LivePrayerSermon 421. Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit
"IT IS FINISHED!"
A SERMON DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 1, 1861,
BY THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished: and He bowed His head and gave up the ghost." John 19:30.
MY Brethren, I would have you attentively observe the singular clearness, power and quickness of the Savior's mind in thelast agonies of death. When pains and groans attend the last hour they frequently have the effect of discomposing the mindso that it is not possible for the dying man tocollect his thoughts, or having collected them, to utter them so that they can be understood by others. In no case couldwe expect a remarkable exercise of memory or a profound judgment upon deep subjects from an expiring man. But the Redeemer'slast acts were full of wisdom andprudence although His sufferings were beyond all measure excruciating.
Remark how clearly He perceived the significance of every type! How plainly He could read with dying eye those Divine symbolswhich the eyes of angels could only desire to look into! He saw the secrets which have bewildered sages and astonished seersall fulfilled in His own body. Nor must we failto observe the power and comprehensiveness by which He grasped the chain which binds the shadowy past with the sun-lit present.We must not forget the brilliance of that intelligence which threaded all the ceremonies and sacrifices on one string of thought,beheld all the propheciesas one great revelation and all the promises as the heralds of one Person and then said of the whole, "'It is finished,""finished in Me."
What quickness of mind was that which enabled Him to traverse all the centuries of prophecy, to penetrate the eternity ofthe Covenant and then to anticipate the eternal glories! And all this when He is mocked by multitudes of enemies and whenHis hands and feet are nailed to the Cross. What forceof mind must the Savior have possessed to soar above those Alps of Agony which touched the very clouds. In what a singularmental condition must He have been during the period of His crucifixion-to be able to review the whole roll of Inspiration!Now this remark may not seem to beof any great value but I think its value lies in certain inferences that may be drawn from it.
We have sometimes heard it said, "How could Christ, in so short a time, bear suffering which should be equivalent to the torments-theeternal torments of Hell?" Our reply is we are not capable ofjudging what the Son of God might do even in a moment, much lesswhat He might do and what He mightsuffer in His life and in His death. It has been frequently affirmed by persons who have been rescued from drowning thatthe mind of a drowning man is singularly active. One who, after being some time in the water was at last painfully restored,said that the whole of his historyseemed to come before his mind while he was sinking and that if anyone had asked him how long he had been in the water,he should have said twenty years, whereas he had only been there for a moment or two.
The wild romance of Mahomet's journey upon Alborak is not an unfitting illustration. He affirmed that when the angel camein vision to take him on his celebrated journey to Jerusalem he went through all the seven heavens and saw all the wondersthereof. And yet he was gone so short a time thatthough the angel's wing had touched a basin of water when they started, they returned soon enough to prevent the water frombeing spilt. The long dream of this epileptic impostor may really have occupied but a second of time. The intellect of mortalman is such that if God willsit-when it is in certain states-it can think out centuries of thought at once. It can go through in one instant what weshould have supposed would have taken years upon years of time for it to know or feel.
We think, therefore, that from the Savior's singular clearness and quickness of intellect upon the Cross it is very possiblethat He did in the space of two or three hours endure not only the agony which might have been contained in centuries, buteven an equivalent for that which might becomprehended in everlasting punishment. At any rate, it is not for us to say that it could not be so. When the Deity isarrayed in manhood, then manhood becomes omnipotent to suffer. And just as the feet of Christ were once almighty to treadthe seas, so now was His whole bodybecome almighty to dive into the great waters, to endure an immersion in "unknown agonies."
Do not, I pray, let us attempt to measure Christ's sufferings by the finite one of our own ignorant reason, but let us knowand believe that what He endured there was accepted by God as an equivalent for all our pains. And therefore it could nothave been a trifle, but must have been all that Hartconceived it to be, when he says He bore-
"All that incarnate God could bear, With strength enough, but none to spare."
My discourse will, I have no doubt, more fully illustrate the remark with which I have commenced-let us proceed to it at once.First, let us hear the text and understand it. Then let us hear it and wonder at it. And then, thirdly, let us hear it andproclaim it.
