingly will die for a lie. There was a reality here that was rare. This was the simplest of faith in action. There on that old rugged cross with the knowledge that time was slipping past him, he responds to the Son of God. For all I take Him! For all I trust Him! For all I thank Him! Folks, that was all he could do! But do you know what? It was enough. That dying thief was going to be the first fruits of the Saviour’s first prayer on the cross.
       
  Surely only by the power of the Spirit of God did that dying thief learn that the man on the centre tree was none other than the Sovereign. Sure, He was Saviour, He was Son, but the truth is dawning fully on his soul that this man on that centre tree is the Sovereign God. What else can he do, time is not on his side, he must make his decision now or never, and he cries from his heart, Lord!
He knows, if we don’t beloved, there is no such thing as part time loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ, it is all or nothing. A husband or wife who is only 85% loyal are not loyal at all. Is it any wonder this dying thief looked full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth grew strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.
He not only witnesses to his faith in the Sinlessness and Saviourhood of Jesus, but he is confessing also His Sovereignty. He called Jesus, “Lord”!
Wherever there is a sense of who Jesus is, there is a sense of sin. If He is merely Jesus the man, then He cannot be the Saviour. But wherever His Lordship is believed, and by this I mean His absolute Deity, there you will find a work of Salvation going on in someone’s heart. If Jesus is not God, then He is powerless to save. God alone can forgive sins Mark 2 v 7, and that is exactly what Jesus did when He said, “The Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins” Matt. 9 v 6. And listen folks, “no man can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost” 1 Cor. 12 v 3. “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God” 1 John 5 v 1.
There are two great forces at work in the world today: the unlimited power of God and the limited power of Satan. Corrie ten Boom.
Who has your loyalty?
B. Hear His Commitment!
Time was not on his side so commitment had to be real. We are always trying to find ourselves today, when that is exactly what we need to lose. Here is a man who discovered at once, “for me to live is Christ, to die is gain.”
i. His Commitment Was Fixed:
In this day of self-exultation the Bible teaches self-execution. Not that we take our own lives, of course not, but that we submit to the death of our flesh life by the hand of God. The Apostle Paul witnessed his own execution, but there came forth-another Paul. “I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.”
And beloved, I believe that is the cry from the cross to the saint today! We need to be men of the cross, with the message of the cross bearing the marks of the cross.
The church has devised a new cross today, an ornament to wear around the neck, a common place symbol twisted out of context, a charm, a holy horseshoe. You see, such an ornament does not interfere with godless living, and never goes against the grain of the old nature.
We are being told to conform to the spirit of the age today! G.K. Chesterton says, “If the church marries the spirit of the age, she will soon be a widow.” Bring the message down to their level they say. But dear friends, simply recruiting more Ephesians to more works and more labour without their first love will only worsen the situation. It is possible to be a warm Christian, but my Lord said He would rather have a cold Christian. “I would you were cold or hot.” (Boiling is the word used) the point is if we are cold, our coldness may drive us the warmth of His love, but when lukewarm we become content in that backsliden state.
In the parable of the sower, the seed, or the soil, the Lord Jesus tells us about shallow hearts.
Here is a man whose commitment was well and truly fixed, no shallow promise here.
Someone asked a pastor what size his parish was. “Oh,” said the good pastor, “twenty miles wide, thirty miles long, and one inch deep.”
One wonders if we can every have a revival again in such a shallow generation! (Am I being unkind, or is that fair comment?)
ii. His Commitment Was Full:
This man could only give those last few breast-heaving minutes, but he gave them fully, no holding back, no half-heartedness, he goes all the way.
My beloved brothers and sisters, whatever you are giving to God, give fully. Remember God’s warning to big pretenders in Acts Ch.5.
 
 
  iii. He rests in the Sovereign:
Have I been singing,
“Naught that I have, I call my own, I hold it for the giver,
My life, my soul, my will, my all, are His and His forever.”
Have I meant it? Did I mean what I was singing? Was this the desire of a heart submissive and meek with full commitment to my Lord?
Old John manned the railway crossing gates in my hometown many years ago. One day as we were passing we noticed the gates were being held half open by the old man. Boys will be boys, so we thought we would have a good laugh at the old man’s expense. “John, why are you holding the gates half open?” “Well, to tell you the truth,” said the old man, I’m half expecting a train!” Needless to say, the laugh was on us!
Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher, told a story about a goose who was wounded and who landed in a barnyard with some chickens. He played with the chickens and ate with the chickens. After a while that goose thought he was a chicken. One day a flight of geese came over, migrating to their home. They gave a honk up there in the sky, and he heard it.
Kierkegaard said, “Something stirred within the breast of this goose. Something called him to the skies. He began to flap the wings he hadn’t used, and he rose a few feet into the air. Then he stopped, and he settled back again into the mud of the barnyard. He heard the cry, but he settled for less.” End quote!
Half measures will not be acceptable with our wonderful Lord. After all, are we not glad beyond measure He did not only go half way for us?
     
  iii. His Commitment Was Final:
Popularity, position, possessions and praise meant nothing to this dear man.
He knew nothing of theology, eschatology, doctrines, fundamentalism, principles or practices, but he was in every respect dead to the world, the world had no more hold or pull on him, truly, he had bid farewell to the world to walk in it never more.
The crowd underneath may have thought him a fool, but glad he was to be called a fool for Christ’s sake.
Matthew Mead said, “If the Gospel is to this world foolishness, then the disciple’s of Christ must be to the world, fools.”
Jim Elliot said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
Strange today that we should want to be popular with the world, for our Lord said, John 15v19.
”If ye were of the world, the world would love his own, but because ye are not of this world, but I have chosen you out of this world, therefore the world hateth you.”
The simple minded, yet sincere convert who carried a bill-poster declaring, ‘I’m a fool for Jesus’ on the reverse side asked the question, ‘Whose fool are you’?
We are beloved at a crossroads today! No question is of greater importance just now. Shall we let the hostility of this world scare us into becoming diplomats on good terms with the world, the flesh and the devil, instead of flaming witnesses in a head on collision with a godless age?
God never promised or planned that true Christians would ever be anything more than a persecuted minority, scorning the values of this world and living under his rigid discipline, swimming against the stream of this worlds thinking and living. As long as we follow that pattern, there is every possibility things will begin to happen for God.
”A sacrifice is an offering placed before the Lord so that he can make something of it. Once offered it is in God’s hand to do with what He will. It is no longer in your hands to improve a little more. ... His will is to work with offerings, not your perfections or your press clippings. Just leave it. You have lived your day; now leave it on the altar, an offering.”
Eugene Peterson.
3. Here’s A Message From the Saviour!
”Today thou shalt be with me in paradise.”
A. Today Expresses Victory Over The Flesh! Gethsemane:
William Carvosso a Cornish Wesleyn who could neither read nor write until he was over fifty, said, “Oh, the heart felt blessedness arising from a conscious union with the Son of God!” End quote!
This of course was what our dear Saviour was about when He knelt in Gethsemane, displaying a very wonderful conscious union with His Father, declaring that victory over the flesh is a real possibility. We don’t need to be the victims of the flesh we can be victors over the flesh again and again.
My brothers and sisters, these, sadly, are days when we are so busy doing everything, we have no time to be anything. Even religiously we are so occupied with activities that we have no time for affection.
The Psalmist reminds us to “Be still, and know that I am God.”
We desperately need to take time out with God and His precious word and prayer that we might retune this instrument God has given us that it might play a sound note for him.
Moses called the people to “Stand still and see the Salvation of the Lord.”
The chariots of Pharaoh were behind them, the mountains on either side, the sea lay before them, the people were crying bitterly. Moses stands in the midst of the people and says, God will make a way, the like of which you have never expected, but you will need to stand still for a time.
God commanded that the land should “Lie still one year in seven.” The reason being, that the land would be the more productive in the next six years. This is the kind of thing Joseph discovered while in prison, as the Psalmist reminds us in Psalm 105 v17-18, all Joseph could do was lie still, trust God and wait.
What was the outcome? Why he was raised from that lowly waiting position to the one of the highest positions in the land.
Naomi encouraged Ruth to “Sit still, my daughter, until you know how the matter will fall; for the man will not be in rest, until he hath finished the thing this day.” Naomi was reminding Ruth that Boaz was her Kinsman Redeemer and if she would simply sit still and trust him to do what was right concerning her all would be well. Beloved waiting time is never wasted time in His glorious presence, He is our Kinsman Redeemer, if we take time in His presence, He will work all things together for His Glory and our good.
Do you know something dear Christian, waiting in His presence will give you victory the flesh.
  
 
  B. Today Expresses Victory Over The World! Gabbatha:
We all agree well with the first verse of that lovely hymn.
I must need’s go home by the way of the cross,
There’s no other way but this.
The trouble comes in the last verse!
Then I bid farewell to the ways of the world,
To walk in them never more.
It would seem we find it a great difficulty today indeed to overcome the world.
”If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.” C. S. Lewis.
                     
  Today the world has so infiltrated the church that we are more beset by the internal foe than by the external foe. Satan is not fighting churches today, he is joining them. He does more harm by planting tares than by pulling up the wheat. He accomplishes more by imitation than by opposition.
We gladly accept the world and its ways into our churches, we endorse its programs, call in the celebrities to enhance the gospel and bring growth, preachers content with each other to see who can have the best show in town.
The same popular singer combines sensuous publicity in the papers for his secular songs with pious pictures on his C.D. cover for his gospel songs in the bible shop. Listen, listen, folks, the Christian faith is not a way to explain, enjoy or even endure this world, but to overcome it.
”When Napoleon defeated the Austrian army, he moved into the great palace of Schonbrunn and mounted two eagles, symbols of his empire, on each side of the main entrance. He was soon dislodged and the palace returned to Austrian hands. But the eagles looked so good there, nobody ever bothered to take them down. They are still there today. The devil has been defeated in the life of the believer, but it is possible we may still carry some of his insignia. If so, we ought to get rid of it at once.” End quote!
Robert C. Shannon.
C. Today Expresses Victory Over Satan! Golgotha:
All Hell, all Humans must have thought Golgotha was the end for this Jesus of Nazareth, but all Heaven knew a different outcome to this amazing happening on Calvary’s Hill. You see beloved; our God is the great I am, Satan is the great I am not. Just when he thinks it’s all over, why, it has only just begun. Satan is the great imitator and one of his great devices is to simulate the work of God. He could not thwart God’s plan at Calvary so he sends out many false
Prophets into the world to do as much damage to the work of God as he can possibly do. Therefore we who are the children of God need to be on the alert so that we may continue to know victory over Satan. We need the very wisdom of God, try the spirits and know if they be of God, don’t be easily taken in these last days. Remember, some of these false prophets can duplicate to an amazing degree the work of God. We can have victory over Satan, Calvary proved that and is a constant reminder to us.
Satan has a false gospel, a false repentance, a false dedication, a false faith, a false discipline, a false sanctification and a false everything else you may want to think of. Weak Christians not well read in the Scriptures will easily fall prey to modern magicians.
The Saviour defeated Satan again in His lifetime with the word of God. If you want to know similar victory then read the Scriptures Daily, Diligently, Devotionally and Doctrinally. Our Lord said, learn of me, we need to study in the school of Christ to know how to Express God’s Word, Extend God’s Hand, and Exalt God’s Son. Victory over Satan has been won for us, let us learn to live in the power of it.
D. Today Expresses Victory Over Death And Hell! Grave:
”Death is not the end; it is only a new beginning. Death is not the master of the house; he is only the porter at the King’s lodge, appointed to open the gate and let the King’s guests into the realm of eternal day.”
John Henry Jowett.
Someone has said, this is a day of dead lines. A date is set to finish the job, to make that repayment, to reach our destination. We poor mortals race from one to the other as fast as our ulcers will allow. It is all a mad frenzy and we have little or no time to enjoy the scenery for nervously wondering if we will ever get to journey’s end on time.
No wonder we turn out such shoddy work. There was a time when craftsmen took time to paint great pictures, build great edifices, write great literature and prepare great sermons. The quality of the product suffers when it has to be ready for delivery on a set date.
It’s true, death is not the end for the child of God yet it is an appointment we will all keep unless the Lord returns first, but here’s my point, when that call home comes, how will we meet the Lord? Will we have finished the work he has given us to do? Will we have been victorious and win the crown?
E. Today Expresses Victory Over Time And Sense! Glory:
”By all standards, death is the most dreaded event. Our society will pay any price to prolong life. Just one more month, or even another day. Perhaps our desire to postpone death reflects our dissatisfaction with God’s ultimate purpose. Remember, his work isn’t finished until we are glorified. Most of us would like to see God’s work remain half finished. We’re glad we are called and justified, but we’re not too excited about being glorified.” Erwin W. Lutzer.
That’s a day I am looking forward to. When I stand in Glory, I will see His face and then I’ll serve my King °ª
 
  My brothers and sister, like the dying thief, Glory should be our goal. He had little time to prepare for it, we have been greatly privileged and been allowed quality time to live for God and live before our family, friends and the world.
Each life that is born of God is the canvas on which the Master is producing a work of art that will fill the everlasting ages with His praise. Praise God!
  
