The Way of Holiness # 4
We shall apply this doctrine in three uses: first, of inference; second, of trial or self-examination; third, of exhortation.
1. INFERENCE. If it be so that none but those that are holy are in the way to heaven, how many poor creatures are there that think they are in the way to heaven who are not? There are many that think that they are undoubtedly in the way to heaven, and without question shall enter there at last, who have not the least grain of true holiness, that manifest none in their lives and conversations, of whom we may be certain that either they have no holiness at all, or that which they have is a dormant, inactive sort - which is in effect to be certain that there is none. There are a great many others that are not so distinctly and plainly perceived, that have nothing but what is external, the shell without the kernel. Vast multitude ar4e of these two kings.
What a pitiable, miserable condition are they in - to step out of this world into an uncertain eternity, with an expectation of finding themselves exceedingly happy and blessed in the highest heaven - and all at once find themselves undeceived, and sinking in the bottomless pit!
2. TRIAL. If none are in the way to heaven but those that are holy, let us try and examine ourselves by this doctrine to see whereabouts we are, and see whether or not we are in the way to heaven. To know which way we are going, whether towards heaven or hell; for if we think ourselves in the road to heaven, but are traveling to the place of torment all the while, and continue deceived, without doubt fire and brimstone will undeceive us! If we find ourselves in the broad way to destruction, how dare we stir a step further. If we would know whether we are holy or not, let us try ourselves by then five following things:
First, Meditate on the holiness of God, and see if you cannot see a conformity, a likeness in your mind. There is no likeness or comparison in degree - we speak not of that - but yet there is a likeness in nature between God and the soul of the believer be holy, when it thinks and meditates upon God's nature, finds pleasure and delight, because there is an agreeableness in his new nature to the divine perfections. If those that think themselves in the way to heaven, that are unholy in the meantime in their hearts, would compare themselves and their nature to the holy nature of God - such a glorious light as the holiness of God would quickly discover their rottenness and unsoundness.
Second, See if you can see any resemblance in your life to the life of Christ. It is not supposed that every any copy comes near to this original, nor ever will; but yet they may perceive whether the same spirit, the same temper and disposition, in a lesser degree - is in them, that was manifested by the life and conversation of Jesus Christ.
Third, Is there an agreeableness between your souls and the Word of God? The Bible is the epistle of Christ that He has written to us; now, if the same epistle is also written in our hearts that is written in the Scriptures, it may be found out by comparing. Have you love to all God's commands and a respect to them in your actions? Is it your delight to obey and hearken to the will of God? Do you obey them of choice? Is it what you would choose to do if God had not threatened to punish the breach of them?
Fourth, Do you find by a comparison a likeness and agreeableness between your hearts and lives, and the hearts of those holy men that we are assured were such by the Word of God? Do you walk with God as Enoch did, or distinguish yourselves by your piety in the midst of wicked examples - as Noah did? And when you read the lives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and the prophets, wherein holiness is drawn to the life, you may viewing so exact a picture discover whether you have not the root of the matter in you, though it be much obscurer in you than in them. When we read the Psalms of David, we may clearly see what David's holiness was, by the spirit that is breathed there. When we read the Epistles of the apostles, we may know what is a truly evangelical spirit - and whether such a spirit reigns in our souls.
Fifth, Do you in a measure imitate the saints and angels in heaven? They spend their existence to the glory of God; they love Him above all things, are delighted with the beauties of Jesus Christ, entirely love one another - and hate sin. And those that are holy on earth have also a resemblance and imitation of them - they are of a heavenly temper, of heavenly lives and conversions.
III. EXHORTATION. Exhort all to holiness. You have heard what holiness is and of the necessity of it, the absolute necessity in order to escape hell. This is motive enough without any other. Holiness is a most beautiful, lovely thing. It is of a sweet, lovely, delightful, serene, calm, and still nature. How many angels stand with pleased, delighted, and charmed eyes, and look and look with smiles of pleasure upon that soul that is holy!
Christian holiness is above all heathen virtues, of a bright and pure nature, more serene, calm, peaceful, and delightsome. What a sweet calmness, what a calm ecstasy does it bring to the soul! Of what a meek and humble nature is true holiness; how peaceful and quiet. How does it change the soul, and make it more pure, more bright, and more excellent than other beings!
~Jonathan Edwards~
(The End)
Saturday, November 24, 2018
The Way of Holiness # 3
The Way of Holiness # 3
Whatever external acts of religion they may perform, however they may be constant attendants on the public or family worship, and live outwardly moral lives; yes, what is more, if they speak with the tongues of men and angels, though they could prophesy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though they have faith that they can remove mountains; though they bestow all their goods to feed the poor, and though they give their very bodies to be burnt: yet if they have not charity or holiness - which is the same thing, for by charity is intended love to God as well as man; though they have and do all those things, yet they are nothing; they are as a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal (1 Cor. 13). It is good that we should be thoroughly convinced of the most absolute and indispensable necessity of a real, spiritual, active and vital - yes, immortal - holiness.
3. We shall now, in the third place, give the reasons why none that are not holy can be in the way to heaven; and why those who never are so can never obtain the happiness thereof.
First, It is contrary to God's justice - to make a wicked man eternally happy. God is a God of infinite justice, and His justice (to speak after the manner of men) "obliges" Him to punish sin eternally; sin must be punished, the sins of all men must be punished. If the sinner retains his sin, and it is not washed off by the blood of Christ, and he purified and sanctified and made holy - it must be punished upon himself. If he is sanctified, his sin has been already punished in the passion of Christ; but if not, it still remains to be punished in his eternal ruin and misery; for God has said that He is a holy and jealous God, and will by no means clear the guilty. It is reckoned among the rest of God's attributes which He proclaims in Exodus 34:7 and Numbers 14:18.