I. LET US HEAR THE TEXT AND UNDERSTAND IT.
The Son of God has been made Man. He has had a life of perfect virtue and of total self-denial. He has been all that life-longdespised and rejected of men, a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief. His enemies have been legion. His friends have beenfew and those few faithless. He is at lastdelivered over into the hands of them that hate Him. He is arrested while in the act of prayer. He is arraigned before boththe spiritual and temporal courts. He is robed in mockery and then enrobed in shame. He is set upon His throne in scorn andthen tied to the pillar in cruelty.He is declared innocent and yet He is delivered up by the judge who ought to have preserved Him from His persecutors.
He is dragged through the streets of that Jerusalem which had killed the Prophets and would now crimson itself with the bloodof the Prophets' Master. He is brought to the Cross. He is nailed fast to the cruel wood. The sun burns Him. His cruel woundsincrease the fever. God forsakes Him. "My God,My God, why have You forsaken Me?" contains the concentrated anguish of the world. While He hangs there in mortal conflictwith sin and Satan, His heart is broken, His limbs are dislocated. Heaven fails Him, for the sun is veiled in darkness. Earthforsakes Him, for "His disciplesforsook Him and fled." He looks everywhere and there is none to help. He casts His eye around and there is no man that canshare His toil.
He treads the winepress alone. And of all the people there is none with Him. On, on, He goes, steadily determined to drinkthe last dreg of that cup which must not pass from Him if His Father's will is done. At last He cries-"It is finished" andHe gives up the ghost. Hear it, Christians, hearthis shout of triumph as it rings today with all the freshness and force which it had eighteen hundred years ago! Hear itfrom the Sacred Word and from the Savior's lips and may the Spirit of God open your ears that you may hear as the learnedand understand what you hear!
1. What meant the Savior, then, by this-"It is finished"? He meant, first of all, that all the types, promises and prophecieswere now fully accomplished in Him. Those who are acquainted with the original will find that the words-"It is finished,"occur twice within three verses. In the 28thverse we have the word in the Greek. It is translated in our version "accomplished," but there it stands-"After this, Jesusknowing that all things were now finished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, says, 'I thirst.' " And then He afterwardssaid, "It is finished." Thisleads us to see His meaning very clearly that all the Scripture was now fulfilled, that when He said, "It is finished,"the whole Book, from the first to the last, in both the Law and the Prophets, was finished in Him.
There is not a single jewel of promise, from that first emerald which fell on the threshold of Eden, to that last sapphire-stoneof Malachi which was not set in the breast-plate of the true High Priest. No, there is not a type, from the red heifer downwardto the turtle-dove, from the hyssopupwards to Solomon's temple itself which was not fulfilled in Him. And not a prophecy, whether spoken on Chebar's bank,or on the shores of Jordan, not a dream of wise men, whether they had received it in Babylon, or in Samaria, or in Judea whichwas not now fully worked out inChrist Jesus. And, Brethren, what a wonderful thing it is, that a mass of promises and prophecies and types apparently soheterogeneous, should all be accomplished in one Person!
Take away Christ for one moment and I will give the Old Testament to any wise man living and say to him, "Take this. Thisis a problem, go home and construct in your imagination an ideal character who shall exactly fit all that which is hereinforeshadowed. Remember, He must be a Prophet like untoMoses and yet a champion like Joshua. He must be an Aaron and a Melchisedek. He must be both David and Solomon, Noah andJonah, Judah and Joseph. No, He must not only be the lamb that was slain and the scapegoat that was not slain, the turtle-dovethat was dipped in blood and thepriest who slew the bird, but He must be the altar, the tabernacle, the mercy seat and the showbread."
