It is Finished

Now, I would like to read in the New Testament, in the Gospel of John chapter 19. There are four Gospels in the New Testament, and we'll just read in the fourth Gospel, John chapter 19. In this chapter, we have the story of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus.

And we won't read the whole story, we're just going to read the last part of what happened before he died, as it's recorded in this Gospel. We're only going to read one verse, verse 30. John 19 and 30 says, when Jesus, therefore, had received the vinegar, the soldiers had come to him when he said, I thirst, and offered him this bitter drink, he said, It is finished.

And he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. In other words, Christ died. These are the last three words recorded in the Gospel of John before the Lord Jesus died.

Now try to imagine this. Here is a man who's suffering on a cross. If you can't find difficulty imagining that, so do I. But he's just outside a city, there's a major road with people coming and going, and on the side of the road there is a cross, there are three of them, and this man, Jesus, is on the middle cross.

And just as he's about to die, he says, three words in English, It is finished. Two words in Spanish, one word in his language that he spoke at that time, the language of Greek, and he says what would be the equivalent to the people passing, It's all paid. Now that would be a strange thing for a man who's been suffering, suffering intensely on a cross, about to die, to suddenly just say in a loud voice, It's all paid.

But I want you to think with me tonight about what he said and why he said it. First of all, I want you to think about the necessity of the payment that he made, the necessity of that payment. Down in Mexico, where I live, we are getting up to date slowly but surely on technology, and in fact, where we are, we can now pay our electric bills at an automatic teller machine.

We're getting advanced. And you go and you put your bill in there and it comes up, or you can type in the number of the meter at your house. I have to type the meter at my house because we don't get the bills and they don't always come on the same date, and there's a lot of variance there.

And so, not too long ago, I was concerned that maybe we had a, our bill wasn't paid, wasn't up to date, and I wouldn't want the electricity to get cut off. And we hadn't gotten a bill for some time, so I went to the automatic machine and I typed in the meter number, and up came some beautiful words. There is no debt on this account.

Oh, I was glad. I wish I could get that every time I typed in those numbers. There is no debt on this account.

You see, that would not be something that God in heaven could say about you and I. There is no debt on this account. Because you see, the Bible uses the idea of a debt to illustrate the problem that we have, the spiritual problem that we have before God, the problem of our sin. A debt is when somebody is responsible for a certain amount of money.

And when we talk about a spiritual debt, we are talking about a certain amount of responsibility for acts of sin, of disobedience, of breaking of God's law. Sin against God. In the Bible, that is a real problem.

And you, if you would like to think of it this way tonight, if you will, you have a debt, a spiritual debt, a responsibility for sin against God. Now, please understand that that is a very serious thing. Don't run for cover under the idea, well, everybody here has the same problem, as if that somehow is supposed to make us feel more comfortable.

Tonight, if every person in this auditorium was declared to have terminal cancer, you would say, well, the good thing is the rest of us, the rest of you all have what I have. You would be focused right in on the reality. I have personally a real problem.

And that's what God wants you to do tonight. To focus your attention right in on this real spiritual problem of your debts against God. Because you see, the record books of heaven are very accurate.

There is not one sin, not one sinful thought, anything that has been dirty, anything that has been unkind, anything that has passed your mind that's somehow not been written in the books of heaven. There's not one word that has ever come out of your mouth that has been inconsistent with the word of God that has been defiling, anything that has been hurtful, that's all recorded in heaven. God has the record books, the accounting books, and they're all up to date.

The Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. It says the payment for sin, the wages of sin, is death. And so tonight, if you were to put your problems all out on the table, and you were to talk about the problems in your family, the problems in your job, the problem of your health, and you put it all out on the table, your eyes should fix right in on the one that glares brighter than all other problems.

It should call your attention, it should grip your heart and your mind, I have a problem of the debt of my sin against God. Because look, when your life is all over, really if you died with a lot of financial debt, that wouldn't be a good thing, but you won't take your debt with you, that's the good part. If you died with bad health, well, you died, so that doesn't really come into it.

If you died with problems in your family, that's a serious thing, but really that wouldn't bother you and that wouldn't affect you in the next life. The only thing that you will have to be worried about in the next life, life after death, the Bible talks about a real heaven and a real hell. The only thing that you should be concerned about tonight is what about the debt of my sin? Maybe you're sitting there thinking, sir, don't talk to me about the debt of my sin.

If you want to talk about sin, why you should meet my uncle. Maybe you should meet my brother. You should hear what those people say at school.

The Lord Jesus was talking one day in Luke chapter 7 to a religious man, and there was a woman who came in and she was known. A woman with a reputation, just awful. And he said to that man, listen, he said there were two men and they borrowed money.

They went to a creditor and they borrowed money. And the one owned 50 and the other one 500. The day came when they had to pay it back.

In the illustration, Jesus, the Lord Jesus said, when they had nothing to pay. What was he trying to tell that religious man? You would agree with me, wouldn't you, Simon? A person who's a sinful, a bad, has a bad reputation that's known around town, that person will never be able to pay for their sin. And Simon, I want to tell you, you may be religious.