Second. It is impossible by reason of God's holiness, that anything should be united to God and brought to the enjoyment of him - which is not holy. Now, is it possible that a God of infinite holiness, who is perfect and hates sins with perfect hatred, who is infinitely lovely and excellent - could embrace in His arms a filthy, abominable creature, a hideous, detestable monster, more hateful than a toad and more poisonous than a viper? So hateful, base, and abominable - is every unsanctified man, even the best hypocrite and most painted sepulchers of them all.
How impossible is it that this should be, that such loathsome beings, the picture of the devil, should be united to God: should be a member of Christ, a child of God, be made happy in the enjoyment of His love and the smiles of His countenance, should be in God and God in them? It is therefore as impossible for an unholy thing to be admitted unto the happiness of heaven, as it is for God to be turned into nothing. For it is as impossible that God should love sin as it is for Him to cease to be, and it is as impossible for Him to love a wicked man that has not his sin purified, and it is as impossible for him to enjoy the happiness of heaven except God loves him, for the happiness of heaven consists in the enjoyment of God's love.
Third. It would defile heaven and interrupt the happiness of the saints and angels. It would defile that holy place, the Holy of Holies, and would fright and terrify the sanctified spirits, and obstruct them in their delightful ecstasies of devotion, and would quite confound the heavenly society. How would one unsanctified person interrupt their happiness, and fill those regions all over with the loathsome stench of his sin and filthiness!
Fourth. The nature of sin necessarily implies misery. That soul that remains sinful must of necessity of nature remain miserable, for it is impossible there should be any happiness where such a hateful thing as sin reigns and bears rule. Sin is the most cruel tyrant that ever ruled, seeks nothing but the misery of his subjects; as in the very keeping of God's commands there is great reward, so in the very breaking of them there is great punishment.
Sin is a woeful confusion and dreadful disorder in the soul, whereby everything is put out of place, reason trampled under foot and passion advanced in its place, conscience dethroned and abominable lusts reigning. As long as it is so, there will unavoidably be a dreadful confusion and perturbation in the mind; the soul will be full of worry, perplexities, uneasiness, storms and frights, and thus it must necessarily be to all eternity, except the Spirit of God puts all to rights. So that if it were possible that God should desire to make a wicked man happy while he is wicked, the nature of the thing would not allow of it, but it would be simply and absolutely impossible.
Thus I have given some reasons of the doctrine - why it must needs be that those that are not holy cannot be in the way to heaven. Many more reasons might be offered, which the time will not allow to take notice of at this time, but these along would have been enough to certify us that none but those who are holy ever attain to a crown of glory, if God had not expressly said that without holiness no man should see the Lord.
Application
We shall apply this doctrine to three uses: first of inference; second of trial or self-examination; third, of exhortation.
~Jonathan Edwards~
(continued with # 4)
Whatever external acts of religion they may perform, however they may be constant attendants on the public or family worship, and live outwardly moral lives; yes, what is more, if they speak with the tongues of men and angels, though they could prophesy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though they have faith that they can remove mountains; though they bestow all their goods to feed the poor, and though they give their very bodies to be burnt: yet if they have not charity or holiness - which is the same thing, for by charity is intended love to God as well as man; though they have and do all those things, yet they are nothing; they are as a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal (1 Cor. 13). It is good that we should be thoroughly convinced of the most absolute and indispensable necessity of a real, spiritual, active and vital - yes, immortal - holiness.
3. We shall now, in the third place, give the reasons why none that are not holy can be in the way to heaven; and why those who never are so can never obtain the happiness thereof.
First, It is contrary to God's justice - to make a wicked man eternally happy. God is a God of infinite justice, and His justice (to speak after the manner of men) "obliges" Him to punish sin eternally; sin must be punished, the sins of all men must be punished. If the sinner retains his sin, and it is not washed off by the blood of Christ, and he purified and sanctified and made holy - it must be punished upon himself. If he is sanctified, his sin has been already punished in the passion of Christ; but if not, it still remains to be punished in his eternal ruin and misery; for God has said that He is a holy and jealous God, and will by no means clear the guilty. It is reckoned among the rest of God's attributes which He proclaims in Exodus 34:7 and Numbers 14:18.
Second. It is impossible by reason of God's holiness, that anything should be united to God and brought to the enjoyment of him - which is not holy. Now, is it possible that a God of infinite holiness, who is perfect and hates sins with perfect hatred, who is infinitely lovely and excellent - could embrace in His arms a filthy, abominable creature, a hideous, detestable monster, more hateful than a toad and more poisonous than a viper? So hateful, base, and abominable - is every unsanctified man, even the best hypocrite and most painted sepulchers of them all.
How impossible is it that this should be, that such loathsome beings, the picture of the devil, should be united to God: should be a member of Christ, a child of God, be made happy in the enjoyment of His love and the smiles of His countenance, should be in God and God in them? It is therefore as impossible for an unholy thing to be admitted unto the happiness of heaven, as it is for God to be turned into nothing. For it is as impossible that God should love sin as it is for Him to cease to be, and it is as impossible for Him to love a wicked man that has not his sin purified, and it is as impossible for him to enjoy the happiness of heaven except God loves him, for the happiness of heaven consists in the enjoyment of God's love.
