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The last words of Jesus - It is Finished! By John Paterson

When Christ was on the cross, He spoke seven times.
And the sixth time He spoke, He said, it is finished.
Now I know you've been looking at some of the sayings of Christ from the cross.
Why you've done them in the order you have,
I have no idea about this.
It's just the Irish streak in David Callwood years.
But this is the sixth saying of the seven.
It is finished.
The most obvious question I think to ask is, what is finished?
What is finished?
The Roman soldiers, I guess, may have thought that Jesus was saying, look, I've had enough.
I've suffered enough.
My strength is gone.
I'm now ready to die.
My life is finished.
It might well be that the Jewish enemies of Jesus who engineered the death of Christ thought that Jesus was saying, well, all my hopes are finished.
I had hoped something good would happen, but you fellas have wrecked it all.
And now it's all ended in defeat.
Everything's come crashing down around me.
But when Jesus said, it is finished, He was not speaking about His life.
And He was not speaking about His hopes and plans.
And if we're to work out what was finished, the obvious question to ask is, well, what was started?
If you work out what was started, and then Jesus says something's finished, then you're pretty close to getting the right answer.
And if we looked, you might like to look this morning at Hebrews 10.
I don't think there's a better passage in the Bible to speak about the theme of Jesus finished work than this chapter.
And if you look here, I think it tells us what was started, so we know what was finished.
In the Hebrews 10, verse seven, there's a quote from the Old Testament, words written by King David a thousand years before.
I said, King David speaking, here I am, it's written about me in the scroll, I've come to do your will, oh God.
Now, of course, it wasn't really David.
I know David said the words, but David didn't do God's will.
He did some days, other days got close, but a lot of the time he was a long way away.
David was a very, very fallen man, despite all the wonderful things we know about him.
He didn't do the will of God, not fully.
But you see, the writer of the Hebrews also knows that, because he says, these are really words of Christ,
verse five of chapter 10, when Christ came into the world, this is what he said.
David was a bit of a picture in advance, but fairly incomplete one, fairly imperfect one.
But when Christ came, Christ said, here I am, I've come to do your will.
That's what he said when he came.
That's what he said when he was born, as it were, of Mary the Virgin.
The question is, has he?
Well, if he came to do the will of God, did he?
That's what he started doing, did he finish it?
And if I said to you, take a look back over 33 years, Jesus talking to him, he's talking to her.
Did he ever get one word wrong?
He's thinking this, he's thinking that.
Did he ever get one thought wrong?
He's doing this, he's doing that.
Was there any deed that was wrong?
Well, if you look at the life of the Lord Jesus, would you say, no, at every point, at every point of his life, in every part of his life, he loved the Lord his God with all his soul and all his strength and all his heart and all his might.
Look at his life and you say, has he been consumed with the glory of God?
Has that been his passion, his one passion?
Has he done what the law required?
Has he shown mercy to the needy?
Has he honored his parents?
Has he spoken words full of truth and grace?
Or can you find some slip ups along the way?
Did he begin well, but end badly?
Check him out, look at him at age two or 12 or 22 or 32, as much as we know.
Check out when he's tired and when he's fresh, examine his thoughts and his words and his actions and say to yourself, did he do what he said at the beginning he would do?
He'd come to do the will of God, come to fulfill the law of God, come to please God at every point in every way.
And the more you look, the more you know you can't find a gap.
There's nothing missing.
When Jesus comes to the end of his life
and says, I've kept your law,
it wasn't just an idle boast, he'd actually done it.
That's what he'd come to do.
He'd come to keep the law of God.
You know that when Mary and Joseph,
after Jesus was born, they went to offer a sacrifice.
Of course, only sinful people offer sacrifice.
It's interesting that Mary the Virgin
thought herself imperfect and sinful enough
to offer a sacrifice, but she did.
And it says in Luke chapter two
that when Mary and Joseph had finished everything
required by the law of the Lord,
they returned to Nazareth, they'd finished.
That's how you, if you're a Jew,
that's how you speak about keeping God's law, you finish it.
So when Jesus said on the cross, it's finished,
he said, I came, my aim at the outset
was to keep the law of God, I've done it.