 
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At The Cross! At the Cross! No. 3.
Silence! Our Suffering Saviour Is Speaking!
Reading John Ch. 19 v 16-27.
 
  Introduction:
Dan Crawford was but a lad of nineteen when he left for Africa, an only son. In the little company at the Glasgow Station stood his mother. When a friends spoke a word of comfort, she replied, ‘He spared not His own Son.’ Twenty-two years passed before she saw him again. Yes, twenty-two years while he toiled in Africa without a furlough. He had buried his son, and there amid loneliness indescribable, fever-stricken again and again, time after time nigh unto death, he lived and toiled and suffered. At the age of fifty-six died in Africa! Oswald J.Smith.
What did the cross mean to Dan Crawford? What does the cross mean to us?
All heaven is interested in the cross of Christ, all hell terribly afraid of it, while men are the only beings who more or less ignore its meaning.
Oswald Chambers.
Had we the opportunity of being in Jerusalem that Passover afternoon when Jesus was crucified, just how close to the cross would we have come?
It’s true we have been singing with heart and meaning today those challenging words, Jesus keep me near the cross, but had we been standing in Jerusalem on that eventual day just how close to the cross would we have ventured?
We know of some that were not afraid to show themselves at that amazing place called Calvary. And please remember that is where we are today, at Calvary!
This place where our Lord was crucified has often been referred to as Mount Calvary. In actual fact there is no sanction for this expression since the hill on which Christ died was no more than twenty feet high. What is so significant to us is there were some who stood at the cross without fear and that the Lord Jesus in His dying minutes spoke to them. And beloved, down the centuries and in every generation the words spoken by the dying Saviour have great relevance to us. And that highlights some very wonderful thoughts for me.
1. Learn From Our Wonderful Master!
Not all who gathered at the cross that day were Christ’s foes, some were His friends. And it’s to those friends He now turns with incredible words. With a heartbeat of love and understanding from which we may learn and be more like our wonderful master. Luke 6v40.
”The disciple is not above His master: but every one that is perfect (mature) shall be as His master.”
A. Learn How The Master Deals With Pain!
Once again notice how the master is more concerned about others than he is with Himself. In this third word from the cross we hear Him speaking to His mother Mary, and to John, His beloved disciple. In the amazing agony of those never to be forgotten moments He reaches out to others who like Himself at that self same moment were in agony of soul and body. Can you possibly conceive what dear Mary was going through at that very time? Is it possible to contemplate for a moment the depth of agony John must be feeling just then?
Well, it’s at such a time that Jesus, in the hour of His own grief and pain reaches out and ministers to others. Do you know the best way to deal with pain and sorrow? Minister to others!
Here’s how to be more and more like the master, here’s a Christ likeness we could well imitate. Sometimes it’s not easy to learn this great lesson in life. It’s quite simple for us to bemoan our sorrows and losses, and then when everybody does not rush to our aid with substance and sympathy we get annoyed. But beloved when we act in such a fashion we lose one of life’s most valued blessings. Listen, listen, when everything seems to fall apart, when our little world seems to be turned upside down, when sorrow and pain strike hard and leave us shaken and sore, a sure way of putting it together again is to minister to others.
Hear with effect the words of the Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 1 v 3-4.
”Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.”
  
     
  “God uses chronic pain and weakness, along with other afflictions, as His chisel for sculpting our lives. Felt weakness deepens dependence on Christ for strength each day. The weaker we feel, the harder we lean. And the harder we lean, the stronger we grow spiritually, even while our bodies waste away. To live with your “thorn” uncomplainingly-that is, sweet, patient, and free in heart to love and help others, even though every day you feel weak-is true sanctification. It is true healing for the spirit. It is a supreme victory of grace. The healing of your sinful person thus goes forward, even though the healing of your mortal body does not.”
J. I. Packer.
B. Learn How The Master Draws On The Word!
As our blessed Suffering Saviour hangs on that old rugged cross, again and again He draws from the word of God. Surely on this occasion Exodus 20 v 12 must be near to His heart.
”Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”
Friends, He looks into the Word of God and now we see Him honouring His mother. You see the Word of God means something to the Saviour even when
hanging in deepest agony. It is so important to the Saviour what the Father has said in that precious book. And therefore beloved so it should be with us.
The experiment is often recounted of placing a frog in a pan of cold water on a stove and of slowly increasing the heat. Because the rise of temperature is so gradual, it is imperceptible to the frog, and he remains in that pan even when the water begins to boil. He adjusts to the heat as it rises and eventually boils to death.
Dear Christian friends, that process illustrates what has happened to us as families in these times, including many Christian families. The changed values in society have been so gradual that most people have hardly noticed them. Each small change in standards and values seems insignificant in itself. And because adjustments are gradually made to those lowered standards, the danger is not noticed even when the family and society start to disintegrate and crumble. Moral and spiritual standards have gradually eroded until countless families have been literally destroyed.
When the divorce rate among Christians is almost as high at that in the rest of society, it is clear that many believers should have jumped out of the pan long ago. It is high time we left the evil system that is engulfing and destroying us and re-establish ourselves in God’s revealed standards of fidelity and moral purity. We have long lost the luxury of living in a society that gives nominal support to the church and Christian values.
We desperately need, like the dear Saviour, even in the midst of all our agonies and hurts to be looking into the Scriptures and seeing where we need to take a fresh look at our family values. Jesus is honouring His Mother. And although His death is imminent He does not simply honour her because of an Old Testament command but because this is something which will become a New Testament principle. Ephesians Ch. 6 v 1-4.
”Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.
Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;)
That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.
And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”
You see, the Satanic world system in which we live would undermine, weaken and destroy the family unit and honour, whereas God’s plan is always to build, strengthen and protect the family unit. Our dear Saviour displays that great truth even on the cross.
C. Learn How The Master Directs His Words!
”Woman, behold thy Son! John, behold thy mother.”
Jesus is not being disrespectful here. What is happening is there is a change of relationships taking place. We read, “And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.” John 19 v 26-27. I am certain this was an act of deep compassion on the dearest of ladies that had been Jesus’ earthly mother. But now earthly relationships were changing, the parental title was now being replaced by a more general title of respect.
  
 
  I believe we learn from subsequent history just how far-seeing this was. The Roman church has elevated Mary to the point of idolatry. In Rome there is a church devoted to the worship of Mary. Official Roman Catholic dogma teaches not only the immaculate conception of “the blessed virgin Mary” and her bodily (corporeal) presence in heaven, not only that we should bow before her images, light candles to her, and pray to her, but they call her “Co-Redemptrix.”
By that the Church of Rome means that Mary is just as much our redeemer as Christ. No wonder Jesus sent Mary away from the cross!
I wonder had we spoken to some of the Saviour’s friends around the cross what they would have drawn from his directed words.
For Mary Magdalene the cross would indeed have been seen as a place of Redemption. In Luke Ch.8 v 2 we discover she had seven demons cast out of her and now that redemption price was being paid in full. It cost our dear Saviour greatly to clean Mary Magdalene up and out. And beloved, it will cost you to take up the cross and follow Jesus. Salvation is free but not cheap!
Salome, what does the cross mean to you? I think she would have said, oh, for me, the cross is a place of rebuke. I was so selfish and jealous for my two boys that they would occupy the best place at the throne of God. Matt. 20 v 20-28.
       
  Salome had no true idea of the cost of true reward; she did not realise that there could be no crown without the cross. She was totally unaware that there is no wearing the crown without drinking of the cup of experience and suffering.
Phil. 3 v 10. “That I might know Him, and the power of the resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering, being made conformable unto His death.”
”When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the prince of glory died, my richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride.”
For Mary the mother of Jesus, I believe the cross was a place of reward. From the beginning Mary believed He was the Saviour, the Christ, the Messiah, she would not be moved, her faith was firm. Dear folks, it’s painful to stand firm in our faith sometimes. God may have to crucify that which we love the most.
Mother, are you the rock of your home? Is your faith firmly planted in the Lord Jesus Christ? Then do not be moved, whatever the cost, trust God and know that reward will come.
Illustrator/painter Gustave Dore, one of the patron saints of the DreamWorks team of Spielberg/Katzenberg/Geffen, was handed a painting of Jesus just finished by one of his students. Asked for his critique, Dore studied it, his mind searching for the right words. At last he handed it back to the student.
“If you loved him more,” he said, “you would have painted him better.”
Lovers understand better than haters.
1. Look At This Watchful Mother!
Here is a mother in Israel indeed, one from whom we may draw great example, so watch with me and learn!
A. Take Note Of Her Silence!
After all is said and done, the man on that centre cross is her lovely son. Sure, she is aware He is the Sovereign God, she is aware He is the Saviour of the world but she is also acutely aware He is the Son of her love.
And as they crucify Him, she stands silent, oh so silent. She is watching with bated breath, no one knows the thoughts of her mind and heart but God. Humanly speaking she cannot change things so she simply watches in silence completely trusting God. Knowing in the depths of her heart, the Heavenly Father knows exactly what He is doing. So she just watches. Could it be she took her dear Sons advice, watch and pray!
She’s waiting, the worst is about to happen, but she waits in dignified silence. She knows her lovely Son must die to be of value in the redemption of souls. She knows this is all in the Sovereign mind and will of a Sovereign God and she will wait for the conclusion whatever the cost. Beloved, how often I have said it, waiting time is never wasted time. Let us learn anew to wait on the Lord, whatever the cost.
“Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46 v 10.
“But the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.” Daniel 11 v 32b.
”But those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.”
Psalm 37 v 9.
She’s willing, not once did she lift her voice in anger against God, never once did she question God’s wisdom, not once did she accuse the disciples for running away and not standing with her at her deepest time of need. Not once does she find fault with any other, she is all too well aware of her own faults and short comings. She realises she must let go of the dearest love of her life for the best good of others and for the glory of God. And even though her heart is breaking, she is so willing. What a refreshing act of submission in the heart of this dear lady, may the Lord give us such an attitude of submission in all things.
A. Take Note Of Her Suffering!
In Luke’s gospel chapter 2 v 35 we read.
”Yea, a sword shall pierce thy soul also.”
This was the message of the angel to Mary when announcing the forth-coming birth of Jesus. Did she suffer? Did she experience the sword in her soul?
Why, when she was with child she suffered shame and reproach, she felt the sword in her soul. Innocent children died because of her baby, she felt the sword pierce deeply. I must be about my Father’s business Jesus said to her one eventful day; she felt the sword of rebuke. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children said Jesus. She felt the sword.
She suffered because He died! She suffered because of the way He died, on an old rugged cross, numbered with the transgressors. She suffered because of where He died, right out in the public gaze, what a spectacle was made of her lovely Son.
 
 
  She felt the sword pierce her soul. But when he looked at her and said, woman, do you know what? He was assuring her of Calvary Love.
Maybe just now you’re going through major suffering, you are feeling the sword piercing your very soul, your heart beats and aches, your home life is becoming intolerable, your health is suffering just now, there is just one hurt after another and you wonder if it will ever end. Just now He’s looking over the balustrade of heaven and saying, mother, father, son, daughter, and even grandparent I love you with a love that cannot change, I know what you’re going through but I want you to trust me come what may or what must. I will see you through this, standing somewhere in the shadows you’ll find Jesus. Mary found Him in a wonderfully new way beneath the shadow of the Cross.
”Accept suffering graciously. When you have reached such a point, all misery will seem sweet and you will relish it for Christ’s sake and think that you have discovered paradise on earth. As long as you object to suffering you will be ill at ease. Accept it, and you will find peace.”
Thomas À Kempis.
   