Third. It would defile heaven and interrupt the happiness of the saints and angels. It would defile that holy place, the Holy of Holies, and would fright and terrify the sanctified spirits, and obstruct them in their delightful ecstasies of devotion, and would quite confound the heavenly society. How would one unsanctified person interrupt their happiness, and fill those regions all over with the loathsome stench of his sin and filthiness!
Fourth. The nature of sin necessarily implies misery. That soul that remains sinful must of necessity of nature remain miserable, for it is impossible there should be any happiness where such a hateful thing as sin reigns and bears rule. Sin is the most cruel tyrant that ever ruled, seeks nothing but the misery of his subjects; as in the very keeping of God's commands there is great reward, so in the very breaking of them there is great punishment.
Sin is a woeful confusion and dreadful disorder in the soul, whereby everything is put out of place, reason trampled under foot and passion advanced in its place, conscience dethroned and abominable lusts reigning. As long as it is so, there will unavoidably be a dreadful confusion and perturbation in the mind; the soul will be full of worry, perplexities, uneasiness, storms and frights, and thus it must necessarily be to all eternity, except the Spirit of God puts all to rights. So that if it were possible that God should desire to make a wicked man happy while he is wicked, the nature of the thing would not allow of it, but it would be simply and absolutely impossible.
Thus I have given some reasons of the doctrine - why it must needs be that those that are not holy cannot be in the way to heaven. Many more reasons might be offered, which the time will not allow to take notice of at this time, but these along would have been enough to certify us that none but those who are holy ever attain to a crown of glory, if God had not expressly said that without holiness no man should see the Lord.
Application
We shall apply this doctrine to three uses: first of inference; second of trial or self-examination; third, of exhortation.
~Jonathan Edwards~
(continued with # 4)
Saturday, November 17, 2018
The Way of Holiness # 2
The Way of Holiness # 2
And whatever holiness they may pretend to have in their hearts, whatever hypocritical pangs of affection they may have had, it is all to no purpose except it manifests itself in the holiness of their lives and conversations (James 1:26-27), "If any man among you seems to be religious, and bridles not his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this - to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." And in the second chapter, eighteenth verse: "Yes, a man may say, You have faith, and I have works: show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works." And in the nineteenth and twentieth verses, "You believe that there is one God, you do well - the devils also believe and tremble. But will you know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?" So that there must be a conformity of both heart and life to God, in order to true holiness.
Holiness is the image of God, His likeness, in him who is holy. By being conformed unto God is not meant a conformity to Him in His eternity, or infinity, or infinite power. These are God's inimitable and incommunicable attributes; but a conformity to His will, whereby He wills things that are just, right, and truly excellent and lovely; whereby He wills real perfection, and goodness, and perfectly abhors everything that is really evil, unjust, and unreasonable. And it is not only a willing as God wills, but also a doing as He does - in acting holily and justly and wisely and mercifully, like Him. It must become natural thus to be, and thus to act; it must be the constant inclination and new nature of the soul, and then the man is holy, and not before.
Second, Holiness is a conformity to Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus is perfectly conformed unto God, for He is God. He is His express image. Now Christ is nearer to us in some respects than God the Father, for He is our Mediator and is more immediately conversant with us; (John 1:18), "No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him." Jesus Christ, He has been with us in the flesh and as one of us He appeared in the form of a servant, and we have seen His holiness brightly shining forth in all His actions. We have seen His holy life; we have a copy drawn, and an example set for us.
Now holiness is a conformity unto this copy: he who copies after Jesus Christ, after that copy which He has set us and which is delivered to us by the evangelists, is holy. He who diligently observes the life of Christ in the New Testament need not be at a loss to know what holiness is. Christ commands us to follow His example. (Matthew 11:29), "Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls."
Have you ever read the four Gospels, and did you not observe in the life of Christ wonderful instances of humility, love to God, love to holiness; wonderful instances of zeal for God's glory; steadfastness in resisting temptations, entire trust and reliance on God, strict adherence to all His commands; astonishing instances of condescension, humility, meekness, lowliness, love to men, love to His enemies,charity and patience? Why, this is holiness. When we imitate Christ in these things, then are we holy, and not until then.
Third, Holiness is a conformity to God's laws and commands. When all God's laws without exception are written in our hearts, then are we holy. If you can go along with David in Psalm 119, where he speaks of his love and delight in God's law, in your own experience, when a man feels in some good measure what David declares concerning himself towards the law of God - then may God's law be said to be written in his heart. By God's law I mean all His precepts and commands, especially as they are delivered to us in the gospel, which is the fulfillment of the law of God. If you feel Christ's Sermon on the Mount engraved on the fleshly tables of your hearts, you are truly sanctified.
The new covenant is written in the hearts of those that are sanctified, of which the prophet Jeremiah speaks (31:31, 33), "Behold, the days come,says the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah. I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people."
The commands and precepts which God has given us are all pure, perfect and holy. They are the holiness of God in writing, and, when the soul is conformed to them, they have holiness of God upon their hearts; (2 Cor. 3:3), "Forasmuch as you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in the fleshly tables of the heart." When the soul is molded and fashioned according to the image of God, the example of Christ, and the rules of the gospel - then it is holy, and not else.
2. Those that have not this holiness - are not in the way to heaven. Those that are not thus conformed to God, to Christ, and God's commands - are not in the way to heaven and happiness; they are not traveling that road; the road they are in will never bring them there. Whatever hopes and expectations they may have, they will never reach heaven except they altar their course, turn about, and steer towards another point; for the way is a way of holiness, and the unclean shall not pass over it. Christ said that it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for the rich man to enter into heaven, but yet he left it absolutely possible with God that it might be; but he said positively and without exception that except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. None but those that are holy are in the way to heaven, whatever profession they may make, whatever church they may be in; for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.