From day one to this very second,
that's exactly what I've done.
Jesus finished, or the word is fulfilled,
that's the way we translate it.
He fulfilled all righteousness, but it's the word finished.
Same word, I've finished all righteousness.
I started, I've finished, I got to this day,
I've completed what I began to do.
Absolutely everything that God had required of him,
he'd done.
So if we said, what has he finished?
And we say, well, what did he start?
Well, he came to start to keep the law of God,
he finished that.
So I've got two points, that's the first.
And then I've got two more points after that.
But two points that go together.
He kept or he finished the law of God in full.
That's the first thing we know what was finished.
He finished the law.
He kept the law, fulfilled it completely.
But the second thing that goes with it
is he paid the price of the law in full.
He not only kept the law in full,
but he paid the price of the law in full.
I don't know, you need to tell me,
what's the price of breaking the parking meter law
in Hunter Street?
Some of you have done that, I'm sure.
Yes, Amy?
You haven't done it?
No, someone can speak from experience.
60, whew, thank you, Daniel.
Several times over, I'm sure.
The law, the price of breaking the parking meter law
is $60, break a law and there's a price to pay.
Well, what's the price to pay when you break God's law?
You get broken, not just your wallet, you get broken.
If you separate yourself from God,
God says, right, I'm separating from you.
God treats us in kind to punishment.
It fits the crime as it were.
When you gotta say, well, hang on,
if the punishment for breaking God's law
is that you're cut off from God, you die,
why did Jesus die?
Because we've just said, he kept all the law.
He finished the law.
He fulfilled the law.
Why does he die if he's not broken the law?
Well, you know the answer as well as I do,
but we need to say this as clearly as I can.
Again, if you're still in Hebrew,
just go back a chapter to chapter nine
and you see in verse 12, Hebrews 9, 12,
Jesus obtained by his death, when he shed his blood,
he obtained an eternal redemption, a buyback scheme.
It wasn't himself he was buying back
because he didn't need to be brought back.
He'd kept God, but he's gone to the cross
with his Father only smiling at him.
You've kept my law, my son, in thought, in word, indeed,
when tired, when fresh, when hungry,
you've kept all the way through, you've kept,
God's smiling, God the Father is smiling.
Well, then why does he die under the wrath of God?
Because he's buying something back, it's not himself.
You go to verse 28 of chapter nine.
Christ was sacrificed once to take away,
not his sins, he had none,
but to take away the sins of many, many people.
He didn't break the law of God, that's not why he died.
Others have broken the law of God and he died for them.
Now the question is, friends,
and let me put it to you quite frankly,
when Jesus died on the cross, did it work?
Did he buy back the people he'd come to buy back?
Did he redeem those he'd come to redeem?
Did he take away the sins that he'd come to take away?
Now you listen to most preachers today
and read most Christian books
and they'll say that's not true.
Listen to Billy Graham, he'll say that's not true.
And most preachers like him.
They speak in terms of,
they use words that aren't in the Bible.
They said that when Jesus died on the cross,
he died to win to make salvation possible.
He died to make salvation available.
He died to make redemption a feasibility.
But he didn't actually redeem.
As though we've got this table here
and he laid redemption on the table.
And then says Billy Graham,
and it becomes real when you take it.
But he died for everybody
and it's there on the table for everybody.
But when you take it, it becomes real for you.
It's a possible salvation.
It's an available salvation.
It's a redemption that's feasible.
But that's about as far as it goes.
And you press them and you say,
well, does that mean there are people in hell
for whom Jesus died as much as in heaven?
Well, yes, Jesus died for everybody indiscriminately.
He died for the whole world.
Every single person in the world.
Every single person everywhere.
It's on the table.
Only some people take it
and they're the only ones who go to heaven.
But when Jesus died, he was saying,
it's for every single person in every single country
in every single day of every single part of the world.
And so, they'll have to say when you press them,
you say, did Jesus die for Hitler
as much as Billy Graham?
Oh, yes.
Did he die as much for Judas as for Peter?
Oh, yes.
He died for every single person everywhere.
We say, well, what makes the difference?
Judas doesn't go to heaven but to hell.