  C. Take Note Of her Submission!
Jesus was saying to her, go home with John. What’s happening? Well, it’s believed that at this time Joseph, Mary’s husband was dead and none of the remaining children were yet believers. How thoughtful that Jesus would ensure there was someone to look after His earthly mother, someone of like mind and passionate love for the Saviour and for the gospel.
I have often wondered what went through Mary’s mind just at that time. Did she recall her own words at the wedding feast of Cana of Galilee?
“Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.” John 2 v 5.
That was a call to Perfect Obedience!
No Mental Reservations! (Whatsoever)
No Heart Rivals! (He)
This was a call to Personal Obedience! (You)
This was a call to Purposeful Obedience! (Do it)
(I draw this from Dr. John Phillips. Exploring Series)
Has God been calling you into some kind of Service for Him?
As you stand at the Cross this Easter time and once again hear His command, “whatsoever He saith unto you, do it”, will you not submit to his loving call.
Never mind whether or not the mission will be a success. Isaiah was told by God that his hearers would not receive his message, but he must go just the same. We are not called to succeed, we are called to go. And when we go, He, our victorious Lord goes along.
”I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty and joy to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. For the world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of tiny pushes of each honest worker.” Helen Keller.
3. Lean On This Wayward man!
I say that because we see John draw deep on lessons learned while he walked with the Saviour. Sure, like the others he hit a bad patch and ran for his life when Jesus was arrested. It was enough to scatter even the bravest of men and women. But listen beloved, as we saw recently, failure need not be final.
A. Think About John’s Return!
Praise God there is always a way back. “There’s a way back to God from the dark paths of sin, and at Calvary’s cross is where we begin.” John began his return at the Cross!
Years ago President Theodore Roosevelt gave this penetrating call to commitment.
It’s not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming. The credit must go to the man who actually tries to do the deed, he knows great enthusiasm and great devotion and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly. Far better is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checked by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in a grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat. End quote!
John, I believe is beginning to realise through remorse and rebuke as he comes back to His dear Saviour’s side, this is not an easy road. I’m not sure exactly what it was that brought John back beneath the cross, but do you remember how it was with Peter. On that eventual evening Peter denied his Saviour, it was not a lecture that drew him back to his dear Lord, it was a look that sent him out weeping bitterly. Whatever it was that drew John back, he’s back to
where he can hear the voice of his blessed master, and he’s back to stay.
Oh, my dear brother and sister, stay within the sound of the master’s voice.
”If you keep watch over your hearts, and listen for the voice of God and learn of him, in one short hour you can learn more from him than you could learn from man in a thousand years.” Johann Tauler (1300-1361)
And he wants us to hear his voice so that we can speak like him, and my word, did John not do that very thing. Surely you cannot read his gospel, his Epistle or even the book of the revelation without being very conscious of the voice of our dear Saviour.
 
  Pastor Mark Thompson of Faribault, Minnesota, suffered terrible knife wounds from an assailant in his home, in October 1988. One of the many consequences of his difficult recovery was being forced to miss watching his son Chris run in the state cross-country championship meet. Pastor Thompson commissioned his brother Merv to go in his stead.
According to the account in the St. Paul Pioneer Press & Dispatch, Mark told his brother, “I can’t be there to see Chris run. So I want you there at the beginning of the race. Holler a lot. ... Then at the end, I want you to really cheer loudly. And I want you to make your voice sound like mine.”
Merv heeded the advice, and Chris ran a strong race, finishing second. Merv, also a pastor, discerned the theological truth in the story. “That’s what Jesus wants us to do.” he said. “Make your voice sound like mine.”
                   
  B. Think About John’s Restoration! 1 John 2 v 28.
”And now, little children, abide in Him; that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.”
In a remote Swiss village stood a beautiful church. It was so beautiful, in fact, that it was known as the Mountain Valley Cathedral. The church was not only beautiful to look at--with its high pillars and magnificent stained glass windows--but it had the most beautiful pipe organ in the whole region. People would come from miles away--from far off lands--to hear the lovely tones of this organ.
But there was a problem. The columns were still there--the windows still dazzled with the sunlight--but there was an eerie silence. The mountain valley no longer echoed the glorious fine-tuned music of the pipe organ.
Something had gone wrong with the pipe organ. Musicians and experts from around the world had tried to repair it. Every time a new person would try to fix it the villagers were subjected to sounds of disharmony--awful penetrating noises which polluted the air.
One day an old man appeared at the church door. He spoke with the sexton and after a time the sexton reluctantly agreed to let the old man try his hand at repairing the organ. For two days the old man worked in almost total silence. The sexton was, in fact, getting a bit nervous. Then on the third day--at high noon--the mountain valley once again was filled with glorious music. Farmers dropped their plows, merchants closed their stores--everyone in town stopped what they were doing and headed for the church. Even the bushes and trees of the mountaintops seemed to respond as the glorious music echoed from ridge to ridge.
After the old man finished his playing, a brave soul asked him how he could have fixed the organ, how could he restore this magnificent instrument when even the world’s experts could not. The old man merely said it was an inside job. “It was I who built this organ fifty years ago. I created it--and now I have restored it. That is what God is like. It is He who created the universe, and it is He who can, and will, and is in the process of restoring it. It is that same God who will restore us as we live beneath the cross of Christ. James S. Hewett.
C. Think About John’s Responsibility!
Beloved, if we are true followers of the Saviour then we have some responsibilities. And dear folks, one of the things restoration will do is cause us to sound right, look right and do right.
Now, we can do one of five things with respect to responsibilities!
1. We may shirk our responsibilities! Hope somebody does for us.
2. We may shelve our responsibilities! Do them another time.
3. We may shoulder our responsibilities! Wear ourselves out doing them.
(Murray McShane, on his death bed said, “the Lord gave me a message and horse to carry that message across the country, but I’ve killed the horse”)
4. We may shed our responsibilities! Give up half way through.
5. We may share our responsibilities! That I believe is God’s way.
The Lord Jesus took His responsibilities seriously and fulfilled them every one. That is I believe what He calls us His children to do, nothing less, nothing more, nothing else. As we stand around the Cross today, let me leave this one last thought with you. What if Jesus had not fulfilled all His responsibilities?
”For anything worth having one must pay the price; and the price is always work, patience, love, self-sacrifice-no paper currency, no promises to pay, but the gold of real service.” John Burroughs.
Jesus keep me near the cross, there a precious fountain,
Free to all a healing stream, flows from Calvary’s mountain.
Near the cross I’ll watch and wait, hoping, trusting ever,
Till I reach the golden strand, just beyond the river.
 
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At The Cross! At The Cross! No. 4
Silence: Our Suffering Saviour Is Speaking!
Reading Matthew Ch. 27 v 35-46.

  
 
  Introduction:
A.W. Tozer said, “If we are wise, we will do what Jesus said: endure the cross and despise its shame for the joy that is set before us. To do this is to submit the whole pattern of our life to be destroyed and built again in the power of an endless life. And we shall find that it is more than poetry, more than sweet hymnody and elevated feeling. The cross will cut into our lives where it hurts worst, sparing neither us nor our carefully cultivated reputation. It will defeat us and bring our selfish life to an end.”
End quote!
You see beloved, there is nothing gentle or tender about the cross, it will cut deep into our lives where it matters most. If we are prepared to take up our cross and follow Jesus then we will bear the marks and scars of the cross. Be assured it will be painful.
Yet once Immanuel’s orphaned cry the universe hath shaken,
It went up single, echoless, “My God, I am forsaken”
It went up from His Holy lips amid His lost creation
That no one else need ever cry that cry of desolation.
This fourth saying is so very different from any of the others, for this saying displays the depth of amazing agony our dear Saviour knew on that old rugged cross.
Martin Luther once sat motionless for hours, as if in a trance. Denying himself food and drink, he remained absorbed in deep contemplation. Finally, he stood up and exclaimed, “God forsaken of God! Who can understand that?” End quote!
If we were to take a random survey of people in our western society concerning their ideas and images of Jesus, it would, I believe, yield an amazing variety of opinions about Him. Many would have a Christmas view of Him as a baby in a manger. Some would think of Him as an intelligent child.
Others would imagine Him as a young boy working hard in His Father’s carpenter’s shop. Some would dwell on that occasion when he confounded the religious teachers in Jerusalem. Some would see Him as the gentle, loving teacher who identified with the common people. Others would view Him as a compassionate but powerful healer who could cure all physical and emotional ailments and could even go as far as raising the dead. Yet other answers I am sure would give us some legitimate piece of the picture of who Jesus really was; yet all of those would be totally incomplete.
One image of the Lord Jesus Christ is the truest and most necessary perception of Him, that is the image that presents Him as the suffering Jesus, the crucified one.
Paul’s words in 1 Cor. 2 v 2 emphasise this very thought.
”For I am determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified”
And dear folks that is the very graphic picture we have of our dear Saviour in this amazing fourth word from the cross, He is without doubt ‘The Suffering One’ may I say, not a picture we all like to think about, yet we should!
I believe that’s the reason Peter was so graphic in his epistle. 1 Peter 2 v 20-23
”For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God.
For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:
”Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth”;
who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously;” (NKJ)
According to Peter, Christians are at odds with the world, simply because they have been called by Christ. By standing with Christ, sooner or later we will suffer some form of unjust rejection, punishment, criticism, or even persecution. We offend the world when we take a stand for righteousness or manifest a lifestyle that reflects Christ. That’s why we have to expect suffering. Jesus Himself promised His believing people that their union with Him would elicit the same kind of hostility and suffering He received.
 
  John 15 v 18-21.
”If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.” (KJV)
  
     
  And this fourth saying is cementing all He had taught His disciples, reminding them and us; He is the suffering one. Now it’s happening and His amazing cry from the cross allows us to gaze, at least in some small measure, into the depths of those incredible sufferings.
Allow me to try and unpack this wonderful yet amazing saying for you!
I trust you will realise with me as we try to fathom this saying, above all the others we see this one as the one shrouded in the deepest of mystery. I fear at times, even the most wonderful theologians cannot depth the amazing mysteries that lie behind this very powerful utterance from the lips of our dear Saviour.
1. Hear This Saying From Jesus’ Point Of View!
Some of the scholars would tell us that Jesus was simply identifying with the experience of the Psalmist in the opening verse of Psalm 22. They argue that our Lord’s desolation was wholly internal and subjective. That cry belonged only to His inner feeling and perception, they say.
Well if that is true then our Lord did not, whatever he had to suffer on that old rugged cross, pay the full penalty for sin, and that view is totally unbiblical.
This fourth word from the cross has been designated in many ways. It has been called “The Cry of Desolation,” “The Cry of Desertion,” “The Cry of Dereliction,” “The Cry of Despair,” “The Cry of Desperation.”
Try as you may to describe it, never forget it was, in fact, the Lord Jesus who spoke it and we ought not to look lightly upon it. This word from the cross deserves more than a passing glance. It calls for some solemn thought and prayerful meditation.
You have noticed I am sure that three of these cries from the cross were prayers addressed to God. The first and third prayers Jesus speaks to God in what seems to be His favourite mode of speech to His Father. “Father” but in this fourth word from the cross there is a different mode adopted, he says, “My God” “My God.” Now I am not quite sure why such a change takes place. I read in John 17 when Jesus is speaking he uses the terms “Father” “Holy Father” “Righteous Father”, and yes, he frequently referred to the Father as “God” but only when speaking to others about Him.
So when Jesus on the cross addresses God in this fashion in the fourth saying, it does without any doubt present a very real mystery.
Dr. H. Lockyer says, “Here it is ‘God,’ for He appeals to divine righteousness. Somewhere in the darkness He feels pushed out of the Father’s heart in a desolate forest. Yet He clings to divine righteousness. In spite of the mystery of the moment He knew that God must be doing right.” End quote!
His Father’s favour was temporarily withdrawn. Laden with the sins of others, the sinless one sank into the lowest depths of hell as the waves and billows of God’s wrath swept over Him.
John Duncan was a divinity professor in Edinburgh, Scotland, more that one hundred years ago. A master of Hebrew, he was called Rabbi Duncan by his students. Referring to Psalm 22 v 1 in class one day, he asked his students, “Ay, ay, d’ye know what it was—dying on the cross, forsaken by His Father—d’ye know what it was? What! What!… It was Damnation—and He took it lovingly.” End quote!
2. Hear This Saying From God’s Point Of View!
Here is a strange paradox indeed! Christ “the light of the world” (John 8 v 12), “the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1 v 9), is Himself suspended in the darkness between heaven and earth as though fit for neither. Christ’s words and the darkness from which He uttered them, are to all humanity the deepest of mystery. Is it not amazing! God left His Son in the darkness and yet never left us, His people, in darkness.
Exodus 10:21-23
”And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt.
And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days:
They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.” (KJV)
  
 
  Now dear folks, that was a darkness to behold, but at Calvary, God’s beloved Son, in whom He was well pleased, hung in supernatural darkness, a million times darker than the ninth plague that befell Egypt, and that was a darkness which could be felt. He saved Israel from Egypt’s dark judgement, but His only Son He permitted to pass through the outer darkness. I say again, it is a profound mystery. And yet when we hear this fourth saying from God’s point of view we are left in no doubt, God knew exactly what He was doing.
On the cross Jesus endured God’s wrath against sin. That is what this awful cry
is all about, that is what this cry of abandonment means. Never for one moment, although God poured out upon our dear Saviour His mighty wrath for sin, must we imagine that God was angry with Jesus. Angry with the sin He bore? Yes! Angry with the Son who bore it? Never!
Do you think our God changes His mind with respect to His beloved Son?
At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry when coming up out of the waters of baptism, at the end of Jesus’ ministry at the transfiguration, God testified, “ This is my beloved son, the beloved with whom I am well pleased” Matthew 3 v 17 & Matthew 17 v 5.
Jesus went to the cross in obedience to the Father’s will.
   