~Jonathan Edwards~
(continued with # 3)
And whatever holiness they may pretend to have in their hearts, whatever hypocritical pangs of affection they may have had, it is all to no purpose except it manifests itself in the holiness of their lives and conversations (James 1:26-27), "If any man among you seems to be religious, and bridles not his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this - to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." And in the second chapter, eighteenth verse: "Yes, a man may say, You have faith, and I have works: show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works." And in the nineteenth and twentieth verses, "You believe that there is one God, you do well - the devils also believe and tremble. But will you know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?" So that there must be a conformity of both heart and life to God, in order to true holiness.
Holiness is the image of God, His likeness, in him who is holy. By being conformed unto God is not meant a conformity to Him in His eternity, or infinity, or infinite power. These are God's inimitable and incommunicable attributes; but a conformity to His will, whereby He wills things that are just, right, and truly excellent and lovely; whereby He wills real perfection, and goodness, and perfectly abhors everything that is really evil, unjust, and unreasonable. And it is not only a willing as God wills, but also a doing as He does - in acting holily and justly and wisely and mercifully, like Him. It must become natural thus to be, and thus to act; it must be the constant inclination and new nature of the soul, and then the man is holy, and not before.
Second, Holiness is a conformity to Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus is perfectly conformed unto God, for He is God. He is His express image. Now Christ is nearer to us in some respects than God the Father, for He is our Mediator and is more immediately conversant with us; (John 1:18), "No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him." Jesus Christ, He has been with us in the flesh and as one of us He appeared in the form of a servant, and we have seen His holiness brightly shining forth in all His actions. We have seen His holy life; we have a copy drawn, and an example set for us.
Now holiness is a conformity unto this copy: he who copies after Jesus Christ, after that copy which He has set us and which is delivered to us by the evangelists, is holy. He who diligently observes the life of Christ in the New Testament need not be at a loss to know what holiness is. Christ commands us to follow His example. (Matthew 11:29), "Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls."
Have you ever read the four Gospels, and did you not observe in the life of Christ wonderful instances of humility, love to God, love to holiness; wonderful instances of zeal for God's glory; steadfastness in resisting temptations, entire trust and reliance on God, strict adherence to all His commands; astonishing instances of condescension, humility, meekness, lowliness, love to men, love to His enemies,charity and patience? Why, this is holiness. When we imitate Christ in these things, then are we holy, and not until then.
Third, Holiness is a conformity to God's laws and commands. When all God's laws without exception are written in our hearts, then are we holy. If you can go along with David in Psalm 119, where he speaks of his love and delight in God's law, in your own experience, when a man feels in some good measure what David declares concerning himself towards the law of God - then may God's law be said to be written in his heart. By God's law I mean all His precepts and commands, especially as they are delivered to us in the gospel, which is the fulfillment of the law of God. If you feel Christ's Sermon on the Mount engraved on the fleshly tables of your hearts, you are truly sanctified.
The new covenant is written in the hearts of those that are sanctified, of which the prophet Jeremiah speaks (31:31, 33), "Behold, the days come,says the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah. I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people."
The commands and precepts which God has given us are all pure, perfect and holy. They are the holiness of God in writing, and, when the soul is conformed to them, they have holiness of God upon their hearts; (2 Cor. 3:3), "Forasmuch as you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in the fleshly tables of the heart." When the soul is molded and fashioned according to the image of God, the example of Christ, and the rules of the gospel - then it is holy, and not else.
2. Those that have not this holiness - are not in the way to heaven. Those that are not thus conformed to God, to Christ, and God's commands - are not in the way to heaven and happiness; they are not traveling that road; the road they are in will never bring them there. Whatever hopes and expectations they may have, they will never reach heaven except they altar their course, turn about, and steer towards another point; for the way is a way of holiness, and the unclean shall not pass over it. Christ said that it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for the rich man to enter into heaven, but yet he left it absolutely possible with God that it might be; but he said positively and without exception that except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. None but those that are holy are in the way to heaven, whatever profession they may make, whatever church they may be in; for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.
~Jonathan Edwards~
(continued with # 3)
The Way of Holiness # 1
The Way of Holiness # 1
"A highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it. No lion will be there, nor will any ferocious beast get up on it; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there" (Isaiah 35:8-9).
Observation 1. Observe in our text the subject spoken, that is, the way to salvation: "A highway will be there." This highway is the common and only way to heaven, for the way to heaven is but one. There is none who ever get to heaven except they walk in this way: some men don't get to heaven one way and others another, but it is one highway that is always traveled by those that obtain heaven.
It is the same narrow way that Christ tells us of. Some don't go to heaven in a broad way, and others in a narrow; some in an easy and others in a difficult way; some in a way of self-denial and mortification, and others in a way of enjoyment of their lusts and sinful pleasures; some up hill and others down; but the way to heaven is the same, and it is the highway here spoken of. There is only one highway, or common road, and no by-paths that some few go to heaven in, as exceptions from the rest.
If we seek ever so diligently, we shall never find out an easier way to heaven that that which Christ has revealed to us. We cannot find a broader way, but if we go to heaven, the way is so narrow that we must rub hard to get along and press forward. The kingdom of heaven must suffer violence; it must be taken by force, or else it never will be taken at all. If we don't go by the footsteps of the flock, we shall never find the place where Christ feeds, and where He makes His flock to rest at noon.