No, to puzzle this wise man further, we remind him of prophecies so apparently contradictory that one would think they nevercould meet in one man-such as these, "All kings shall fall down before Him and all nations shall serve Him." And yet, "Heis despised and rejected of men." He must begin byshowing a man born of a virgin mother-"A virgin shall conceive and bear a Son." He must be a man without spot or blemish,but yet one upon whom the Lord does cause to meet the iniquities of us all. He must be a glorious one, a Son of David, butyet a root out of a dry ground. NowI say it boldly-if all the greatest intellects of all the ages could set themselves to work out this problem, to inventanother key to the types and prophecies-they could not do it.
I see you, you wise men-you are poring over these hieroglyphs-one suggests one key and it opens two or three of the figures.But you cannot proceed for the next one puts you at a nonplus. Another learned man suggests another clue- but that fails mostwhere it is most needed-and another andanother and thus these wondrous hieroglyphs traced of old by Moses in the wilderness must be left unexplained, till onecomes forward and proclaims-"The Cross of Christ and the Son of God incarnate"-then the whole is clear, so that he that runsmay read and a child mayunderstand.
Blessed Savior! In You we see everything fulfilled which God spoke of in old by the Prophets. In You we discover everythingcarried out in substance which God had set before us in the dim mist of sacrificial smoke. Glory be unto Your name! "It isfinished"-everything is summed up in YOU!
2. But the words have richer meaning. Not only were all types and prophecies and promises thus finished in Christ, but allthe typical sacrifices of the old Jewish Law were now abolished as well as explained.
They were finished-finished in Him. Will you imagine for a minute the saints in Heaven looking down upon what was done onearth-Abel and his friends who had long ago before the flood been sitting in the glories above? They watch while God lightsstar after star in Heaven. Promise after promiseflashes light upon the thick darkness of earth. They see Abraham come and they look down and wonder while they see God revealingChrist to Abraham in the person of Isaac. They gaze just as the angels do, desiring to look into the mystery. From the timesof Noah, Abraham, Isaac andJacob they see altars smoking, recognitions of the fact that man is guilty and the spirits before the Throne say, "Lord,when will sacrifices finish?-when will blood no more be shed?"
The offering of bloody sacrifices soon increases. It is now carried on by men ordained for the purpose. Aaron and the highpriests and the Levites every morning and every evening offer a lamb, while great sacrifices are offered on special occasions.Bullocks groan, rams bleed, the necks of dovesare wrung and all the while the saints are crying, "O Lord, how long?-when shall the sacrifice cease?" Year after year thehigh priest goes within the veil and sprinkles the mercy seat with blood. The next year sees him do the like and the nextand again and again and again.
David offers hecatombs-Solomon slaughters tens of thousands. Hezekiah offers rivers of oil, Josiah gives thousands of thefat of fed beasts and the spirits of the just say, "Will it never be complete?-will the sacrifice never be finished?- mustthere always be a remembrance of sin?-will notthe last High Priest soon come?-will not the order and line of Aaron soon lay aside its labor, because the whole is finished?"Not yet, not yet, you spirits of the just-for after the captivity the slaughter of victims still remains. But lo, He comes!Gaze more intently thanbefore-He comes who is to close the line of priests! Lo, there He stands, clothed-not now with linen ephod, not with ringingbells, nor with sparkling jewels on His breastplate-but arrayed in human flesh He stands!
His Cross, His altar, His body and His soul-the victim Himself-the Priest and lo, before His God He offers up His own soulwithin the veil of thick darkness which has covered Him from the sight of men. Presenting His own blood He enters within theveil, sprinkles it there and coming forth fromthe midst of the darkness, He looks down on the astonished earth and upward to expectant Heaven and cries, "It is finished!It is finished!"-that for which you looked so long is fully achieved and perfected forever!
3. The Savior meant, we doubt not, that in this moment His perfect obedience was finished. It was necessary, in order thatman might be saved, that the Law of God should be kept-for no man can see God's face except he is perfect in righteousness.Christ undertook to keep God's Law for His people,to obey its every mandate and preserve its every statute intact. Throughout the first years of His life He privately obeyed,honoring His father and His mother. During the next three years He publicly obeyed God, spending and being spent in His service,till if you would know what aman would be whose life was wholly conformed to the Law of God, you may see him in Christ-
"My dear Redeemer and my Lord, I read my duty in Your Word, But in Your life the Law appears Drawn out in living characters."