Peter doesn't go to hell but to heaven.
Billy Graham goes to heaven, not to hell.
Hitler goes to hell, not to heaven.
What makes the difference then if Jesus died for the more?
It's their faith that makes the difference.
It's not what Jesus did that makes the difference.
It's what you do that makes the difference
between heaven and hell.
You see the logic of what I'm saying?
That's if you've got only an available salvation,
a possible salvation.
If only you can speak in terms of potentialities,
availabilities, possibilities.
Jesus died to make it possible for every single person
in the whole world to go to heaven.
Well, the Bible doesn't speak like that.
He obtained an eternal redemption.
He got it.
The people he came to die for, he bought.
He didn't make it possible to take away
the sins of many people.
He took them away.
If you're a Christian today,
it's because Christ took away your sins 2,000 years ago.
It's not because you believed last year
or the year before or 10 years ago.
It's because your sins have been taken away.
Can you imagine the brazenness of going to heaven
and God saying, now why should I let you in?
And you say, oh, because I believed.
You say, what about these other people?
Oh, they didn't believe.
Can you imagine saying,
I'm going to heaven because I believed?
Let me in because of my faith?
And that's a prayer of the devil.
You say, let me in because Christ has died for me.
And his work is a perfect work.
He did it all.
He finished the work.
He didn't do half of it and say,
now it's over to you, John Patterson, to complete it.
He finished the work.
He obtained an eternal redemption.
Anne and I were talking yesterday
about something I've said apparently some time ago.
I can't remember when.
She's got a better memory than I have, which is awful.
I hate to think of the things I've said.
You still remember that I wish I hadn't said.
But I remember we must have talked at one stage
about the high priest who in the Old Testament,
when he went to make a sacrifice on the day of atonement,
he wore his special priestly clothes.
And on the front of his robe, he had 12 words, as it were,
but out of the 12 names of the 12 tribes of Israel.
And when he went, it was though he sang to the Father,
Father, these are the ones I'm representing.
It's for these.
He just didn't have will for someone somewhere.
He knew who he was praying for.
He knew who he was sacrificing for.
Now, can you imagine Jesus being less definite
than the high priest in Israel,
who's just an ordinary old pagan man?
Can Jesus go to the Father and say,
well, Father, I don't know really who I'm dying for.
I hope some believe some way.
No, he goes with our names on his breast.
There's that lovely hymn, I think it's my favorite hymn.
Hymn number 208, I think, in the hymn book.
You don't have the hymn books anymore here, do you?
Not around.
Great high priest, this is Joseph Hart, Joseph Hart,
that lovely Baptist fellow who lived in 1700.
Great high priest, speaking of Jesus, great high priest,
we view, we see you stooping in the garden of Gethsemane
with our names upon your breast.
That's it.
So when Jesus goes to the Father, he says,
it's for this person and this person
and this person and this person,
those whom you've given me, I give my life for.
It wasn't just indiscriminate, possible,
for some people somewhere who maybe one day might believe,
but maybe who won't.
Maybe nobody would believe if it's just left
to possibilities, but no, it's not left to possibilities.
You know, when the angel said to Joseph,
before Jesus was born, call his name Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins.
He didn't say, he'll make salvation possible for them.
Doesn't say, he'll go halfway,
providing they go the other half of the way with their faith.
He will save them from their sins.
And see, that's why we speak about Jesus as a savior,
not half a savior, not as though he does half
and we do the rest, you know, here he is on the table
and we throw the switch and get the magic gift.
No, it's not like that.
He does the saving.
We do not save ourselves and we don't add to it.
And you know you can't speak about just a possible salvation
or an available salvation,
even though most Christian books do.
You know you can't speak like that.
You know the Bible doesn't speak like that.
You know that won't take you anywhere.
And if it depends on you,
I tell you, you're doomed.
Because tomorrow you'll wake up
and you don't feel like you believe.
Does that mean you're not saved?
Or does it all depend upon what Jesus did,
not your response to what Jesus did?
I mean, let me put it to you this way,
if I can put it as crudely as I can.
You're not saved because you believe.
You believe because you've been saved.
There's a big difference.