It appears that the way here spoken of is the way of salvation, by the last verse of the chapter. When speaking of this way, it is said, "the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion," etc. "Zion" is the common appellation by which, in the Old Testament, the church both militant and triumphant is signified.
Observation 2. In the words observe the holy nature of this way described: first, by the name by which it is called, "the way of holiness", "and it shall be called the way of holiness." Secondly, the holiness of those that travel in it, and its purity from those that are unclean, or unholy, "the unclean shall not pass over it." No wicked person shall ever travel in this way of holiness. To the same purpose is the next verse, "No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up therein, it shall not be found there." That is, none of the wicked men of this world, which are like lions or ravenous beasts more than like men: in their eager raging and lustful appetites and evil affections, or by their insatiable covetousness, are like hungry wolves, are violently set upon the world and will have it, whether by right or by wrong. Or make themselves like ravenous beasts by their proud, invidious, malicious dispositions, which is directly contrary to a Christian spirit and temper. They are more like wild beasts than Christians, that are wrongful and injurious, are all for themselves and the satisfying their own appetites, and care nothing for the welfare of others, their fellow-men that are of the same blood, make a god of their bellies - and therein resemble tigers and wolves.
"Now," says the Prophet, "none such shall go upon this highway to Zion; such unclean and ravenous beasts shall be found there. No, but the redeemed shall walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion." This way is a way of holiness and not to be defiled by wicked persons. That in Revelation 21:27 will serve well for an explanation of these words; "Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life."
Doctrine: Those only who are holy - are in the way to heaven.
Many are not sensible enough of the necessity of holiness in order to salvation. Everyone hopes for heaven, but if everyone that hoped for heaven actually went there, heaven would be full of murderers, adulterers, swearers, drunkards, thieves, robbers, and licentious debauchers. It would have been full of all manner of wickedness and wicked men, such as the earth abounds with at this day. There would have been those there that are better than wild beasts, howling wolves, and poisonous serpents, yes, devils incarnate, as Judas was.
What a wretched place would heaven be - if it were so! That pure, undefiled, light and glorious place, the heavenly temple, would be as the temple of Jerusalem was in Christ's time, a den of thieves; and the royal palace of the Most High, the holy metropolis of the creation, would be turned into hell! There would be no happiness there for those that are holy. What a horrible, dreadful confusion would there be - if the glorious presence of God the Father; the glorified Lamb of God, and the Heavenly Dove, Spirit of all grace and holiness; the spotless, glorified saints; and the holy angels - were all mixed up together with wicked men, beasts and devils!!
Therefore, it behooves us all to be sensible of the necessity of holiness in order to salvation; of the necessity of real, hearty and sincere, inward and spiritual holiness, such as will stand by us forever and will not leave us at death, that sinners may not be so foolish as to entertain hopes of heaven, except they intend forthwith to set about repentance and reformation of heart and life. Therefore, this is what we are now upon: to show the necessity of holiness, and this we shall do in these three things:
1. Show what holiness is.
2. That those that have it not are not in the way to heaven.
3. The reasons why it must needs be so.
1. What is holiness? I shall answer to this question in three things which fully comprehend the nature of holiness, which are not in themselves distinct as so many parts of holiness, but the same thing in three different lights, to give us the fuller understand of it.
First, Holiness is a conformity of the heart and the life unto God. Whatever outward appearance men may make by their external actions, as if they were holy, yet if it proceeds not from a most inward, hearty and sincere holiness within, it is nothing. Amaziah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart (2 Kings 14:1-20); all that he did was not acceptable to God, who searches the hearts and tried the thoughts of the children of men, and must be worshiped in spirit and in truth.
~Jonathan Edwards~
(continued with # 2)
"A highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it. No lion will be there, nor will any ferocious beast get up on it; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there" (Isaiah 35:8-9).
Observation 1. Observe in our text the subject spoken, that is, the way to salvation: "A highway will be there." This highway is the common and only way to heaven, for the way to heaven is but one. There is none who ever get to heaven except they walk in this way: some men don't get to heaven one way and others another, but it is one highway that is always traveled by those that obtain heaven.
It is the same narrow way that Christ tells us of. Some don't go to heaven in a broad way, and others in a narrow; some in an easy and others in a difficult way; some in a way of self-denial and mortification, and others in a way of enjoyment of their lusts and sinful pleasures; some up hill and others down; but the way to heaven is the same, and it is the highway here spoken of. There is only one highway, or common road, and no by-paths that some few go to heaven in, as exceptions from the rest.
If we seek ever so diligently, we shall never find out an easier way to heaven that that which Christ has revealed to us. We cannot find a broader way, but if we go to heaven, the way is so narrow that we must rub hard to get along and press forward. The kingdom of heaven must suffer violence; it must be taken by force, or else it never will be taken at all. If we don't go by the footsteps of the flock, we shall never find the place where Christ feeds, and where He makes His flock to rest at noon.
It appears that the way here spoken of is the way of salvation, by the last verse of the chapter. When speaking of this way, it is said, "the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion," etc. "Zion" is the common appellation by which, in the Old Testament, the church both militant and triumphant is signified.