It needed nothing to complete the perfect virtue of life but the entire obedience of death. He who would serve God must bewilling not only to give all his soul and his strength while he lives, but he must stand prepared to resign life when it shallbe for God's glory. Our perfect Substitute putthe last stroke upon His work by dying and therefore He claims to be absolved from further debt, for "it is finished." Yes,glorious Lamb of God, it is finished! You have been tempted in all points like as we are, yet have You sinned in none! Itwas finished, for the last arrow outof Satan's quiver had been shot at You. The last blasphemous insinuation, the last wicked temptation had spent its furyon You.
The prince of this world had surveyed You from head to foot, within and without, but he had found nothing in You. Now yourtrial is over, You have finished the work which Your Father gave You to do and so finished it that Hell itself cannot accuseYou of a flaw. And now, looking upon Your entireobedience you say, "It is finished," and we Your people believe most joyously that it is even so. Brothers and Sisters,this is more than you or I could have said if Adam had never fallen. If we had been in the garden of Eden today we could neverhave boasted a finishedrighteousness-since a creature can never finish its obedience.
As long as a creature lives it is bound to obey and as long as a free agent exists on earth it would be in danger of violatingthe vow of its obedience. If Adam had been in Paradise from the first day until now, he might fall tomorrow. Left to himselfthere would be no reason why that king ofnature should not yet be uncrowned. But Christ the Creator, who finished creation, has perfected redemption. God can askno more. The Law has received all it claims, the largest extent ofjustice cannot demand another hour's obedience. It is done,it is complete. The last throw ofthe shuttle is over and the robe is woven from the top throughout. Let us rejoice, then, in this that the Master meant byHis dying cry that His perfect righteousness wherewith He covers us was finished.
4. But next, the Savior meant that the satisfaction which He rendered to the justice of God was finished. The debt was now,to the last farthing, all discharged. The atonement and propitiation were made once and for all and forever-by the one offeringmade in Jesus' body on the Tree. There wasthe cup, Hell was in it, the Savior drank it-not a sip and then a pause-not a draught and then a ceasing. He drained ittill there is not a dreg left for any of His people. The great ten-thronged whip of the Law was worn out upon His back. Thereis no lash left with which tosmite one for whom Jesus died. The great cannonade of God's justice has exhausted all its ammunition-there is nothing leftto be hurled against a child of God.
Sheathed is your sword, O Justice! Silenced is your thunder, O Law! There remains nothing now of all the griefs and painsand agonies which chosen sinners ought to have suffered for their sins, for Christ has endured all for His own Beloved and"it is finished." Brethren, it is more than the damnedin Hell can ever say. If you and I had been constrained to make satisfaction to God's justice by being sent to Hell we nevercould have said, "It is finished." Christ has paid the debt which all the torments of eternity could not have paid. Lost souls,you suffer today as you havesuffered for ages past, but God's justice is not satisfied, His Law is not fully magnified.
And when time shall fail and eternity shall have been flying on, still forever-the uttermost never having been paid, the chastisementfor sin must fall upon unpardoned sinners. But Christ has done what all the flames of the pit could not do in all eternity.He has magnified the Law and made ithonorable and now from the Cross he cries-"It is finished."
5. Once again-when He said, "It is finished," Jesus had totally destroyed the power of Satan, of sin and of death. The Championhad entered the lists to do battle for our soul's redemption against all our foes. He met Sin. Horrible, terrible, all-butomnipotent Sin nailed Him to the Cross. But inthat deed, Christ nailed Sin also to the tree. There they both did hang together-Sin and Sin's Destroyer. Sin destroyedChrist and by that destruction Christ destroyed Sin. Next came the second enemy, Satan. He assaulted Christ with all his hosts.Calling up his Myrmidons fromevery corner and quarter of the universe, he said, "Awake, arise, or be forever fallen! Here is our great Enemy who hassworn to bruise my head. Now let us bruise His heel!"