I hope you don't think I'm just playing with words.
Can I say it again?
Just in case you think I got that wrong.
You're not saved.
You don't go to heaven because you believe.
You believe because Christ has already won
your place in heaven.
When he died on the cross,
he won everything for you as a Christian.
Redemption, reconciliation, faith, repentance,
that hymn of Joseph Hart that finishes up the last verse,
I think 208.
True faith and true repentance,
these are gifts which Christ has won.
They're gifts he won on the cross.
He won all that I need.
No, I'm not saved because I believe.
I believe because I'm saved.
Do you see the difference?
It's almost, is it a half and half?
Or let's be not quite as brash as that.
Let's say Jesus did 80% and I do 20%.
Is that the deal?
Or 90% and 10%?
Or 99 and one, that's not nice.
Not asking too much.
Just let me, let's say he does 99%,
but I just crossed the last little gap by my faith.
What if there's a deal like that?
When you get to heaven, you should say,
by the way Jesus, move across.
I'm sitting on the throne with you, thanks.
Because we've done this together.
Can you imagine anybody saying that?
Or you come there and you say,
praise the lamb who was slain.
See, he's a finished work.
It's a complete work.
And if we put them, put both those things together,
Jesus has kept the law in every way.
He doesn't die for his sins.
He's got none to die for.
But he does die for my sins.
By his life, he's perfectly obeyed the law of God.
By his death, he's perfectly taken away
every broken law of God that I've ever broken.
And so he says, John Patterson,
see all the things I've done that are right, they're yours.
And John Patterson, look at all the things
that he knew that are bad.
I've taken them away.
I've finished the work.
John Patterson, stop worrying
about the level of your faith
as if somehow that determines whether you're in
or whether you're out.
It's not like that.
And I tell you friends, we're so, so,
become so used to navel gazing
and looking at ourselves and examining ourselves
and looking at what's up and what's down.
We ought to be the last people who are like that
if the finished work of Christ is what it's all about.
And instead of talking about it in a sense,
where we're at, come to that in a minute,
we do need to talk about that.
But instead of that being our big concern,
our big concern ought always to be the death of Jesus
and the perfect life of Jesus.
I remember hearing a guy, a Welsh fellow preach in Wales,
and he told the story of,
it's only a story, so don't try and press it,
but a fellow who died and went to heaven
and nobody there to meet him.
And after a little while, Jesus came and said,
the fellow said, I've been waiting for you.
Where have you been?
And Jesus said, oh, I've been off doing something.
What have you been doing?
He says, I've been away burying your sins.
Well, where did you do that?
Oh, I can't remember, said Jesus.
There's sins I'll remember no more, I've done it all.
It's got nothing to do with that fellow.
And what he does, what he does is a response
to what Jesus does, not the other way around.
Well, we could say a lot more than that,
but let's try and keep those two things.
What he's finished on the cross,
a perfect life of law keeping is finished.
And a perfect death of taking away
the penalty of law is finished.
It's all finished.
Well, we could say a lot in response to that.
But let me say two things.
And I guess the first is pretty obvious.
The second may not be.
But stick with me till we get to the second if you would.
The first is very important.
If I had two exhortations or two, I'd say these.
First of all, don't try and add to what's complete.
Don't try and add to what is complete.
The story goes, when Michelangelo finished his beautiful,
I mean, breathtaking sculpture of David.
And he chiseled the last bit,
and he stood back and said, finished.
Now, he didn't mean, phew, now I can get on
with the next job.
He said, finished, complete.
Isn't it beautiful?
And he admired what he'd done.
Much as the Lord God, that was imperfect,
but much as the Lord God did with a perfect creation
on the seventh day, he stood back and said,
phew, isn't it beautiful?
And he admired the work of his hands
and took great pleasure in them.
Well finished, complete, in that sense.
Can you imagine a year seven student,
with apologies, year seven students,
or year eight students, who are doing art at school?
And you've had two periods of art,
and so now you know everything about sculpturing,
of course, they've both been in sculpture.
And you come to David's, Michelangelo's day,
and you say, oh, I don't think it's quite right there,
and you start chipping away.
People would be rightly horrified.