  A. He Went To The Cross As A Servant! Isa. 42 v 1.
”Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgement to the Gentiles.” (KJV)
Jesus went to the cross in order to Express God’s Word, Extend God’s Hand, To Exult God’s Salvation. He went as Jehovah’s servant or Jehovah’s slave.
Phil 2:6-8
”Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” (KJV)
God sets Jesus up as the most wonderful example of slave like obedience to all He desired for Him that those who would follow this same God would follow Jesus’ example. And the Father says, “Behold my Son, Servant, Slave” follow Him!
”All my requests are lost in one, Father, thy will be done!”
Charles Wesley.
”Faith and obedience are bound up in the same bundle. He that obeys God, trusts God; and he that trusts God, obeys God.” C. H. Spurgeon.
”If for one whole day, quietly and determinedly, we were to give ourselves up to the ownership of Jesus and to obeying his orders, we should be amazed at its close to realise all he had packed into that one day.”
Oswald Chambers.
B. He Went To The Cross As A Substitute! Isa. 42 v 1. “Mine Elect”
Jesus was the Offering for sin God had demanded; He was also the Sacrifice for sin man needed. He was in essence our substitute! J.T.Badclay, in his book, ‘The Russian Conquest of the Caucasus,’ tells of a brave and powerful leader called Shamil. He was of the tribes of Dagestan! While trying to maintain the independence of his people, on one occasion when defeatism was prevalent among his countrymen, made a proclamation that whoever would contend for capitulation with the Russians would be beaten with a hundred heavy lashes. An offender was caught. To Shamil’s embarrassment and grief he found it to be his own mother. Following a period of fasting, prayer and meditation, he instructed that the penalty should be executed. After the fifth stroke, however, he stopped the executioner, had his mother withdrawn, and then baring his own back, insisted on taking the full weight of all the remaining 95 strokes. His tribesmen were so impressed by their leader’s justice, sincerity and willingness to suffer that no one again mentioned negotiations with the enemy.
God says, He is My Elect, and as such I trust Him to do my will, I can depend on Him at all times and in all situations to be my slave like, willing servant.
Col 3:12-13
”Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.” (KJV)
Beloved, as the Elect of God, here is the pattern for life! A willing, humble submissiveness to all the will of God, whatever it may be!
C. He Went To The Cross As A Sacrifice! Isa. 42 v 1.
”In whom my soul delighteth”
Never was any son or daughter so pleasing to their Father as Jesus was to His Father when this cry of dereliction burst forth from His fevered lips.
It’s true to say, on the cross Jesus suffered the effect of God’s anger, His judgement on sin which you and I deserve, but He did not suffer God’s displeasure toward Himself.
And dear folks just as the Father was well pleased with the Son, so the Son trusted the father. Listen to Peter, 1 Peter 4 v 19.
”Therefore, let those also who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right”
 
  The word “entrust” is a banking term that means, “to deposit for safekeeping.”
Peter presents God not only as the one who is faithful but also as the one who is Sovereign. He allows such suffering as His overall plan and purpose. Therefore it is only logical and reasonable that Peter’s readers be urged to trust God through their time of suffering. If we have the same kind of submission, obedience, and sacrificial service that Jesus had then we will do likewise.
Jerry Bridges offers this additional insight regarding the challenge of trusting in God during times of suffering.
”To trust God in times of adversity is admittedly a hard thing to do… Trusting God is a matter of faith, and faith is the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5 v 22). Only the Holy Spirit can make His Word come alive in our hearts and create faith, but we can choose to look to Him to do that, or we can choose to be ruled by our feelings of anxiety or resentment or grief.” End quote!
As we hear this saying from God’s point of view we realise afresh God looks for that faith and trust in us just as He looked for it in His Son!
       
  3. Hear This Saying From The Christian’s Point Of View!
From the believer’s viewpoint, this fourth saying from the cross is without doubt the most wonderfully amazing utterance ever heard.
Why, these words assure us that in Christ we have been redeemed forever from God’s judgement on our sin. Romans 8 v 1 Paul puts it like this.
”There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
The Lord Jesus Christ endured the full and final penalty of our sin and in so doing satisfied all the claims of God’s justice against us. He drained the cup! That bitter cup, love drank it up! So that today all that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and are born again are totally acquitted, pardoned, forgiven, completely and forever. Praise the Lord!
The hymn writer said it well in the following words.
”If thou hast my discharge procured,
And freely in my room endured
The whole of wrath divine,
Payment God cannot twice demand,
First at my bleeding Surety’s hand,
And then again at mine.
George Matheson, a wonderful nineteenth-century Scottish pastor and hymn writer, was born with an eye defect that developed into total blindness by the time he was eighteen. Shortly thereafter, his fiancée left him, deciding she would not be content to be married to a blind man. And so it was in response to one of the gloomiest episodes of his life that Matheson penned his great hymn about the security of God’s love, “O Love that Wilt Not Let Me Go.” Spurned by what he thought was true love, he sought and found solace in the unchanging love of God.
O love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee.
I give thee back the life I owe
That in thine ocean-depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
Surely as we listen to this wonderful fourth saying from the cross we understand, as never before, God’s love has no parallel in human experience. God’s love is a powerful, immutable love that extends from eternity past to eternity future. It is a love that can never be deterred by our race’s sinful rebellion against God. Because of this, the love of God pursues and redeems us even when we are morally and spiritually reprehensible and unworthy of His love in every way: “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” Romans 5 v 8.
In other words, this fourth saying from the cross reminds us, God’s love is so great that He would stop at nothing to redeem those whom He loved, even though it meant giving His own beloved Son. In fact, the love of God is the supreme guarantee of the believer’s security.
As for that which is beyond your strength, be absolutely certain that our Lord loves you, devotedly and individually, loves you just as you are. Accustom yourself to the wonderful thought that God loves you with a tenderness, a generosity, and an intimacy that surpasses all your dreams. Give yourself up with joy to a loving confidence in God and have courage to believe firmly that God’s action toward you is a masterpiece of partiality and love. Rest tranquilly in this abiding conviction.
Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill, And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry,
Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky.
4. Hear This Saying From The Unbeliever’s Point Of View!
From the unbeliever’s point of view, this fourth saying from the cross must surely strike the most solemn warning a Holy God has ever given to those who have not turned from their sins to Christ for Salvation.
John Blanchard’s book, “Whatever Happened To Hell?” when published some years back, certainly rocked the evangelical world. Many so call Evangelical Christians have come to a point, although not saying it outwardly, believe inwardly that perhaps we really have got it wrong. Maybe there is no hell, or maybe it won’t, after all be eternal, perhaps it will be there for a time and then God in His love and Great Mercy will obliterate it forever.
Many of God’s dear people have, whether realising it or not, slipped into the unbeliever’s mode of thinking with respect to Hell!
 
  Multitudes of people today live carefree, frivolous lives; never giving thirty seconds thought to the place called eternity. They most certainly do not give much time or thought to this place called Hell. Well, Heaven, now that’s a different thing altogether. Most people, if honest, in the secret recess of their hearts want to think that after all is said and done they will be granted a place in heaven. Oh, I know there are many who call themselves Atheistic in belief, but let me tell you friends, listen to the testimony of a stewardess on any flight and ask her thoughts with respect to her passengers in a time of trouble or turbulence during a flight and she will testify to the fact that if any climbed on board that flight with atheistic convictions, during that time of fear and falling descent there were no atheistic beliefs to be found. Suddenly, everybody, but everybody finds a need to pray!
 
                   
  “The Scripture makes it clear that man is condemned eternally. A. A. Hodge in his theology says there is no word more emphatic for eternal than the one used of hell in the New Testament. Leon Morris says the word was applied to an age that was never to end. Ajith Fernando in his
outstanding book, A Universal Homecoming, reminds us that sixty-four times the same word is used to remind us of heaven’s eternality. “Would it not be logical to conclude that in the seven occurrences of ‘eternal’ to describe the antithesis of these blessings (eternal punishment), the idea is that of duration without end?” Hell’s eternality is also talking of an unending, physical, real separation from God.” End quote!
Ravi Zacharias, “The Lostness of Humankind,”
My dear friends, as I hear again and again this fourth saying from the cross, I hear in those words the Saviour’s most tender appeal to those without the knowledge of sin’s forgiven. Take refuge from the tidal waves of God’s Holy Wrath and Retribution in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ and do it now. Let me remind you beloved, there is no place to hide from God but in God, not now, not ever.
Paul reminds us in Romans 8 v 32!
”He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things/”
Consider what God’s love for us has already cost Him: He gave His own beloved Son to die in order to accomplish our Salvation. Having paid so great a price to redeem, He won’t allow the process to stop short of the goal. And if He has already given His best and dearest on our behalf, why would He withhold anything from us now?
For the believer this wonderful fourth saying shouts at us, trust me at all times and in all things. For the unbeliever this amazing saying shouts out at us trust me for time and eternity!
”All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson.
 
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At the Cross! At The Cross! No. 5.
Silence: Our Suffering Saviour Is Speaking!
Reading John Ch. 19 v 26-29.

  
 
  Introduction:
It’s interesting that John passes over the three hours of darkness surrounding the Cross lasting from noon until three o’clock in the afternoon. Rather he draws our attention to another amazing action and saying from the Cross!
John 19 v 28.
”After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst”
I say interesting, because what Jesus is doing here is absolutly amazing. In the midst of his deepest hour of suffering, shame and ignominy once again we find Him in his heart and mind searching the Scriptures, ensuring that all Scripture surrounding Himself and the Cross-work were complete. He would honour His father come what may or what must.
The word in our text “fulfilled” is the word in the original teleioo (“consummated”). And as our dear Saviour hangs on that Old Rugged Cross He is observing one after another the fulfilment of the Scriptures that foretold various aspects of His suffering. He had been crucified, and His hands and feet pierced Psalm 22 v 16. His enemies had mocked Him, using the very words of the psalmist Psalm 22 v 8. The soldiers had gambled for His garment Psalm 22 v 18. He had been abandoned by God and had cried out Psalm 22v1.
But here is yet another Scripture that has not yet been fulfilled, the prediction of Psalm 69 v 21. In order that the whole prophetic picture concerning His death would be complete, He cries out, “I thirst.”
The people who hanged Christ never accused Him of being a bore; on the contrary, they thought Him too dynamic to be safe. It has been left for later generations to muffle up that shattering personality and surround Him with the atmosphere of tedium. We have very efficiently pared the claws of the Lion of Judah, certified Him “meek and mild,” and recommended Him as a fitting
household pet for pale curates and pious old ladies. To those who knew Him, however, He in no way suggested a milk-and-water person; they objected to Him as a dangerous firebrand. True, He was tender to the unfortunate, patient with honest inquirers, and humble before heaven; but He insulted respectable clergymen by calling them hypocrites; He referred to King Herod as “that fox”; He went to parties in disreputable company and was looked upon as a “gluttonous man and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners”; He insulted indignant tradesmen and threw them and their belongings out of the Temple, He showed no proper deference for wealth or social position; when confronted with neat dialectical traps, He displayed a paradoxical humour that affronted serious-minded people, and He retorted by asking disagreeable questions that could not be answered by rule of thumb,-- But He had a “daily beauty in his life that made us ugly,” and officialdom felt that the established order of things would be more secure without Him. So they did away with God in the name of peace and quietness.
But beloved, when Jesus cried out “I thirst” He was giving notice to all Heaven, all Hell, and all Humans that He was indeed-----
1. The Suffering Son Of Man!
This most surely must have been the deepest and severest time of physical suffering He had ever experienced.
He had suffered such amazing agony in Gethsemane’s Garden! He had suffered in those harrowing hearings before Caiaphas and Annas! He had suffered public humiliation in those mock trials before Pilate and Herod. He had suffered fearsome scourging with a Roman lash! He had a spiked crown pressed upon His head until the blood flowed free! He had been made to carry that heavy cross of wood in an ongoing weakening state! He was eventually laid flat on that same cross of wood and had massive nails pierced through His flesh! He was hung upon that awful Roman gibbet in the heat of the noonday sun and through the three hours of the deepest darkness this world had ever
known. But of all the physical agonies that come to a human body, thirst must surely be the most painful, I am told it is beyond the power of words to describe or explain. Without doubt, Jesus Christ was suffering Physically!
But here is a point worth thinking about from a worthy preacher of the past.
  