You may have tried to live according to the book. You may have tried to be kind to your neighbor. But I want to tell you, you have nothing to pay either.

In the eyes of God, the need for a payment. What about your debt? What could you pay God? How could you pay God? Most people have the idea, well, I'll do something good and that'll cancel out something bad. What a beautiful concept, except that that's not God's concept and that's not, it's not beautiful at all because it's not true.

The Bible says that nobody will be in heaven by their works, not by works of righteousness which we have done. That won't be, that your good works will cancel out your bad works. Some people have the idea, well, it's a bit like, one of the things I like about living in Mexico is we have juices like you have here, but they also have what they call aguas.

And what they do, for example, you take a pineapple and you squeeze the juice out of it. You add water to it and lots of sugar. And that's it.

It's not quite a juice, but it's a, oh, got to come down and try it. They're really good. All kinds of fruit, delicious.

Sometimes they make it out of lemons. Now it's not lemonade and it's not, it's not, it's not juice. It's lemon water.

But I have seen it happen where they squeeze the lemons all out and the lemons are sour. So they start adding sugar, adding sugar and adding sugar. The beauty of sugar is that if you get enough of it, it'll take away the sour.

That's how some people are approaching their lives. The debt of my sin, that sourness, that bitterness, that awfulness. If I could get enough religion in there, the sweetness of that will take away the bitterness of the other.

That's not how it works in the Bible. Would you like to know what God actually says? He says, He says about us that all of us are unclean. And what He says is our best things we do are like filthy rags.

The Bible says that we are sinful, that there is nothing we can do. It is not a case of even coming up with one thing that God would allow to dilute down our bad. So I want to ask you tonight, how are you ever going to pay for your debts? And it's an awful thing to live with a consciousness that I have a debt of sin against God.

And boys and girls and young people here tonight, what about your sin? What about your debt to God? How are you going to keep living with all of that? And I want to ask you tonight, how will you ever die knowing that you have a debt of sin against God? Could you not sense the need of a payment, the necessity of it? Wouldn't it be wonderful tonight if somebody could come along and they could pay that debt? You would be the happiest person in God, but you'd have trouble because I'm pretty happy tonight knowing that my debt has been paid and there are others here as well. You'd be one delighted person to know, have peace and be able to say, I know I'm going to heaven because my debt has been paid. You need to be on the lookout.

You need to be searching. Where could you find a payment tonight? The necessity of the payment. But you know, when Jesus said, it is finished, the people thought, you know how it would be if you saw somebody in the back of that police cruiser I've seen going around Garneville here, if you saw somebody, their car was pulled over and you saw them getting into the back with handcuffs on, what would you think? What did they do? That's the way people were as they walked down that street and they saw the man on the cross and they shook their head.

They're condemned. They've done something awful. And that's what they thought about the Lord Jesus, that he was being crucified for his own sin against God.

But the Bible tells us, it wasn't just that he hadn't broken the law. He had never sinned against God. He is the only man on planet Earth that could have that message from heaven.

There is no debt at this account. None. He had never sinned.

Never a sinful thought. He knew no sin. Never a sinful word that was spoken.

Never an unkind thing came out of his lips. He had never done anything that had hurt anybody, that had harmed anybody. No jealousy, no anger, unrighteous anger.

He had never done anything wrong. And he could not. And so then, do you not stand back and ask the obvious question? If he is saying at the end, it's paid for, the debt is paid.

If he didn't have a debt, then who was he paying for? Think about it, young man. If the Lord Jesus on the cross, when he died and the wages of sin is death, then who was he paying for? Oh, that's the great truth I discovered 35 years ago, when I wanted to be saved and I was trying to be ready to be in heaven. I had seen my friend get run over by a car, desperately wanting to have peace that night, and I could not find how I could have my debt paid.

And I came across this great need, the need of my debt being paid. And reading the Bible, I understood the answer to that question. Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just one, the one who had no debt, for the unjust ones, those who have debt.

I said to myself, that's it, my debt's paid. Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. He paid it for me.

My need was taken care of at the cross. I want to ask you tonight, do you think this could do anything for you? This great payment that was made when Jesus suffered and died, the Lord Jesus Christ, he suffered and died on the cross. I want you to think with me too about the totality, the totality of that payment.

In the Bible, there's a story in Acts chapter 5 of a man and a woman, and they had a piece of land. And they took that piece of land and they put a for sale sign on it. They sold it and they said, well, let's go and give this money to God.

And then they thought, well, why don't we take a chunk out of it and we'll pocket that? And so they did. They stuffed it in their pockets and then they went, first the man went, Ananias and then Sapphira, and they came to the apostle Peter and they said, we're giving the money from this land to God. See what they were doing? They were saying they were making a payment, but they were really holding something back.

Please, don't you think for a moment that my Savior held anything back. The Bible says that he could say, I gave my back to the smiters. He let those men whip his back till it looked like a plowed field.

He didn't pull away from shame and they spit on him. He didn't stand back and try to avoid the blows with their hands or with a rod. He didn't pull his arms away and fight when they put the nails through his hands and his feet.