Observation 2. In the words observe the holy nature of this way described: first, by the name by which it is called, "the way of holiness", "and it shall be called the way of holiness." Secondly, the holiness of those that travel in it, and its purity from those that are unclean, or unholy, "the unclean shall not pass over it." No wicked person shall ever travel in this way of holiness. To the same purpose is the next verse, "No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up therein, it shall not be found there." That is, none of the wicked men of this world, which are like lions or ravenous beasts more than like men: in their eager raging and lustful appetites and evil affections, or by their insatiable covetousness, are like hungry wolves, are violently set upon the world and will have it, whether by right or by wrong. Or make themselves like ravenous beasts by their proud, invidious, malicious dispositions, which is directly contrary to a Christian spirit and temper. They are more like wild beasts than Christians, that are wrongful and injurious, are all for themselves and the satisfying their own appetites, and care nothing for the welfare of others, their fellow-men that are of the same blood, make a god of their bellies - and therein resemble tigers and wolves.
"Now," says the Prophet, "none such shall go upon this highway to Zion; such unclean and ravenous beasts shall be found there. No, but the redeemed shall walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion." This way is a way of holiness and not to be defiled by wicked persons. That in Revelation 21:27 will serve well for an explanation of these words; "Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life."
Doctrine: Those only who are holy - are in the way to heaven.
Many are not sensible enough of the necessity of holiness in order to salvation. Everyone hopes for heaven, but if everyone that hoped for heaven actually went there, heaven would be full of murderers, adulterers, swearers, drunkards, thieves, robbers, and licentious debauchers. It would have been full of all manner of wickedness and wicked men, such as the earth abounds with at this day. There would have been those there that are better than wild beasts, howling wolves, and poisonous serpents, yes, devils incarnate, as Judas was.
What a wretched place would heaven be - if it were so! That pure, undefiled, light and glorious place, the heavenly temple, would be as the temple of Jerusalem was in Christ's time, a den of thieves; and the royal palace of the Most High, the holy metropolis of the creation, would be turned into hell! There would be no happiness there for those that are holy. What a horrible, dreadful confusion would there be - if the glorious presence of God the Father; the glorified Lamb of God, and the Heavenly Dove, Spirit of all grace and holiness; the spotless, glorified saints; and the holy angels - were all mixed up together with wicked men, beasts and devils!!
Therefore, it behooves us all to be sensible of the necessity of holiness in order to salvation; of the necessity of real, hearty and sincere, inward and spiritual holiness, such as will stand by us forever and will not leave us at death, that sinners may not be so foolish as to entertain hopes of heaven, except they intend forthwith to set about repentance and reformation of heart and life. Therefore, this is what we are now upon: to show the necessity of holiness, and this we shall do in these three things:
1. Show what holiness is.
2. That those that have it not are not in the way to heaven.
3. The reasons why it must needs be so.
1. What is holiness? I shall answer to this question in three things which fully comprehend the nature of holiness, which are not in themselves distinct as so many parts of holiness, but the same thing in three different lights, to give us the fuller understand of it.
First, Holiness is a conformity of the heart and the life unto God. Whatever outward appearance men may make by their external actions, as if they were holy, yet if it proceeds not from a most inward, hearty and sincere holiness within, it is nothing. Amaziah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart (2 Kings 14:1-20); all that he did was not acceptable to God, who searches the hearts and tried the thoughts of the children of men, and must be worshiped in spirit and in truth.
~Jonathan Edwards~
(continued with # 2)
Sunday, November 11, 2018
It Is Finished # 5 (and others)
It Is Finished # 5 (and others)
It wasn't the Greeks that put Him there, it wasn't the Romans that put Him there - they were all there, I thank God for that. The Greeks were there, their day was over, they were coming out of their glory, they were fading out. They were the past generation. The Romans were there, they were the ruling generation at that time. And who else were there? Well, the black folk were there, a future generation.
So, you see, the past, the present, the future, all were at the Cross. If you lay a cross on the floor it points North, South, East and West. If you stand the cross up it embraces - as Wesley says, "The arm of love that compass me do all mankind embrace." If you stand it up it points to a topless heaven and to a bottomless hell and the arms are outstretched to save.
We are mutilating all the hymns and we are mutilated that gorgeous hymn we sing so often, "Beneath the Cross of Jesus." A stanza of it says this, listen,
"The darkness of an awful grave
That gapes both deep and wide;"
"And there between us stands the Cross,
Two arms outstretched to save,
Like a watchman set to guard the way
From that eternal grave."
At the other side of that Cross there is an eternal grave, and the only obstruction to that eternal grave is the finished work of the Lord Jesus. You see, it is finished, the law and the prophets they've no... at least the Old Testament economy, as we say, has no power. Sin, if we obey God, has no dominion over us. Death has no dominion over us. The power of satan has been broken. Heaven has received Christ. And the next thing is not only "It is finished," but "He is Risen" which will be superseded with "I will come again."
We shouldn't put our tongue in our cheek and say this in a whisper. We ought to shout this from the house top. To a world that is groping in darkness we ought to proclaim with a trumpet voice, "It is FINISHED, you can't buy salvation, you can't crawl on your knees through the holy city, you can't go on a pilgrimage, you can't offer your righteousness, there is nothing you can do, but bow in humility and confess and accept it."
It is finished. That is the language of earth. Why? Because in heaven they never say, "It is finished." Because it is never going to be finished, for all eternity. Oh, redemption is finished, sure enough. All that I said is finished. But you see, this never finishes. We are going to live and reign with Him for ever and ever. And Gabriel isn't going to blow the trumpet one day and say, "Hey, you've been living in this super millennium for four billion trillion years and it's over." NO SIR. I like that part of the Messiah where it goes up and as they sing "And He shall reign for ever and ever. King of kings." Nobody wants it to finish in eternity. We are going to be with the eternal Bride Groom. But wait a minute. They never say it in hell either.