Michelangelo would step up and say, you've ruined my work.
It was perfect till you got to it.
And how much, how much more impossible is it
that I should go to the work of Jesus and say,
now look, I think I ought to add a little bit more.
Take a bit off here, add a bit more there.
It's not quite got the right shape there.
It's not quite enough.
I think we need to just go a step further.
Can you imagine the arrogance?
And that's one of these.
The arrogance of saying, well Jesus,
what you did on the cross is pretty good,
but I think I need to add baptism.
I need to add my being a church member.
I need to add my faith.
My speaking in tongues.
My whatever.
Can you imagine the arrogance of that
when Jesus says it's perfect?
It's complete.
And nobody can add a single thing to it.
You cannot possibly add.
And that's why when we talk about the gospel
of the Lord Jesus, we say to people,
we're not telling you to do anything to get to heaven.
We're telling you you can't do anything.
And it's all been done.
It's so easy.
That's the problem.
Because in my heart of hearts, I want to do something.
I want to have a share in the deal,
even if it's 99 and one percent.
Just let me have the one percent bit.
But Jesus said you can't do it.
It's 100% or it's nothing.
That's why faith is just saying I'm helpless.
Jesus done it all.
I've done nothing.
I do nothing.
I will do nothing.
That adds to my salvation.
Faith is simply agreeing that I can do nothing.
And that I can add nothing.
When he was a teenager, Hudson Taylor
was on holidays with his family.
And he said that time was hanging heavily on his hands.
And in the house where he was,
he found some Christian tracts.
And he picked one up.
And it was the first time that he'd ever read the phrase,
the finished work of Christ.
And it was written in the tract,
speaking about the work of Christ in his life
and in his death.
Much as I've tried to say this morning.
He said then the penny dropped.
Well, he didn't say the penny dropped,
but whatever the equivalent was for him.
But he did say, quote,
then there dawned upon me the conviction
that there was nothing, sorry,
that there was nothing for me to do,
but to fall upon my knees and praise him forever.
Nothing to do but to get on my knees and say, praise God.
You wanna know what it is to become a Christian, that's it.
You can't do anything.
But to get on your knees and accept Jesus
and what he's done and praise him forever.
You can't add to what's perfect.
If something's finished,
if a book's finished, it's not another page to write.
It's finished when he says on the cross, it's finished.
That's it.
And you're not called to add to it, just to revel in it.
I tell you, you can go home today and you can say,
it's finished and my faith or my unfaith
will not add anything.
My consistency yesterday and my inconsistency the day before
does not change one scrap.
Any more than my consistency or my inconsistency tomorrow
will change at one scrap.
It's finished.
It's done, complete, finished.
Don't try and add to what's complete.
That's the first thing I'd say by way of an exaltation.
And if I tell you, if you can see that,
if we could just grasp, there's a fellow in our church,
he's an old fellow now, nearly 80.
But every time he prays, almost every time I hear him pray
at the prayer meeting, he says,
we praise you God for the finished work of Jesus.
He always prays that.
It's important to him and so it should be.
I tell you, if I saw what it was to have a finished savior,
sorry, a savior who'd done a finished work,
then I just think I'd be content and happy
and with a deep sort of joy that,
well, I'm gonna change life, don't you think?
Instead of worrying about where I'm at and what's going on,
all this sort of stuff that we get so preoccupied with,
but finished, oh, amazing.
Well, that's the first thing.
Don't try and add to what's finished.
And the second is this, and it sounds a bit Irish,
if you excuse the word,
but it's an important way to put it, I think.
The second thing I want to exhort you to do
is to fight from victory, not for victory.
I'll say it again because this is important also.
God tells us to fight from victory, not for victory.
See, if I said to you, do you think there's any guarantee
for the future of the work here
at Ellemore Vale Baptist Church?
Do you think there's any future
for the work in Papua New Guinea
that Glen and Beth Caldwell are doing,
in which you have a partnership with,
which we're very thankful at Tamworth, I can tell you?
Do you think there's any future
for the Christian work on the uni campus?
Do you think there's any future for your family,
your kids, wayward kids?
Do you think there's any future for you?