The crown of thorns on his head, there was no resistance. He was giving himself. My Bible says that he gave his all because he didn't come to be served by others to be ministered unto, but to minister, to serve, and to give his life.

Could I ask you, could he have given anything else, anything more? When he suffered and died on the cross, he gave the maximum. He gave his all. It was a full payment, nothing in reserve, nothing held back.

And Jesus said, it's not just paid, it's paid in full, all the necessity and all the totality of that payment. He paid it all. You know what the good news about that is? That means he didn't leave anything for me to pay.

I couldn't, but a good thing, but he didn't. It's all paid, all paid. A payment sufficient.

So let me tell you about the immensity, the immensity of that payment, the immensity. In the Old Testament in the Bible, when somebody stole something from somebody else, just suppose that Mr. Shutt, who's going to speak to you in just a couple minutes, just suppose that I went to his house and I stole something that was worth $20. Under the Jewish law, I had to pay back the $20.

But I also have to pay 20% more, extra, beyond what the debt was, I had to pay more. That was called a trespass offering, you had to pay the extra. When the Lord Jesus was on the cross, Psalm 69, he said, I paid what I didn't take away.

You know what he's saying there? He is saying that when he suffered and died on the cross, his payment is so immense, it's beyond the debt, if you will. You know what that means? My friend here tonight, if you're looking for a payment, if you want to have your case settled, your account closed with God, listen to the good news. When Jesus said it's finished, his payment is so good, would it cover every sin? Let me ask you, what about all of your sin? You say, well I've done something, I hope nobody here ever finds out about it.

My friend, God already knows about it, and this payment is good enough. The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all types of sin. There is no sin outside the boundary, outside the boundary of this payment.

It's that great. You say, well maybe it's good for all the church people, maybe it's good for all the good people, but I'm not a person like that, I have never been inside, this is maybe the first time you've ever heard the Bible preached. I've got good news for you, there is no person that this payment couldn't be good for, nobody here on planet Earth.

He said it's finished and it's big enough to cover all the debt, bigger than the debt. If you're worried and you say, well that was good in Bible times, but I don't know about today. You know when you go to the store and there's that date on the milk carton, check the date.

Got to take it to the count and you have to say to the person, look, it's no good anymore past its date. There's no date of expiration on this payment. In other words, it's good for all times, and it's good for tonight.

I mean, could it be good for you? Does it not mean anything to you? The immensity of this payment. I remember going back to my house after I was saved, and I could take you right to the spot in my parents' kitchen, and I was standing there, and it wasn't that I felt something really marvelous, I just thought, that's really great, I don't have to pay anything, it's all paid, free for me, costly for him, it's immense, that payment. But I want you to think about the finality of that payment, the finality.

There's another man who made a payment in the Bible. He was called the Good Samaritan. He was on a journey, there was two men had gone before him, and there was a man who had been found half dead.

He had been beaten up and robbed, and there he was laying on the side of the road, he was almost, the Bible says he was half dead. He was a mess. Along come two men, religious men, and they go on, because religion can't help a man, and along comes this Good Samaritan, and he comes right where he was.

He binds him up, he fixes up his wounds, he puts him on his donkey, and he takes him to an inn, where the innkeeper is, and he drops him there, and he puts the money on the counter, and he says to that innkeeper, here's the payment. He says, if you spend any more, when I come, I will repay thee. Could I tell you tonight that when Jesus paid it and said, it is finished, He was not saying, and when I come again to this earth, I will repay, I will pay what's missing.

He said, it's finished. It's a payment once for all. Oh, he's coming tonight, young man, he's coming, he could come tonight, and if he were to come tonight, the Bible says he will come without sin unto salvation.

In other words, he's not coming back to settle the debt anymore. His payment stands. The person who is willing to put their trust in the Lord Jesus, he that believeth on the Son, has everlasting life.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Take him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.

The payment has been a payment once for all. Christ also has once for all suffered for sin. He has been offered once, once forever.

That's a final payment. Maybe there is somebody here saying, I have a debt, and I don't want to pay it. I don't want to die in my sin.

I don't want to ever meet God and face my account. I don't want to be in a real lake of fire that the Bible talks about and suffer for my sin. How could you have your debt canceled tonight? Only by a payment.

Only by a payment. And Jesus said, it's paid in full. You say, well, I would really love to know that that really is good enough.

You missed the two key words there. This is not now somebody who was there and said, I think, all right, I think I got it. I think that's what happened.

This is not some reporter giving you their editorial opinion. The man who made the payment with his own life, Jesus said, Jesus, the Son of God who can't lie, he said, it's finished. It's all paid.

First time I heard the gospel preached in Spanish, I thought this was going to be a hopeless adventure. I don't know hardly any Spanish. Mr. David Alves got up and he read these words.

In Spanish, it is finished. I memorized as he preached those words. I memorized them.

First verse I learned in Spanish. And I thought to myself, if this was all I knew, it is finished. I could die a completely happy man, sure of heaven.

Because the payment is good enough. Because he said, it's good enough for me. The question tonight in this meeting is, is it good enough for you? Jesus said, it is finished.