 
  “All thought worth thinking is conceived in the furnace of suffering.” Bishop Thomas Carlyle.
God is a Master Artist. And there are aspects of your life and character-good, quality things-he wants others to notice. So without using blatant tricks or obvious gimmicks, God brings the cool, dark contrast of suffering into your life. That contrast, laid up against the golden character of Christ within you, will draw attention . . . to him. Light against darkness. Beauty against affliction. Joy against sorrow. A sweet, patient spirit against pain and disappointment-major contrasts that have a way of attracting notice. You are the canvas on which he paints glorious truths, sharing beauty, and inspiring others. So that people might see him. Joni Eareckson Tada.
You see dear people, what is taking place on this old rugged cross when our dear Saviour cries out “I thirst” among other things is, He is identifying with His dear believing people in all their suffering. He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
Have ever you felt like Solomon? Eccl. 2 v 20.
”Therefore I turned my heart and despaired of all the labour in which I had toiled under the sun.”
Have you ever been there? Is it worth going on? Whatever I do simply turns back upon me and I feel like crying out, Vanity of Vanities.
Listen beloved, because our dear Saviour has suffered, He knows!
     
  He knows exactly what we are going through. Therefore he says to us “My son give me thine heart” Proverbs 23 v 26. You see it was His heart of love and willing sacrifice to plum the depth of suffering that He might understand our suffering which was given. It’s like deep calling unto deep! The deep of His suffering calling unto the deep of our suffering saying, I know, I understand, I have been there, I am touched with those deep feelings of your infirmities.
The Lord Jesus gave His heart and he says unto us, “give me your heart” If we are to understand Him, to know Him, then we need to give up our hearts to Him because heads don’t make good martyrs.
The Duke of Windsor, then prince of Wales, arranged to visit a hospital in London where some of the sorest wounded and mutilated soldiers in the First Great World War were being treated. The medical superintendent met him and was showing him round. ‘I hear you have in this hospital some of the worst wounded men from the war,’ said the prince. ‘How many altogether?’ On learning that there were 36, the prince asked to be permitted to go round their ward and see them all. He was taken into a ward, and saw badly wounded soldiers all lying as comfortably as it was possible to make them and receiving the very best of attention. He went around the ward stopping at every bed with a cheery word, asking about relatives, wives and families, encouraged them with words of hopefulness and a thank you for their sacrifice. Then, turning to the Medical Officer, he said, ‘Doctor! You told me there were 36 badly wounded men: I have only seen 30 in this ward. Where are the other six?’ ‘Your Highness!’ said the doctor, ‘the others are in such pitiable condition that we thought it well to spare you the pain of visiting them.’ ‘But doctor, I must see them all, every one.’ So they went into another ward where lay five men, terribly wounded and disfigured, some of them blind, some having lost limbs, and all just physical wrecks. The Prince was deeply moved, and showed his affection for every man there. ‘But where is the thirty-sixth man?’ he asked. ‘I must see him also.’ The medical Superintendent, realising that the Prince was not to be put off, led him into a side ward in which lay a young man of nineteen in a dreadful condition—blind, disfigured, maimed—a wreck of a fine physique he had once possessed. The Prince, stooping down, kissed the young man on the forehead, and as he rose, with tears streaming his cheeks, he turned to the doctor and said, ‘Doctor, wounded for me, wounded for me.’ Lady Kinnaird.
Wherever I go I find dear people who are hurting. There is physical pain, emotional pain, matrimonial pain, family pain, financial pain and indeed spiritual pain. But my Lord, the Suffering Son of Man, who cried from the cross ‘I thirst’ has identified Himself with all our suffering, giving us encouragement to call on His name, to keep going on, not to turn back and quit when the way grows tough and weary. You see beloved, through His suffering there is Grace to help. He was wounded for me!
Grace to help you suffer, sacrifice, stand, supplicate, surrender and start again.
Through Christ Jesus there is Grace for every need.
”The grace of God is infinite and eternal. As it had no beginning, so it can have no end, and being an attribute of God, it is as boundless as infinitude.” A. W. Tozer.
”Grace can pardon our ungodliness and justify us with Christ’s righteousness; it can put the Spirit of Jesus Christ within us; it can help us when we are down; it can heal us when we are wounded; it can multiply pardons, as we through frailty multiply transgressions.” John Bunyan.
”Grace binds you with far stronger cords than the cords of duty or obligation can bind you. Grace is free, but when once you take it, you are bound forever to the Giver and bound to catch the spirit of the Giver. Like produces like. Grace makes you gracious, the Giver makes you give.” E. Stanley Jones.
2. The Sanctified Servant Of God!
Why did Jesus say ‘I thirst’? Why, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled!
John 4 v 34.
”My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work.”
Why was Jesus born in Bethlehem? That the Scriptures might be fulfilled!
Why was Jesus brought into Egypt? That the Scriptures might be fulfilled!
Why did Jesus go to Nazareth? That the Scriptures might be fulfilled!
Why did Jesus do what He did? That the Scriptures might be fulfilled!
Paul reminds us in Philippians 2 v 8.
”And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”
  
 
  The most important thing in the life of Jesus was to know and do the will of His Father. And dear folks, the most important thing in the life of every believer is to know the will of God and do it.
Paul puts it like this in Ephesians 6 v 6-8.
” Not with eye-service, as men-pleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men: knowing that whatsoever good any man doeth, the same shall receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.”
Now beloved, we need to mark this and mark it well. He is not talking here about running after people because of what they own nor have in the bank in the hope that you as an individual or indeed the church by way of legacy will benefit. He is talking about knowing and doing the will of God for His glory!
Even in the midst of our dear Saviour’s suffering He was doing the will of God from the heart, He was in every respect the Sanctified Servant of God and would obey the will of His Father completely.
       
  Why are you doing the job you are just now? Is it the will of God?
Why are you making those plans just now? Are they the will of God?
Why are you doing that course or studies? Is it the will of God?
Why have you maintained that relationship? Is it the will of God?
Why are you making those changes? Are they the will of God?
Why are you using your money like that? Is it the will of God?
Why are you changing homes? Is it the will of God?
In other words is your life lived in the centre of the will of God?
The hymn writer put it well when he penned----
When we walk with the Lord, in the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey!
Trust and obey! For there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.
”If for one whole day, quietly and determinedly, we were to give ourselves up to the ownership of Jesus and to obeying His orders, we should be amazed at its close to realise all he had packed into that one day.”
Oswald Chambers.
”No bliss I seek, but to fulfil, In life, in death, thy lovely will;
No succour in my woes I want, Except what thou art pleased to grant.
Our days are numbered-let us spare, Our anxious hearts a needless care;
‘Tis thine to number out our days, And ours to give them to thy praise.” Madame Guyon.
A visitor at a school for the auditory impaired was writing questions on the blackboard for the children. By and by he wrote this sentence; “Why has God made me to hear and speak, and made you without hearing and speech?” That awful sentence fell upon the little ones like a fierce blow. They sat palsied before that dreadful “Why?” Eventually a little girl rose from her seat, lips trembling, eyes swimming with tears, straight to the blackboard she walked, picked up the chalk, wrote with firm hand these precious words. “Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight!” What a reply! It reaches up and lays hold of an eternal truth upon which the maturest believer as well as the youngest child of God may alike securely rest—the truth that God is your Father and all He allows in the life is only to help, never to hurt. Arthur Christopher Bacon.
Our dear Saviour’s suffering on that old rugged cross was of the severest kind and would lead ultimately to death. Humanly speaking, how can anyone fathom that? To think that God the Father would allow His beloved Son to suffer and bleed and die for you and for me, mystery of mysteries!
That amazing action reinforces for us that whatever God allows in our lives is only for our good and His glory.
No chance hath brought this ill to me; ‘Tis God’s own hand, so let it be,
He seeth what I cannot see. There is a need-be for each pain,
And He one day will make it plain that earthly loss is heavenly gain.
Like as a piece of tapestry viewed from the back appears to be
Naught but threads tangled hopelessly;
But in the front a picture fair rewards the worker for his care,
Proving his skill and patience rare.
Thou art the workman, I the frame. Lord for the glory of thy name,
Perfect thine image on the same. (Unknown)
Is this how we react in everything we do? What a blessing life would become!
Do we really believe that God is our Father and we are here to do His will?
Beloved, if we do, then the dove of your faith will no longer wander in unrest but will settle down forever in it’s eternal resting place of peace—”Your Father.” Yes, there is a cost to doing the Father’s will, but let me tell you dear friend, there is an even greater cost to not doing the Father’s will. For there is always a high cost to low living!
  A travelling man came into a hotel to secure a room for the night. Upon being informed that every room in the building had been taken, he was naturally quite perturbed, until a portly gentleman standing nearby kindly offered to share his room with him. The offer was thankfully accepted.
Upon retiring, the portly man knelt and prayed, tenderly mentioning his guest for the night in his petition. In the morning his host informed him that it was his custom to read a portion of the Word of God and pray before taking up the responsibilities of the day. The effect upon the man was moving; a strange feeling came over him; something had been working in his heart all the night. When gently pressed by this stranger to accept the Lord Jesus as his personal Saviour, his resistance went down in a heap. A soul had been won for Christ!
But who is this humble ambassador of Christ, who so strikingly resembles a member of President Wilson’s cabinet? When business cards were exchanged before parting, to the guest’s amazement he read,
“William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of State.”
Jesus said, “I Thirst” that the Scriptures might be fulfilled and souls saved. What in His will am I doing that the Scriptures might be fulfilled and souls saved?
Resolved: “That all men should live for the glory of God.” Resolved second: “That whether others do or not, I will.” Jonathan Edwards.
  
                     
  3. The Satisfying Saviour Of Sinners!
When our Suffering Saviour uttered those never to be forgotten words on the cross, “I Thirst”, there was much more involved in that utterance than mere physical thirst. We will most certainly miss the full import of His amazing words if we fail to understand their spiritual content.
There can be no doubt at all, in His humanity He did crave refreshment for His body, but as the Holy One His cry goes way beyond the human. You see, because He is also the Holy One there is within Him a deep spiritual thirst for the souls of men and women. This cry reveals for us a strange mixture of both the human and the divine, we must never forget, on that old rugged cross he was the God-Man, and never at any time did He lay aside His deity.
The whole purpose of Christ’s coming to this sin-stained earth was of course that He might rescue sinners from the awful judgement of hell.
Matthew 20 v 28. “Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many”
Mark 2 v 17. “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Luke 19 v 10. “For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save the lost.”
He had a deep concern about our spiritual welfare; His whole life was given to seek men and women because of their lostness.
As He moves ever closer to the cross Mark reminds us in Chapter 6 v 34.
”And Jesus, when He came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things.”
That compassion never waned and the cross was His final demonstration on earth of that compassion.
There are those ongoing, unbelieving critics of our dear Saviour who maintain that Jesus must be either divine or human. But they only dig a deep pit for themselves. You see a merely human Jesus could not have died as our Lord did. Why, right to the very end He was reaching out to dear souls lost and dying. He prayed for forgiveness for the very crowd that crucified Him, He led the dying thief to faith and belief during those last few breast heaving moments.
On that old rugged cross as Jesus hangs between heaven and earth as though fit for neither we can see clearly the relation of the two natures in Christ.
Dr, Lehman Strauss says:
”In His composite personality the two natures of Christ are so united that it is perfectly correct to say that Jesus thirsted and God thirsted. The Holy Spirit reminds us that Christ’s enemies did not crucify merely a man, but “the Lord of Glory” (1Cor. 2 v 8). The thirst of Deity is the age-long desire in the heart of God to bring men to Himself, and Calvary is the full and final exhibition of His holy compassion.” End quote!
Consider Christ’s meeting with the dear woman at the well in John chapter 4. It’s true, He asked her for a drink to quench His thirst, but more than that He had a thirst for this dear lady’s soul. His desire was her Salvation. Listen to His winning words, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink; thou wouldst ask of him, and He would give thee living water” (John 4 v 10). Yes, He stopped at that well for a drink of water, but it was also that He might give to the woman the water of life. He thirsted to deliver her from the thirst of hell.
C.H. Spurgeon tells the following story which occurred in his day.
 