I mean, boy, when you look at your life,
it's pretty much a mess a lot of days, isn't it?
I mean, isn't that right?
I mean, when you see the cold thoughts
that really invade your mind
and the doubts that fill your heart,
I mean, you don't want them, but that's what's there.
And you know they're there.
I mean, will you make it?
Or has it just been just a bad dream,
all these 10 years of pretending you're a Christian
and thinking you're going somewhere
and maybe you mean you won't?
Is there any future?
What sort of guarantee is there
for the future in any of these ways?
Is it possible that the victory
for which we are fighting won't come?
Well, friends, I tell you,
we're not fighting for any victory.
We're fighting from victory.
The victory is secure.
When Christ was hanging on the cross,
and I think he, I won't say bellowed,
but I think he spoke very strongly the words,
not a whimper, it's finished, it's finished.
It was a statement of victory.
I've done all that needs to be done.
Victory has been secured.
I've already been successful.
You see, we're not waiting for someone
to keep the law of God perfectly.
He did it.
We're not waiting for someone to take away
our breaches of the law of God.
He's done it.
Death isn't waiting for us to somehow undo
something that Jesus has done.
It's not possible.
Jesus' cry of victory was, it's finished.
The law has been kept.
The sins penalty has been taken away.
There has been eternal redemption secured.
The sins of many have been removed.
It's happened.
They're out of hell,
and nothing's gonna put them back in hell.
The gospel's free and roaming,
and nothing's going to stop it.
Nothing can stop one of those
for whom I've died coming to Christ.
They will be saved.
They must be saved.
Nothing was gonna stop them being saved.
It's a cry of victory.
And people even walk around,
oh, it's sort of so bad.
We say, oh, you know,
the cause of Jesus suffering so much.
Oh, we're not sure whether this is gonna,
oh, folks, it's not like that.
Christ is crying the cross.
It's a cry of victory.
And I'll tell you quite honestly,
let me put it starkly, and I'll qualify it.
What happens in the future
does not depend upon our prayers.
It's that somehow by our prayers,
we're going to make something happen
that Christ has not already secured.
I know that's a charismatic view,
but let me talk about mainstream evangelicals
like ourselves.
Nothing's gonna happen because of our faith
that Christ hasn't already secured the cross.
Now, let me qualify that.
Does the Bible tell us to pray?
Absolutely.
Are we commanded and exhorted and encouraged
in every way to believe?
Too right we are, and we ought to do it with all our might.
But why?
Because we're going to get something
that somehow is unexpected?
No, because that's the means
by which God is going to bring into reality
what He's already secured.
It's not gonna change anything.
Somehow we're going to win more victories for Jesus
that He hasn't already won on the cross.
Now, we're not fighting for victory.
We're fighting from victory.
That's why we pray, and with confidence and with urgency.
That's why we believe.
That's why we stir up faith within us
in response to what has been won, not what might be won.
It's a big difference.
One looks forward to something that maybe happened,
maybe will happen, but who knows?
Maybe there'll be this big battle of Armageddon
or something in the future, but who knows who'll win?
No, it's not like that.
We don't look to the future.
We look to the past, if I can put it like that.
I don't mean that we live in the past,
but we look back to the cross
because that's where the victory was secured.
That's where victory was won,
and we don't fight for victory.
We fight from victory.
And brethren, when we have a Savior like that
who says it's finished, and we can say in our prayers,
Lord, thank you for the finished work of Jesus.
It's a great phrase, a bit out of fashion nowadays.
Maybe that's why my friend in Tamworth is nearly 80.
He may have learned that when he was a child.
We don't talk like that.
What a great pity.
Not that words of themselves mean a lot,
but the thought in it is a prison.
Thank you, Lord, for the finished work of Jesus.
Well, I tell you, if it's like that,
I can get my head up instead of down.
I can go for it, I think.
I'm not fighting for victory.
I'm not believing for victory.
I'm believing from victory.
There's a big, big difference.
Hudson Taylor said, when just a teenager,
then there dawned on me the conviction
that there was nothing for me to do
but to fall upon my knees, accept the Savior,
and praise Him for evermore.
It is finished.
Isn't that wonderful?
Well, let's pray.
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