They shot their hellish darts into His heart. They poured their boiling cauldrons on His brain, they emptied their venom intoHis veins. They spat their insinuations into His face. They hissed their devilish fears into His ear. He stood alone, theLion of the tribe of Judah, hounded by all the dogsof Hell. Our champion quailed not, but used His holy weapons, striking right and left with all the power of God-supportedmanhood. On came the hosts, volley after volley was discharged against Him. No mimic thunders were these, but such as mightshake the very gates of Hell. TheConqueror steadily advanced, overturning their ranks, dashing in pieces His enemies, breaking the bow and cutting the spearin sunder and burning the chariots in the fire, while he cried, "In the name of God will I destroy you!"
At last, foot to foot, He met the champion of Hell and now our David fought with Goliath. Not long was the struggle. Thickwas the darkness which gathered round them both. But He who is the Son of God as well as the Son of Mary, knew how to smitethe fiend and He did smite him with Divine fury,till, having despoiled him of his armor, having quenched his fiery darts and broken his head, He cried, "It is finished"and sent the fiend, bleeding and howling, down to bed. We can imagine him pursued by the eternal Savior, who exclaims-
"Traitor! My bolt shall find and pierce you through, Though under Hell's profoundest wave You div'st, to seek a shelteringgrave." His thunderbolt overtook the fiend and grasping him with both His hands, the Savior drew around him the great chain.The angels brought the royal chariot from on high,to whose wheels the captive fiend was bound. Lash the coursers up the everlasting hills! Spirits made perfect come forthto meet Him. Sing to the conqueror who drags death and Hell behind Him and leads captivity captive! "Lift up your heads, Oyou gates and be you lifted up, youeverlasting doors, that the King of glory may come in." But stay-before He enters, let Him be rid of this His burden. Lo,He takes the fiend and hurls him down through illimitable night, broken, bruised, with his power destroyed, bereft of hiscrown, to lie forever howling in thepit of Hell.
Thus when the Savior cried, "It is finished," He had defeated Sin and Satan-nor less had he vanquished Death. Death had comeagainst Him, as Christmas Evans puts it, with his fiery dart which he struck right through the Savior, till the point fixedin the Cross. And when he tried to pull it outagain, he left the sting behind. What could he do more? He was disarmed. Then Christ set some of his prisoners free. Formany of the saints arose and were seen of many-then He said to him, "Death, I take from you your keys-you must live for alittle while to be the warden ofthose beds in which My saints shall sleep but give Me your keys."
And lo, the Savior stands today with the keys of death hanging at His girdle and He waits until the hour shall come of whichno man knows, when the trumpet of the archangel shall ring like the silver trumpets of Jubilee and then He shall say, "LetMy captives go free." Then shall the tombs beopened in virtue of Christ's death and the very bodies of the saints shall live again in an eternity of glory-
"'It is finished!' Hear the dying Savior cry." II. Secondly, LET US HEAR AND WONDER. Let us perceive what mighty things were effected and secured by these words, "It is finished." Thus He ratified the Covenant.That Covenant was signed and sealed before and in all things it was ordered well, but when Christ said, "It is finished,"then the Covenant was made doubly sure, when the blood of Christ's heart bespattered the Divine roll. Then it could neverbe reversed, nor could one of its ordinances be broken, nor one of its stipulations fail. You know of the Everlasting Covenant-Godcovenants on His part that He would give Christ to see of the travail of His soul-that all who were given to Him should havenew hearts and right spirits. They should be washed from sin and should enter into life through Him. Christ's side of the Covenant was this-"Father, I will do Your will. I will pay the ransom to the last jot and tittle. Iwill give You perfect obedience and complete satisfaction." Now if this second part of the Covenant had never been fulfilled,the first part would have been invalid-but when Jesus said, "It is finished"-then there was nothing left to be performed onHis part and now the Covenant is all on one side. It is God's, "I will," and "They shall." "A new heart will I give you anda right spirit will I put within you." "I will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean." "From all your iniquitieswill I cleanse you." "I will lead you by a way that you know not." "I will surely bring them in."