  The sharp shrill cry of “Acqua! Acqua!” constantly pierces the ear of the wanderer in the towns of Italy. The man who thus invites your attention bears on his back a burden of water, and in his hand glasses to hold the cooling liquid. In the streets of London he would find little patronage, but where fountains are few and the days are hot as an oven, he earns a livelihood and supplies a public need. The water-dealer is a poor old man bent sideways by the weight of his daily burden. He is worn out in all but his voice, which is truly startling in its sharpness and distinctness. At our call he stops immediately, glad to drop his burden on the ground, and smiling in prospect of a customer. He washes out a glass for us, fills it with sparkling water, receives payment with manifest gratitude, and trudges away across the square, crying still, “Acqua! Acqua!”
That cry, shrill as it is, has sounded sweetly in the ears of many a thirsty soul, and will for ages yet to come, if throats and thirst survive so long. How forcibly it calls to mind the Saviour’s favourite imagery, in which he compares the grace which he bestows on all who diligently seek it to “living water.” And how much that old man is like the faithful preacher of the Word, who, having filled his vessel at the well, wears himself out by continually bearing the burden of the Lord, and crying, “Water! Water!” amid crowds of sinners who must drink or die. Instead of the poor Italian water-bearer, we see before us the man of God, whose voice is heard in the chief places of concourse, proclaiming the divine invitation, “Ho, every one that thirsts, come to the waters!” until he grows grey in the service, and people say, “Surely those aged limbs have need of rest.” Yet he does not court rest, but pursues his task of mercy, never laying down his charge till he lays down his body, and never ceasing to work until he ceases to live. End quote!
Dear believer, have you lost your way in this Old World because you have long since ceased to drink deeply from the rock that is Christ? Are you panting for spiritual life, are you fighting for spiritual breath, then the wonderful
Saviour we hear crying “I Thirst” is able to quench your thirst and bring again satisfaction back into your lifestyle.
Dear sinner, that same Saviour says to you, if you thirst, come and drink of the water of life freely and be satisfied for time and eternity! Won’t you come?
O what a Saviour that He died for me! From condemnation He hath made me free;
He that believeth on the Son, saith He, hath everlasting life.
 
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At The Cross! At The Cross! No. 6.
Silence: Our Suffering Saviour Is Speaking!
Reading John Ch. 19 v 26-30.
 
  Introduction:
Those who teach us Greek keep reminding us that the ancient Greeks had a great ability to say much in a few words. Someone put it like this,
“They could put a sea of matter in a drop of language.”
A well-known Greek motto says ‘Much in little’.
Now folks, if only in some small way today, we can draw much out of the little
we have to say around the cross and this sixth saying of the cross, ‘It is finished’ (Greek: Tetelestai) how blessed will our meeting together be?
During the past years few biographies have influenced young Christians more than Hudson Taylor. We might well ask, what was his secret? Well, here it is in his own words. “The Lord was looking for a man weak enough to use and he found me.”
This from Dr. Vance Havner.
”God is on the lookout for candidates with hearts perfect toward him. He is not a talent scout looking for somebody strong enough or good enough. He is looking for someone with a heart set on pleasing Him and an eye single to His glory, He will do the rest.” End quote!
In other words God is looking even today for a Caleb like ‘Great Heart’ to serve Him!
Remember Caleb was one of the twelve spies sent to spy out the land of Canaan. On their return, Joshua and he brought back the same report but the other ten brought a different report, and the majority won the day. (By the way a report that leads us to realise that the majority is not always right.) Nonetheless, it was decided to act on their report, yet for all those intervening years we read of Caleb’s Quest, he wholly followed the Lord! When the moment was right Caleb comes back with his request, “give me this mountain.” When given the green light, Caleb went and conquered for God and took that mountain, and his Conquest became his Bequest!
This is the kind of individual our God is still looking for today.
This from D.L. Moody.
”We may easily be too big for God to use, never too small. Job 28 reminds us, The way of the wind is the way of easiest motion, the way of water is that of easiest coursing, the way of lightening is that of easiest yielding. In other words, the wind, water, and lightening take the line of least resistance. End quote!
Even so in the life of God’s dear people, the Holy Spirit seeks the line of least resistance to the will of God.
As we listen to this sixth saying, “It is Finished” it would appear that our Lord Jesus Christ is at His weakest point. In the eyes of those who stood around, this cry must have signalled the end. That’s it, it’s all over, He’s dying, He’s finished. Ah! Listen , listen, He did not say, “ I am finished” but “It is finished” “Tetelestai” is a cry of victory not defeat.
If only they had realised what was finished!
1. This Was The Consummation Of Prophetic Scripture!
John 19:28-30
”After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, 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: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.”
When Jesus said, “I thirst” not one single prophecy had failed. Yes, true, there still remained prophecies to be fulfilled.
a. The passing of His Spirit into the hands of His father Psalm 31 v 5.
b. The piercing of His body with the spear Zech. 12 v 10.
c. The preserving of His bones unbroken Psalm 34 v 20.
d. The placing of His body in the rich man’s grave Isa. 53 v 9.
But there remained nothing more for the Saviour to finish.
John 17 v 4.
”I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.”
  
 
  Dear brother, sister in Christ, when your life on earth comes to its finale will your work for eternity be finished. Will you, will I be able to say, the work you gave me to do is finished. Ah, pastor it’s not easy. Living for Jesus becomes more and more difficult, sometimes I wonder if I will ever finish the course never mind finish the work. Dear friend, you can both finish the course and finish the work God has allotted you to do. Here’s the secret, simple really.
As God adds years to your life let Him add life to your years!
And that is not written in there just to be a slick saying, I place those words there because it’s the only way we will finish our course and finish the work given us to do. Beloved, it’s only as we allow God that complete control of our lifestyle will we be those who truly overcome and bring Glory to our dear Saviour.
     
  An interesting piece of arithmetic landed on my desk some time ago, which is, I believe, worth repeating here. It was entitled, ‘The Scriptural life span of seventy years” 23 years earning wages, 24 years sleeping, 12 years watching T.V. 5 Years eating = total 64 years. Leaving only six years and sometimes God does not even get the left over!
And dear friends, if that’s how we are living then there is an amazing amount of waste, we desperately need God to add life to our years. How can such a thing happen you may ask?
John 12 v 24.
”Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it remains a single grain, but if it dies away in the ground the grain is free to spring up in a plant bearing many grains.”
The corn or grain of wheat is “kokkos”, signifying the seed corn of the wheat. All gardening and farming are founded on the principle that a seed has to be sown into the ground, that its germ of life can reproduce only when the seed is sown and dies. A grain of corn can never fulfil the “law of its being” apart from the process of death, burial, and reproduction in resurrection. “But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” The Lord could see himself multiplied in the ages to come as a result of His being obedient unto death.
John 12 v 25 reminds of us of an amazing paradox.
”He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto eternal life.”
The paradox is that death is the way to life. We must be so committed to Christ that there is no self-centredness, no concern for self. Why? Because of the principle that follows in John 12 v 26.
”If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there also shall my servant be.”
The paradox is part of a principle: every person has to determine which world
he or she intends to live for. We can live for Jesus and the world to come, and
be with Him for all eternity. Or we can live for this world and be the losers in eternity, as the next clause shows. v 26.
”If any man serve me, him will my Father honour.”
It is possible to have a saved soul, and a lost life. Many dear people have professed faith in God but have never served the Lord. At the judgement seat of Christ, those who have served will be honoured. The honoured will be those who have died martyrs’ deaths, those who have forsaken houses and lands, loved ones and friends, home and business, to serve Him in many different ways and places in this world. The honoured will be those who have gone forth weeping, bearing precious seed, they will be honoured by the Father.
Go to the old burying ground of North Hampton, Masseuses. U.S.A. Look up the early grave of David Brainerd, beside that of the fair Jerusha Edwards, whom he loved but did not live to wed.
What hopes, what exceptions for Christ’s cause went down to the grave with the wasted form of that young missionary of whose work nothing now remained but a dear memory and a few swarthy Indian converts?
But that majestic old puritan Jonathan Edwards, who had hoped to call him son, gathered up the memorial of his life in a little book. That little book took wings and flew across the seas, landing on the table of a Cambridge student called Henry Martyn. Poor Martyn! Why should he throw himself away, with all his scholarship, his genius and opportunities? What had he accomplished when he turned homeward from Indians coral strand, broken in health, dragging himself northward as far as the Togat by the black sea, where he crouched under the piled up rubble to cool his burning fever against the earth, and there die alone.
To what purpose this waste? Oh dear folks, out of that seeming waste, the early grave of Brainard and the lonely grave of Martyn have sprung up the Nobel
Army of missionaries we have known loved and prayed for, for many years.
When my life on earth is final, will my work for eternity be finished!
 
  The Consummation Of Prophetic Scripture:
1. The Culmination Of Personal Suffering!
One hesitates to attempt to depict the suffering of our Lord. We know so little of suffering ourselves; we can but turn to God’s Holy Word and glean what the Holy Spirit was pleased to write.
We do of course know that our Lord’s suffering was not confined to physical pain. There was the unutterable sorrow and anguish of both Spirit and Mind.
At Gethsemane He said to Peter, James and John. “ My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death.” Matt. 26 v 28.
He did suffer physically, the kind of suffering we can only imagine. He was holy, harmless, spotless and undefiled, showing love and kindness to all men everywhere He went. Yet He was misunderstood, criticised, threatened, beaten, spit upon, slapped, tortured, abused and finally condemned to die the shameful, ignominious death of a criminal on an old rugged cross.
John 10 v 11.
”I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.”
And in verse 13 of John ch.10 we are reminded that “The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.”
My beloved people please remember this; the good shepherd has given His life for you and me. Since that time He has supplied us with many undershepherds to care for us, that they may lead and feed us and give us the nourishment and guidance we need.
Now, allow me the liberty as an undershepherd to speak here to some that may be thinking of entering the ministry by way of life’s vocation. Becoming a minister, pastor or undershepherd is not a matter of looking over an assortment of professions such as law, medicine, physics, music, then saying, “I think I will become a preacher.” God is not running a cafeteria where you choose your favourite piece of pie and enjoy it. Believe me dear friend, you need to be certain that this is God’s calling for the whole of life. It may cost you dearly in many different ways and you must be prepared to pay the price. There may be times you get discouraged, defeated, denounced, degraded, and maybe even delirious, Ha! What I am saying is, this better be a calling for you or you may have some problems you will not be able to handle well for the good of people and the glory of God. That’s just a by the way!
Dear people, here is something I want you to take on board and remember well. Our Lord Jesus Christ, in His own suffering and death, is an unequalled example of the reality that one can be completely in the will of God, supremely gifted and used by God in ministry, and perfectly righteous and obedient toward God, and still undergo tremendous suffering. Our dear Saviour was tried and executed as a criminal, yet he had done no wrong. He was the ultimate subject of unjust suffering and punishment, and in so doing He gives the standard for how to respond to our unjust persecution. 		 
     
  The very nature and circumstances of Christ’s suffering exposes as utterly false the present-day notion that Christians who suffer are always sinning or out of God’s will. If Jesus, who was the perfect, sinless Son of God, suffered so much, then how can Christians who are so imperfect expect to escape all suffering? The answer is quite simply, we cannot! 1 Peter 2 v 20-23.
”For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.
For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:
Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:
Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:”
The theology of nonsuffering, if carried to its logical extreme, must claim that Jesus was out of God’s will when He died on the cross. Now folks, that kind of thinking is more that just flawed, it is absolutely heretical.
Peter in verse 21 puts it like this.
”For even hereunto were you called: because Jesus Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow his steps.”
The word “example” is the Greek word hupogrammos, which literally means “writing under.” It carried with it the idea of a young child learning to write the alphabet by putting a model under the writing surface and tracing the model. In the same way Christ is our model to trace as we anticipate suffering and how to handle it.
The word “steps” is the Greek ichnos, meaning “line of footprints” or “tracks.” We are to follow in Jesus’ tracks because the path to glory that He walked is the path of righteousness, and the path of righteousness in an unrighteous world is also a path of unjust suffering. If we are to be on the right path we are to follow His footprints.
Of course this idea parallels Paul’s admonition, “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” 2 Tim. 3 v 12. Not all Christians will suffer in the same way or to the same degree, but those who seek to walk the path of righteousness that leads to glory will discover many trails, adversity, and suffering.
Beloved, if we are going to wholly follow the Lord, there will be times when it will be difficult and we will feel like quitting, giving up.
Please allow me to use Jeremiah as an example.
Jeremiah 20 v 9.
”Then I said, I will not make mention of Him, nor speak in His name.”
But His Word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.”
Dear people, we need to understand something about this prophet, Jeremiah did not merely have to say something, he had something to say.
There is a vast difference between pouring out your heart and getting something off your chest. Jeremiah was without doubt a faithful prophet, the word of God burned in his heart like a fire, but every time he preached his people refused to listen. They made life unbearable, so he resigned! I have a feeling this is something he was thinking about for some time. Why, back in chapter 9 v 2 he said.
”Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men, that I might leave my people and go from them.”
He had been thinking of opening a bed and breakfast or motel in some little out of the way place just to get away from the people of God. They had broken his heart. But then the Word of God was like a Holy fire in his being and he just could not keep quiet, he could not after all, leave.
Yes, he could have just up and quit and resigned or he could have become resigned to the status quo and simply go along with things as they were. Not rise any heckles or annoy anyone, become one of the modern day Punch and Judy Christian side shows. Adjust to the modern ways and settle down and take things easy and not get excited about anything or anybody.
But there was a third thing he could do; he could let God re-sign his commission. Allow God to renew his zeal for following the Lord.
 