There will be people in hell today and people in hell a billion years from now. No messenger will come from another world and say, "It is finished. Your judgment is passed. You've no more suffering for your sin. The wrath of God doesn't abide in you anymore." No. If we are going to escape that eternal judgment, if we are going to enter that eternal rest, it must happen now. Isn't it amazing that people withhold their petty little lives from Him? That they love their sin enough to get the anger and wrath of God? Rather than repent, and believe, and be saved?
Christ's love is, "so amazing and so divine,"
That He bore our sins in His body,
That He took the curse and the wrath of God upon Him.
That He took our sins and His heart was broken that ours might be healed.
He was an outcast that we might be brought in.
He suffered without the gate that we might enter into heaven and said....
"IT IS FINISHED!"
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(The End)
[copyright/Reproduction Limitations: This file is the sole property of Leonard Ravenhill. It may not be altered or edited in any way. It may be reproduced in its entirety as "freeware" without charge. Copyright (c) 1995 by Leonard Ravenhill, Lindale, Texas")]
______________________________
His all-seeing Eye!
There is nothing too hard for God" (Jeremiah 32:17).
There is nothing too difficult for God to discover. His eyes are in every place - beholding the evil and the good.
Nothing can elude His notice, or escape His all-seeing eye!
All things are naked and open before Him with whom we have to do. He approves or disapproves - of every motive, word, or action which passes before His omniscient eye.
He discovers the true state of every HEART - though the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Every heart lies naked and exposed before Him. He fathoms its depths. He turns over its intricate folds. He analyzes its dismal contents. He is fully acquainted with every principle which influences it, with every thought which arises within it, with every word and work which proceed from it.
No one can hid his heart in secret from the Lord!
"Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting." (Psalm 139:23-24).
~James Smith~
It wasn't the Greeks that put Him there, it wasn't the Romans that put Him there - they were all there, I thank God for that. The Greeks were there, their day was over, they were coming out of their glory, they were fading out. They were the past generation. The Romans were there, they were the ruling generation at that time. And who else were there? Well, the black folk were there, a future generation.
So, you see, the past, the present, the future, all were at the Cross. If you lay a cross on the floor it points North, South, East and West. If you stand the cross up it embraces - as Wesley says, "The arm of love that compass me do all mankind embrace." If you stand it up it points to a topless heaven and to a bottomless hell and the arms are outstretched to save.
We are mutilating all the hymns and we are mutilated that gorgeous hymn we sing so often, "Beneath the Cross of Jesus." A stanza of it says this, listen,
"The darkness of an awful grave
That gapes both deep and wide;"
"And there between us stands the Cross,
Two arms outstretched to save,
Like a watchman set to guard the way
From that eternal grave."
At the other side of that Cross there is an eternal grave, and the only obstruction to that eternal grave is the finished work of the Lord Jesus. You see, it is finished, the law and the prophets they've no... at least the Old Testament economy, as we say, has no power. Sin, if we obey God, has no dominion over us. Death has no dominion over us. The power of satan has been broken. Heaven has received Christ. And the next thing is not only "It is finished," but "He is Risen" which will be superseded with "I will come again."
We shouldn't put our tongue in our cheek and say this in a whisper. We ought to shout this from the house top. To a world that is groping in darkness we ought to proclaim with a trumpet voice, "It is FINISHED, you can't buy salvation, you can't crawl on your knees through the holy city, you can't go on a pilgrimage, you can't offer your righteousness, there is nothing you can do, but bow in humility and confess and accept it."
It is finished. That is the language of earth. Why? Because in heaven they never say, "It is finished." Because it is never going to be finished, for all eternity. Oh, redemption is finished, sure enough. All that I said is finished. But you see, this never finishes. We are going to live and reign with Him for ever and ever. And Gabriel isn't going to blow the trumpet one day and say, "Hey, you've been living in this super millennium for four billion trillion years and it's over." NO SIR. I like that part of the Messiah where it goes up and as they sing "And He shall reign for ever and ever. King of kings." Nobody wants it to finish in eternity. We are going to be with the eternal Bride Groom. But wait a minute. They never say it in hell either.
There will be people in hell today and people in hell a billion years from now. No messenger will come from another world and say, "It is finished. Your judgment is passed. You've no more suffering for your sin. The wrath of God doesn't abide in you anymore." No. If we are going to escape that eternal judgment, if we are going to enter that eternal rest, it must happen now. Isn't it amazing that people withhold their petty little lives from Him? That they love their sin enough to get the anger and wrath of God? Rather than repent, and believe, and be saved?
Christ's love is, "so amazing and so divine,"
That He bore our sins in His body,
That He took the curse and the wrath of God upon Him.
That He took our sins and His heart was broken that ours might be healed.
He was an outcast that we might be brought in.
He suffered without the gate that we might enter into heaven and said....
"IT IS FINISHED!"
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(The End)
[copyright/Reproduction Limitations: This file is the sole property of Leonard Ravenhill. It may not be altered or edited in any way. It may be reproduced in its entirety as "freeware" without charge. Copyright (c) 1995 by Leonard Ravenhill, Lindale, Texas")]
______________________________
His all-seeing Eye!
There is nothing too hard for God" (Jeremiah 32:17).
There is nothing too difficult for God to discover. His eyes are in every place - beholding the evil and the good.
Nothing can elude His notice, or escape His all-seeing eye!