The Covenant that day was ratified. When Christ said, "It is finished," His Father was honored and Divine justice was fullydisplayed. The Father always did love His people. Do not think that Christ died to make God the Father loving. He always hadloved them from before the foundation of theworld, but-"It is finished," took away the barriers which were in the Father's way. He would, as a God of love and now Hecould as a God ofjustice, bless poor sinners. From that day the Father is well-pleased to receive sinners to His bosom. WhenChrist said-"It is finished," HeHimself was glorified. Then on His head descended the all-glorious crown. Then did the Father give to Him honors which Hehad not before. He had honor as God, but as Man He was despised and rejected-now as God and Man Christ was made to sit downforever on His Father's Thronecrowned with honor and majesty. Then, too, by "It is finished," the Spirit was procured for us-
"'Tis by the merit of His death Who hung upon the tree, The Spirit is sent down to breathe On such dry bones as we."
Then the Spirit which Christ had aforetime promised perceived a new and living way by which He could come to dwell in thehearts of men and men might come up to dwell with Him above. That day, too, when Christ said-"It is finished," the words hadeffect on Heaven. Then the walls of chrysolitestood fast. Then the jasper-light of the pearly-gated city shone like the light of seven days. Before, the saints had beensaved as it were on credit. They had entered Heaven, God having faith in His Son Jesus. Had not Christ finished His work,surely they must have left theirshining spheres and suffered in their own persons for their own sins.
I might represent Heaven if my imagination might be allowed a moment as being ready to totter if Christ had not finished Hiswork-its stones would have been unloosed-massive and stupendous though its bastions are. Yet they would have fallen as earthlycities reel under the throes of earthquake.But Christ said, "It is finished," and oath and Covenant and blood set fast the dwelling place of the redeemed, made theirmansions safely and eternally their own and bade their feet stand immovably upon the Rock. No, more. That word, "It is finished!"took effect in the gloomycaverns and depths of HELL. Then Satan bit his iron bands in a rage, howling, "I am defeated by the very Man whom I thoughtto overcome! My hopes are blasted. Never shall an elect one come into my prison, never a blood-bought one be found in my abode."
Lost souls mourned that day, for they said-"It is finished! And if Christ Himself, the Substitute, could not be permittedto go free till He had finished all His punishment, then we shall never be free." It was their double death-knell, for theysaid, "Alas for us! Justice, which would not sufferthe Savior to escape, will never suffer us to be at liberty. It is finished with Him and therefore it shall never be finishedfor us." That day, too, the earth had a gleam of sunlight cast over her which she had never known before. Then her hilltopsbegan to glisten with the risingof the sun.
And though her valleys still are clothed with darkness and men wander here and there and grope in the noon-day as in the night,yet that sun is rising, climbing still its heavenly steeps, never to set and soon shall its rays penetrate through the thickmists and clouds and every eye shall see Himand every heart be made glad with His light. The words "It is finished!" consolidated Heaven, shook Hell, comforted earth,delighted the Father, glorified the Son, brought down the Spirit and confirmed the Everlasting Covenant to all the chosenseed.
III. And now I come to my last point, very briefly. "It is finished!" LET US PUBLISH IT.
Children of God, you who by faith received Christ as your All in All, tell it every day of your lives that "it is finished."Go and tell it to those who are torturing themselves thinking through obedience and mortification to offer satisfaction. YonderHindu is about to throw himself down upon thespikes. Stay, poor Man! Why would you bleed, for "it is finished"? Yonder Fakir is holding his hand erect till the nailsgrow through the flesh, torturing himself with fasting and with self-denials. Cease, cease, poor wretch, from all these pains,for "it is finished!"