 
  Beloved, that’s the very thing you should be doing for your pastors daily! Praying that they be Jeremiahs with the Word of God on fire in their very bones and when they get weary in the work, while never weary of it, pray that God will renew them to even greater things.
Personal suffering is very hard to take, but be assured, always, it leads to blessing. Alan Redpath has a delightful book which puts these thoughts in prospective entitled ‘Blessings Out Of Buffetings’ based on 2 Corinthians, it really is worth reading.
Dear folks, the Lord Jesus suffered, not only to save, sanctify, satisfy and supply your every need, he suffered to have you shepherded through this waste howling wilderness of a world. And however difficult that is for the shepherd to carry out his task or for you to accept his task it is God’s way for His people in this age.
And by the way, how you respond to shepherding says mountains about your spiritual maturity!
       
  The Culmination Of Personal Suffering:
3. The Completion Of A Perfect Sacrifice!
When God gave instructions to Moses for the building of the Tabernacle in the wilderness, He made provision for every utensil and piece of furniture, interestingly though, made no provision for a chair. There was the Alter, laver, table, lamp, curtain, veil, and lampstand, but no chair, no place to sit down. You see there was never an end to the work necessary for the atonement of sins. It was sacrifice, sacrifice and more sacrifice, year in, year out, until the people might well have cried, “will the sacrifices never be finished?” must we always have before us a remembrance of sin?
Then one day this sin sick world’s redeemer came as a baby to Bethlehem’s manger. The whole purpose of His life was to die on the cross for the redemption of mankind, and that is exactly what He did.
Hebrews 10 v 14.
”For by one offering, He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.”
Oh the wonder of it all! Warren Wiersbe says,
“We must learn to wonder again. True wonder is not a passing emotion or some kind of shallow excitement. It has depth. True wonder reaches right into the heart and mind and shakes you up. It has value, it enriches your life, wonder is not a cheap amusement that brings a smile to your face, wonder is an encounter with God, and with a reality that brings awe to your heart. End quote!
The reason Jesus revealed Himself to His disciples for forty days after His glorious resurrection was to renew them to wonder. The wonder of worship, the wonder of witness, the wonder of work, the wonder of warfare and the wonder of winning.
John Bunyan said, “Rather let your heart be without words than your words be without heart.” End quote!
You see beloved; wonder will put heart back into your work for God.
That little group of 120 disciples went out from the upper room and saw three thousand souls won to Christ in Salvation. It almost seems today as though three thousand cannot win 120 souls to Christ. They did so much with so little!
That little handful recognised His presence in them, they believed His promise to them and they responded to His program through them.
When Billy Graham was invited to preach a gospel mission in a certain city, someone opposed his coming. Saying, “we do not Graham in this city, he will set evangelism back 200 years.” Later, Billy Graham was interviewed and told of the comment made by another preacher. “Well sir,” said Billy, “ I am sorry to hear that, but let me assure you it is not my intention to set evangelism back 200 years, it is my dearest desire to set evangelism back 2000 years. Back to a time when we allow God do His work through us as a spirit filled people.” End quote!
A pastor friend would keep a glove sitting on his office desk. Before going out to preach each service he would place that glove on his hand and flex his hand inside the glove. “Why?” said a bemused assistant pastor. “To remind me, it is only as the Holy Spirit fills and anoints me that I can be of any use on that platform.”
Make your self wholly available to Christ’s ability.
Here I am wholly available, as for me I will serve the Lord!
F.B. Meyer invited D.L. Moody to preach in his church in England. Meyer was somewhat ashamed of Moody’s way of speaking and his use of grammar, yet the power of God fell on those meetings during that amazing campaign. (Someone said of Moody, he may have murdered the King’s English but he never once disappointed the King.)
Visiting a lady from his congregation later, who was also a Sunday School teacher, Meyer said, “how is it with you today?” “Wonderful, since Mr. Moody came I have seen every girl in my Sunday School class saved through his ministry.” “I learned that day” said, F.B.Meyer, “only a man full of the Lord and full of His Word could be fully surrendered and used like that. I never was the same again.” said the good Doctor.
Beloved, our Lord had to make a complete sacrifice to finish the work His father had for Him to do; there was no other way. Thus the reason the Apostle
Paul calls on God’s people everywhere in Romans Chapter 12 v 1-2. to do the same.
”I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
  
 
  “A sacrifice is an offering placed before the Lord so that he can make something of it. Once offered it is in God’s hand to do with what he will. It is no longer in your hands to improve a little more. ... His will is to work with offerings, not your perfection’s or your press clippings. Just leave it. You have lived your day; now leave it on the altar, an offering.”
Eugene Peterson.
The Completion Of A Perfect Sacrifice:
4. The Conquest Over The Power Of Satan!
When Jesus said, “It is finished” he was saying I have conquered the very power of Satan.
Satan is the master deceiver, the mock angel disguised as an angel of light.
He does not plough up the wheat in our Lord’s parable, he plants tares that resemble wheat so closely that few seem to know the difference and the final separation is left to the angels.
When Moses performs miracles, Jannes and Jambres are on hand to match the performance 2 Tim. 3 v 8. Jesus repeatedly warned against deceivers appearing in the last days, and brothers and sisters, we desperately need to be warned against deceivers these days.
                   
  Remember Eve? Satan came with cunning enough to deceive even Eve.
Satan commenced with a doubt, “hath God said?”
Satan continued with a denial, “ye shall not surely die!”
Satan concluded with a delusion, “you will become as God’s!”
You will notice when Eve took her eyes off the Holy One and placed her eyes on the evil one everything began to fall apart.
Eve saw and Satan turned a look into a lust.
Eve took and Satan turned a desire into a decision.
Eve ate and Satan turned that choice into a chain.
Eve gave and Satan turned that sinner into a seducer.
(I draw this from Dr. John Phillips)
Satan is the great imitator and one of his devices is to simulate the work of God. And because many false prophets are gone out into the world we need much grace and wisdom in these last days to determine if the spirits be of God.
Some of these false imitators can duplicate to an amazing degree the work of God. Satan has a false gospel, false repentance, false dedication, false faith, false discipleship, false sanctification, and false everything else.
Weak Christians, not well read in the Holy Scriptures, will easily fall prey to modern magicians.
Sometimes the Aeroplane pilot can see little or nothing and must fly by instrument only. The Christian must do the same, that instrument is the Word of God and it guarantees a safe landing.
I conclude with this thought!
When my life on earth is final, will my work for eternity be finished?
 
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At The Cross! At The Cross! No.7.
Silence: Our Suffering Saviour Is Speaking!
Reading Luke Ch. 23 v 39-49.
 
  Introduction:
There is on record a story of a bygone King who had a Court Jester, who sometimes said very foolish things, at other times of course he would have said very wise things. On one occasion the Jester said something very foolish in the presence of the King, the King beckoned the Jester to his bedside and said, “Jester, I want you to take this staff of mine, I want you to keep it until you find a bigger fool than yourself.”
Some years later the King was lying very ill and indeed, dying. His courtiers, advisers, family, servants and others were called around his bed that they might witness the dying words of their King.
The King said to all gathered, one of which was the Court Jester, “I am going on a very long journey and I shall not return to this place, so I have called you all to my bedside to bid you farewell.” It came the Jesters turn to come near the King’s bed; “may I ask a question your Majesty?” “Of course Jester, ask away.” “Sire, when you have journeyed in the past you always sent ahead of you some of your servants to make preparations for you, what preparations has your Majesty made for this amazing journey?” “Alas!” replied the King; “I have made no preparations for my journey Jester.” “Then” said the Jester, take this staff with you Sire, for now I have found a bigger fool than myself.” A. Naismith.
We come now to this wonderful and powerful seventh saying from the lips of our dear Suffering Saviour on the cross.
”Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit!”
The preceding six sayings have been a great help and blessing to us for going through life, and how we all need that kind of help. This final saying is somewhat different in that it gives us great help in death, and my word we all need that kind of help when it comes to death that we glorify our dear Saviour even then. This final statement from our dear Saviour is a prayer. What an example this is to all of us. It is a wonderful thing when a persons thoughts and words flow Godward in dying moments, unlikely though if prayer was not our daily practice in life.
Dr. Lehman Strauss gives this very telling illustration.
”I read of a man who became famous through his restaurant business. He established eating places for thousands of miles from New York to California and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. When at last he was dying and on his deathbed, his family gathered about his bed to hear his final words. And while his last words may seem humorous, they were really tragic. As he lay dying he was heard to whisper over and over, cut the ham thin, cut the ham thin!” End quote!
There was nothing wrong with what he said. It means only that the ruling passion of his life showed up clearly at death.
Dear folks, over the years of my ministry I have stood by many a deathbed and listened to many different statements we could call deathbed sayings. Of this much I am sure, a deathbed without the presence of Jesus Christ is a fearsome place to be. It seems to me where almost all are concerned, people die as they live. Whatever takes their fancy in life is almost always what is on their minds at death and I tell you this, some of what is uttered around the deathbed is heart rending.
Listen beloved, listen, if the favour of God is going to shed light on the valley of the shadow of death, we must know Him and have fellowship with Him in life. Any individual who wishes to die the death of the righteous must first live the life of the righteous. If it is unnatural for a man or woman to walk and talk with God when living, in good health and well provided for, it is most unlikely they will want to turn to God in the hour of death. You say, but I’m a Christian! Listen folks, I have sat with people at their deathbed, and they knew it, but the last thing in the world they had any interest in was the Word of God or the prayers of God’s people. It was like an irrelevance to them, they couldn’t care less. And that beloved is tragic for any child of God. When Jesus was breathing His last, His deepest interest was His Heavenly Father!
1. This Was A Cry Of Faultless Faith! “Father”
This is not a moan for mercy, this is not a plea for pity, this is a cry of faultless faith in His Heavenly Father. As I have indicated earlier in these studies on ‘The Sayings of the Cross’, as the Lord Jesus Christ hangs on that old rugged cross He makes great use of the Scriptures. Why? Because the Scriptures are not just a nice book to turn to in times of trouble and trial, but because they are the very Word of God, they are the very Life of God, from them we draw the very stuff of life. They are life, light, guidance, direction, solace, strength and much, much more and as the Lord Jesus hangs from that old Roman Gibbet we see Him---
  
 
  A. He’s Pondering The Scriptures!
The “loud voice” cry is not the screaming of despair; rather it is the cry of unshatterable confidence. As the momentary sense of estrangement from God subsides in a hushed realisation that God’s intention has been fulfilled and God’s heaven is opening its doors to Him, His voice again grows strong, His mind is saturated with the Hebrew Scriptures, His cry rings out through all Heaven, all Hell, and all Humanity, “Father, into they hands I commend my Spirit.”
You see the Scriptures have been His great source of strength and satisfaction, who knows how many times He had repeated Psalm 31 v 5 “into thy hands I commit my Spirit.” To those words he only had to add the word of address: “Father.” His is a victorious death; no man had taken His life from Him. He had reminded us of that very powerful fact in John 10 v 17-18.
”Therefore doeth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.”
 