In all parts of the earth there are those who think that the misery of the body and the soul may be an atonement for sin.Rush to them, stay them in their madness and say to them, "Why do you this? 'It is finished.' " All the pains that God asks,Christ has suffered. All the satisfaction by way ofagony in the flesh that the Law demands, Christ has already endured. "It is finished!" And when you have done this, go nextto the benighted votaries of Rome when you see the priests with their backs to the people, offering every day the pretendedsacrifice of the mass and liftingup the host on high-a sacrifice, they say-"an unbloody sacrifice for the quick and the dead." Cry to them, "Cease, falsepriest, cease! For 'it is finished!' Cease, false worshipper, cease to bow, for 'it is finished!' "
God neither asks nor accepts any other sacrifice than that which Christ offered once for all upon the Cross. Go next to thefoolish among your own countrymen who call themselves Protestants but who are Papists after all-who think by their gifts andtheir gold, by their prayers and their vows, bytheir church-goings and their chapel-goings, by their baptisms and their confirmations to make themselves fit for God. Andsay to them, "Stop, 'it is finished.' God needs not this of you. He has received enough. Why will you pin your rags to thefine linen of Christ's righteousness?Why will you add your counterfeit farthing to the costly ransom which Christ has paid into the treasure-house of God? Ceasefrom your pains, your doings, your performances, for 'it is finished!' Christ has done it all."
This one text is enough to blow the Vatican to the four winds. Lay but this beneath Popery and like a train of gunpowder beneatha rock, it shall blast it into the air. This is a thunderclap against all human righteousness. Only let this come like a two-edgedsword and your good works and your fineperformances are soon cast away. "It is finished." Why improve on what is finished? Why add to that which is complete? TheBible is finished-he that adds to it never had his name in the Book of Life and will never see the Holy City. Christ's atonementis finished and he that addsto that must expect the selfsame doom.
And when you shall have told it thus to the ears of men of every nation and of every tribe, tell it to all poor despairingsouls. You find them on their knees, crying, "O God, what can I do to make recompense for my offenses?" Tell them, "It isfinished," the recompense is made already. "O God!"they say, "how can I ever get a righteousness in which You can accept such a worm as I am." Tell them, "It is finished,"their righteousness is worked out already. They have no need to trouble themselves about adding to it, for "it is finished."
Go to the poor despairing wretch who has given himself up, not for death merely, but for damnation-he who says, "I cannotescape from sin and I cannot be saved from its punishment." Say to him, "Sinner, the way of salvation is finished once andfor all." And if you meet some professed Christiansin doubts and fears, tell them, "It is finished." Why, we have hundreds and thousands that are converted who do not knowthat "it is finished." They never know that they are safe. They do not know that "it is finished." They think they have faithtoday but perhaps they may becomeunbelieving tomorrow. They do not know that "it is finished."
They hope God will accept them if they do some things, forgetting that the way of acceptance is finished. God as much acceptsa sinner who only believed in Christ five minutes ago as He will a saint who has known and loved Him eighty years for He doesnot accept men because of anything they do orfeel, but simply and only for what Christ did and that is finished. Oh, poor Hearts! Some of you do love the Savior in ameasure, but blindly. You are thinking that you must be this and attain to that and then you may be assured that you are saved.
Oh, you may be assured of it today-if you believe in Christ you are saved. "But I feel imperfections." Yes, but what of that?God does not regard your imperfections-He covers them with Christ's righteousness. He sees them to remove them, but not tolay them to your charge. "Yes, but I cannot bewhat I would be." But what if you can not? God does not look at you, as what you are in yourself, but as what you are inChrist.
Come with me, poor Soul and you and I will stand together this morning, while the tempest gathers, for we are not afraid.How sharp that lightning flash! But yet we tremble not. How terrible that peal of thunder! And yet we are not alarmed andwhy? Is there anything in us why we should escape? No,but we are standing beneath the Cross-that precious Cross-which like some noble lightning rod in the storm takes to itselfall the death from the lighting and all the fury from the storm. We are safe. Loud may you roar, O thundering Law and terriblymay you flash, O avengingJustice! We can look up with calm delight to all the tumult of the elements, for we are safe beneath the Cross.
Come with me again. There is a royal banquet spread. The King Himself sits at the table and angels are the servitors. Letus enter. And we do enter and we sit down and eat and drink, but how dare we do this? Our righteousness are as filthy rags-howcould we venture to come here? Oh, because thefilthy rags are not ours any longer. We have renounced our own righteousness and therefore we have renounced the filthyrags. And now, today we wear the royal garments of the Savior and are from head to foot arrayed in white, without spot orwrinkle or any such thing. We stand inthe clear sunlight-black, but comely-loathsome in ourselves, but glorious in Him! Condemned in Adam, but accepted in the
Beloved. We are neither afraid nor ashamed to be with the angels of God, to talk with the glorified, no, nor even alarmedto speak with God Himself and call Him our Friend.
And now last of all, I publish this to sinners. I know not where you are this morning, but may God find you out. You who havebeen a drunkard, swearer, thief. You who have been a blackguard of the blackest kind. You who have dived into the very kenneland rolled yourself in the mire-if today youfeel that sin is hateful to you, believe in Him who has said, "It is finished." Let me link your hand in mine, let us cometogether, both of us and say, "Here are two poor naked souls, good Lord, we cannot clothe ourselves." And He will give usa robe, for "it is finished." "But,Lord, is it long enough for such sinners and broad enough for such offenders?" "Yes," says He, "it is finished."
"But we need washing, Lord! Is there anything that can take away black spots so hideous as ours?" "Yes," says He, "here isthe bath of blood." "But must we not add our tears to it?" "No," says He, "no, it is finished. That is enough." "And now,Lord, You have washed us and You have clothed us, butwe desire to be completely clean within, so that we may never sin any more. Lord, is there a way by which this can be done?""Yes" says He, "there is the bath of water which flows from the wounded side of Christ." "And, Lord, is there enough thereto wash away my guiltiness as wellas my guilt?" "Yes," says He, "it is finished." "Jesus Christ is made unto you sanctification as well as redemption."
Child of God, will you have Christ's finished righteousness this morning and will you rejoice in it more than you have everdone before? And oh, poor Sinner, will you have Christ or nothing? "Ah," says one, "I am willing enough, but I am not worthy."He does not want any worthiness. All He asks iswillingness, for you know how He puts it, "Whoever will, let him come." If He has given you willingness, you may believein Christ's finished work this morning. "Ah," you say, "but you cannot mean me." But I do, for it says, "Ho, everyone thatthirsts."
Do you thirst for Christ? Do you wish to be saved by Him? "Everyone that thirsts"-not only that young woman yonder, not simplythat gray-headed old rebel yonder who has long despised the Savior-but this mass below and you in these double tiers of gallery-"Everyonethat thirsts, come you tothe waters and he that has no money come." O that I could "compel" you to come! Great God, won't You make the sinner willingto be saved? He wills to be damned-and will not come unless You change his will! Eternal Spirit, source of light and lifeand grace, come down and bring thestrangers home!
"It is finished." Sinner, there is nothing for God to do. "It is finished." There is nothing for you to do. "It is finished,""Christ need not bleed." It is finished. "You need not weep." "It is finished." God the Holy Spirit need not tarry becauseof your unworthiness, nor need you tarry becauseof your helplessness. "It is finished." Every stumbling block is rolled out of the road, every gate is opened, the barsof brass are broken, the gates of iron are burst asunder.
"It is finished!" Come and welcome, come and welcome! The table is laid, the fatlings are killed. The oxen are ready. Lo,here stands the messenger! Come from the highways and from the hedges! Come from the dens and from the kens of London. Come,you vilest of the vile. You who hate yourselvestoday, come! Jesus bids you! Oh, will you tarry? Oh, Spirit of God, won't You repeat the invitation and make it an effectualcall to many a heart, for Jesus' sake! Amen.