       
  Sure, it’s true, He was “betrayed into the hands of sinners” Matthew 26 v 45, “delivered into the hand of sinful men” Luke 24 v 7, and slain by “wicked hands” Acts 2 v 23, but it was all voluntary on His part. It was all very much a part of God’s divine plan for His Son. He left heaven and became incarnate for this very reason. This was God’s amazing purpose for His Beloved Son. Now that that purpose was fulfilled, victory had been accomplished. If, as we listen to that shrilling fourth cry we see the serpent bruise the heel of the woman’s seed, then without any doubt in this final cry we see the seed crushing the serpent’s head.
Have you been pondering the Scriptures with me, did you notice what the Holy Spirit added to our Lord’s last words? “And having said thus, He gave up the ghost.” Luke 23 v 46. He was not just helplessly yielding to human weakness, He was not just dying, “He gave up the ghost,” He was commanding death to convey Him to the Father’s house. How precious must the Father’s Word have been to Him as He set course for the Father’s House?
B. He’s Proving The Scriptures!
“Do you know a book that you are willing to put under your head for a pillow when you are dying? Very well; that is the book you want to study when you are living. There is only one such book in the world.”
Joseph Cook.
That was Paul’s wise word of encouragement to Timothy 2 Timothy 2 v 15.
”Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth.”
”Study to show yourself approved” said Paul. And we should remember that the greatest and final approval comes when life ends. When those tests and trials come, do we prove the Scriptures so that when the greatest trial and test comes we are able to reach into that great store house of God’s Holy Word and whisper or even shout “Father.”
”I fear no foe with thee at hand to bless,
Ill’s have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death’s sting? Where grave thy victory?
I triumph still, if thou abide with me!
Ah yes, the Word of the Lord is everything to us amid life’s disappointments, sickness, sorrows, trouble and temptation, but will it be so in the hour of death.
Did Henry Francis Lyte, the author of “Abide with me” really find his hymn was true as he was passing into the presence of his God? Just as he was breathing his last his family record his final words, “Peace! Joy!”
Francis Ridley Havergal crossed over with the full vision of Jesus before her eyes, exclaiming! “My King! My King! My Glorious King!”
”By all standards, death is the most dreaded event. Our society will pay any price to prolong life. Just one more month, or even another day. Perhaps our desire to postpone death reflects our dissatisfaction with God’s ultimate purpose. Remember, His work isn’t finished until we are glorified. Most of us would like to see God’s work remain half finished. We’re glad we are called and justified, but we’re not too excited about being glorified.” Erwin W. Lutzer.
O to be able to prove His precious Word even on our death beds.
C. He’s Preaching The Scriptures!
That is, He is testifying to the truth and power of the Scriptures.
The Bible is the inspired Word of God, not a mere collection of various writers’ opinions, ideas, philosophies, or “inspired” thoughts. It is most certainly not the result of a poll that asked what the public most wanted to hear or a compilation of the best insights from the world’s greatest thinkers. Scripture is nothing less than the written revelation of God and as such possesses certain qualities that ought to be commended to anyone unsure about the claims of Christianity.
What Jesus is doing here on that old rugged cross even at the moment of death is upholding the Bible’s infallibility. He is in effect saying, listen, listen; the Bible is God’s infallible Word, the only rule of faith and practice.
Those who make the Word of God their strength and stay in life will find it so in death.
2. This Is A Cry Of Freedom From Fear! “Into thy hands”
I sense in this cry the certainty of confidence. And why not? Is Christ not committing everything into the hands of the Father?
 
  “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.”
In his book The Crisis Of Christ, Dr. G. Campbell Morgan points out that there are seven major crises in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. At each one of these crises the Lord can be seen at prayer. The disciples, impressed by the uniqueness of the Lord’s prayer life (so refreshingly different from the stilted, formal, ostentatious, and hypocritical prayer style of the religious leaders of His day), came to Him and said: “Lord, teach us to pray.” He did. He taught them the basic principles of prayer and how to have an appreciation of God in prayer. (I draw this from Dr. John Phillips)
a. “Our Father” That gave them an appreciation of God’s Person!
b. “Thy kingdom come” That gave them an appreciation of God’s purposes!
c. “Give us…our daily bread” That gave them an appreciation of God’s provision!
d. “Forgive us our debts” That gave them an appreciation of God’s pardon!
e. “Lead us not into temptation” That gave them an appreciation of God’s Purity!
f. “Deliver us from evil” That gave them an appreciation of God’s protection!
g. “Thine is the kingdom” That gave them an appreciation of God’s power!
But when we come to this prayer on the cross “Father, into thy hand I commend my spirit” That gave them an appreciation of God’s presence!
 
     
  A. He Knew The Father’s Presence!
And dear people if ever there was anyone who knew God’s presence, it was without any shadow of doubt, the Lord Jesus Christ.
His whole life is a wonderful example of walking with His Heavenly Father moment by moment, day by day, breath by breath, it was an amazing relationship!
Is such a relationship possible for you and me? I hear you ask. Yes! Yes! Most definitely yes! Listen to this text from John 14 v 21.
”He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest (make known) myself to him.”
Jesus is saying, if you know my word and obey it, I will make myself known to you! And here’s the point beloved, if we know Jesus then we know the Father, and to know Him is to have His presence with us and know it!
B. He Knew The Fathers Promise!
Jesus knew the fathers promises and believed them with a whole heart. He stood four square on those promises and knew without a fear that God was as good as His Word and would never break His good Word to Him.
Standing on the promises of Christ our King,
Through eternal ages let His praises ring:
Glory in the highest, I will shout and sing,
Standing on the promises of God.
”In the early days of the United States of America a weary traveler came to the banks of the Mississippi River for the first time. There was no bridge. It was early winter, and the surface of the mighty stream was covered with ice. Could he dare cross over? Would the uncertain ice be able to bear his weight?
Night was falling, and it was urgent that he reach the other side. Finally, after much hesitation and with many fears, he began to creep cautiously across the surface of the ice on his hands and knees. He thought that he
might distribute his weight as much as possible and keep the ice from breaking beneath him.
About halfway over he heard the sound of singing behind him. Out of the dusk there came a man, driving a horse-drawn load of coal across the ice and singing merrily as he went his way.
Here he was--on his hands and knees, trembling lest the ice be not strong enough to bear him up! And there, as if whisked away by the winter’s wind, went the man, his horses, his sleigh, and his load of coal, upheld by the same ice on which he was creeping!” End quote!
Like this weary traveller, some of us have learned only to creep upon the promises of God. Cautiously, timidly, tremblingly we venture forth upon His promises, as though the lightness of our step might make His promises more secure. As though we could contribute even in the slightest to the strength of His assurances!
He has promised to be with us. Let us believe that promise! He has promised to uphold us. Let us believe Him when He says so. He has promised to grant us victory over all our spiritual enemies. Let us trust His truthfulness. Above all, He has promised to grant us full and free forgiveness of all our sins because of Jesus Christ, our Saviour. And He has promised to come and take us to His heavenly home. Let us take Him at His word.
We are not to creep upon these promises as though they were too fragile to uphold us. We are to stand upon them--confident that God is as good as His word and that He will do what He has pledged.
C. He Knew The Fathers Protection! Psalm 16 v 10.
”For thou wilt not leave my soul in sheol, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.”
  
 
  Helen Keller is one of the most remarkable women in history. On the advice of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, her parents sent for a teacher from the Perkins institution for the blind in Boston. Anne Sullivan, a nineteen-year-old orphan was chosen for the task of instructing six-year-old Helen. It was the beginning of a close and lifelong friendship between them.
By means of a manual alphabet, Anne “spelled” into Helen’s hand such words as “doll” or “puppy.” Two years later Helen was reading and writing Braille fluently. At ten Helen learned different sounds by placing her fingers on the teacher’s larynx and “hearing” the vibrations. Later Helen went to Radcliffe College, where Anne “spelled” the lectures into Helen’s hand. After graduating with honours, Helen decided to devote her life to helping the blind and deaf. As part of that endeavour, she wrote many books and articles and travelled around the world making speeches. Since Helen’s speeches were not intelligible to some, Anne often translated them for her. Their nearly fifty years of companionship ended when Anne died in 1936. Helen wrote these endearing words about her lifelong friend:
‘My teacher is so near to me that I scarcely think of myself apart from her…I feel that her being is inseparable from my own, and that the footsteps of my life are in hers. All the best of me belongs to her—there is not a talent, or an aspiration or a joy in me that has not been awakened by her loving touch.” End quote.
It’s obvious that Anne knew Helen better than anyone. In the spiritual realm, Christ knows God better than anyone. Better than theologians who have written about Him through the centuries. Even better than the Prophets and Apostles, who received divine revelation? Christ knows God so well because He knows God’s presence, promises and protection.
It stands to reason therefore if we want to know God; we need to know Christ!
   
  Paul reminds us in Philippians 3 v 10.
”That I might know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death.”
And just as the Lord Jesus believed that text in Psalm 16 and every other text in the book, so we should believe this text from Paul in Philippians and act upon it. The Son knew the Father and that is a relationship that is unique as John 5 v 17 + 19-24 highlights for us. Oh, that I might know Him this way!
3. This Is A Cry Of Full Fellowship! “I commend my Spirit”
Herein lies the great challenge of this series of messages. What do we know of a full and practical fellowship with our dear Saviour and, if I may dare ask, with His church?
“Human fellowship can go to great lengths, but not all the way. Fellowship with God can go to all lengths.” Oswald Chambers.
”Alone I cannot serve the Lord effectively, and he will spare no pains to teach me this. He will bring things to an end, allowing doors to close and leaving me ineffectively knocking my head against a wall until I realise that I need the help of the Body as well as of the Lord.” Watchman Nee.
When Jesus made this final cry on the cross he was displaying the kind of fellowship we all long for I am sure. This was in every sense of the word the cry of full, complete, blessed fellowship with His Father!
I believe Jacob was a wonderful example in his time. Remember Jacob had been a twister, he certainly would not have appealed to us a material for Godliness.
No doubt we would have stroked him off our list for deacon or elder, but God had other ideas, thus we read in Hebrews 11 v 21.
”By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff.”
And dear folk, that’s the way I want to leave this world, a blessing to my physical and church family, worshipping my Lord.
And may I lovingly say this is a possibility for every believer in Christ but it will cost, there is a price to pay. Our dear Saviour had to pay such a price.
Behind Him now, the shouts of the angry mob, the thrust of piercing sword, the curses of His crucifiers, and the muffled sobs of His friends and followers.
The cry of finality displays an amazing insight of the Suffering Saviour’s heart.
Did you notice the word “commit” in His cry? This is not now that wonderful speech of submission in the garden of Gethsemane. This is our Saviour having finished the work given Him to do, having come to the point where He willingly give over to the Father saying, with absolute confidence, I commit my all! Father, it’s coming to an end, it’s all over, and I’m ready for home! What an amazing moment that must have been.
Let’s think about that for a time.
A. Commitment Always Has Commencement!
Take the case of our dear Lord and Saviour. There was a time when, before human history began, an agreement was reached within the rich pluralism of the Trinity by which the sending Father commissioned the willing Son to visit our errant earth and make a saving atonement for its pride and rebellion.
Sure, details are not plentiful, but we are reminded in Revelation 13 v 8 Jesus is described as “the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.”
Here is commitment with purpose; it is commitment that will act out the role of sacrificial Lamb offered on the grim altar of this world’s guilt, guilt for messing up God’s plan for healthy human community and development.
But here’s the point. From before the catastrophe occurred the remedy had been put in place. Beloved friend, we should understand, it is no accident we are here, and we have been brought to the kingdom for such a time as this. Our life was already planned and God’s purpose set for us.
The question we must ask and answer is, can I say that my commitment, which had a commencement in the heart and mind of God, is working at full stretch so that like the example our dear Saviour has set us, we will finish the work given us to do? We have curiously, even tragically, become a society without commitment. Non-commitment is the shameless banner that floats high over many a professed Christian life today, it is the chosen option of many a church who have become more interested in statistics, finance and buildings.
 
  Charles Kingsley, when undecided about choosing whether to live for himself or for God, was down on the south coast of England. One night he went walking alone along the shore. When he returned to his room, he sat down and wrote: “My birthnight! Beside the sleepless sea and beneath the sleeping stars I have given myself to God, a vow, if He gives me the strength I pray for, never to be recalled.” End quote!
B. Commitment Should Have Continuance!
You see dear brothers and sister’s, commitment calls for continuance.
No matter which way you measure the cloth of your life, a pattern has already been laid out to follow, and it’s as we simply and fully follow God’s wonderful plan and continue in our commitment to His will, blessing in every respect follows.
This from Dr. Paul S. Rees.
”I stood one day, years ago, at the counter of the City Clerk in Minneapolis. A young man next to me was getting a marriage licence. When the clerk handed it to him, he asked, “How much does this cost?” With an Irish twinkle in his eyes, the clerk replied, “Two Dollars now and as much as you can make for the rest of your life!” Forgetting the laugh that leaped from the words, I realised that they implied something of far-reaching seriousness. They were saying, “My dear young friend, the vow of commitment that you make in front of the pastor is what you will live with through the long tomorrows, and if it isn’t, it might have been better for you if you had stayed away from this office and kept your $2.00.” End quote!
                   
  Think with me of that magnificently stretched-out commitment that Jesus made to the Father when He came to live among us. Henry van Dyke puts it like this. When He came to live “the human life of God” among us wondering, woolly, ill-dedicated mortals. End quote! Hebrews 10 v 5 + 7 “Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said: ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, O God.’”
If we accept this as an affirmation of commitment at the beginning of our Lord’s earthly life, then think of His words near the end. Within hours of His arrest and being placed in the hands of those who would crucify Him, He prayed to His Father: “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do…I have revealed you to those whom you gave me…I gave them the words you gave me…I have given them your Word and the world has hated them” John 17 v 4, 6, 8, 14.
This is not the wishful thinking of a beginner; this is the confident testimony of a finisher. A commitment commenced, continued; now at priceless cost concluded. Lord help me finish my course with joy and reward!
 
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