All things are naked and open before Him with whom we have to do. He approves or disapproves - of every motive, word, or action which passes before His omniscient eye.
He discovers the true state of every HEART - though the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Every heart lies naked and exposed before Him. He fathoms its depths. He turns over its intricate folds. He analyzes its dismal contents. He is fully acquainted with every principle which influences it, with every thought which arises within it, with every word and work which proceed from it.
No one can hid his heart in secret from the Lord!
"Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting." (Psalm 139:23-24).
~James Smith~
It Is Finished # 4
It Is Finished # 4
It is finished. What is finished? Well, alleluia, from one angle this is finished, men aren't going to abuse Him anymore. A hymn writer says, "The head that once was crowned with thorns is crowned with glory now, the royal diadem adorns the mighty Victor's brow." He is out of the reach of men. They aren't going to push Him around. They aren't going to crucify. They aren't going to nail Him to a tree. How do you know that those thieves that were hailing Him and cursing Him on the tree were not part of the crowd of the thousand He fed. He did not discriminate. He did not say, "Give it to Jews, but not to those, and not to those Greeks, and..." He said, "Feed them!" Well, He throws His mercy over the air, over a hundred nations, a thousand peoples this afternoon.
"Tell me the story of Jesus,
Write on my heart every word.
Fasting alone in the desert,
Think of the pain that He bore,"
Oh, my God, my God. To me it is insufferable that the church has lived for 2000 years and there is still a person in the world that doesn't hear the gospel. There are still 1000 tribes that don't have the written Gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ. Partly our fault. I am glad, I lived in a house where all was talk about God and missionaries - I prayed for missionaries when I didn't know if they were missionaries or football players - but I prayed for them.
He said, "It is finished." What is finished? Man's power over Him. What is finished? satan's abuse of Him. satan's testing of Him.
He started with forty days in the wilderness and He ministered three years. How long did He live before the three years? Thirty years. So He had ten years training for every year He was going to minister. That's pretty good training, isn't it?
Thirty years of training? But again, He is going to do in this one act what all the "blood of beasts on Jewish altars slain, could give no guilty conscience peace nor wash away one stain, but Christ, the Heavenly Lamb, takes all our sins away." Ten million oxen have been slain. Thousands of sheep, sacrifices have been made, new moons and Sabbaths; people have done all kinds of things, and Jesus ties it all up in one redemptive act: Christ the Heavenly Lamb.
No, He is not going to be tempted anymore now. He is not going to be looking out of His eye corners as He carries that awesome Cross, and carries the sin of the world and thinks, "I can't see Peter around or anyone." He suffered heartbreak because His disciples were unfaithful. He suffered heartbreak because the synagogue and the temple rejected Him. I say they knew the law and the prophets. They heard Isaiah 35 so many times; they dreamed of it. The highway shall be there and bondages are going to cease, the Romans will lose their power over us. There is going to be no cripple, no lame. He is going to heal and cure and everybody is going to be sanctified." And when they met Him in flesh and blood they didn't even know Him. Do you know why? Because He didn't do it their way - that's why. Because He put new wine in the old wine skins, and they burst.
The last great outpouring - a lot of people say it's here, I don't believe that for a minute. I believe we have one or two tickets, but surely not an outpouring. Someone said recently, "Well, if this is the visitation; if there are fifty million born again people, they why is the nation in this condition?" Well, the salt has lost its savor. I believe there will be such a visitation that even the workings of God will become headlines above the sports headlines, above political headlines, above economic headlines. There are going to be such manifestations of divine power that God is going to get the glory for His Son. That's going to shake the world too. It is finished! When He said, "It is finished," really He is saying, "I don't need this body anymore. I don't need food anymore. I don't need sleep anymore. I am not a human being any more in the sense you know humanity. IT IS FINISHED!" Men have no power over Me. satan has no power over Me."
It is finished. What was finished? The tyranny of the devil. I don't think the church has wakened up to that yet, but it is finished. It is so. I believe that when Jesus cried with a loud voice it echoed down every corridor in hell. IT IS FINISHED! I can almost hear the demons in hell say, "What? He's broken our power." You mean that satan doesn't have...?" No, no, no. satan is bound. And not only that, death has lost it's sting." What? "Yes, death has lost it's sting. And more than that...The vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus his pardon receives." It doesn't matter if he is going in the Waldorf Astoria this afternoon with somebody else's wife dripping with diamonds. Or if he is a bum down the street. Or he is with the folk that still go naked to the beach every week there in San Diego and defy the police to arrest them. Or whether he is a big ecciestiastical guy standing behind the desk with his mind loaded with such modernistic ideas. It makes no difference. If he comes to the Cross..." Well, we sang about it this afternoon, "That old rugged Cross, so despised by the world has a wondrous attraction."
"It is finished." The implication of the Greek word is "This is complete." This is redemption complete. You can't add to it. You can't subtract from it. It doesn't need something the priest says added to it. Jesus made a perfect redemption for men. His blood was shed. It's more than all the blood of beasts. Because again, it says in Hebrews 10:9, "If the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works." He not only paid the total sum of human sin, He nailed it to the tree. That's what He did.
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(continued with # 5)
[Copyright/Reproduction Limitations: This file is the sole property of Leonard Ravenhill. It cannot be altered or edited in any way. I may be reproduced only in its entirety as "freeware" without charge. Copyright (c) Leonard Ravenhill, Lindale, Texas"]
It is finished. What is finished? Well, alleluia, from one angle this is finished, men aren't going to abuse Him anymore. A hymn writer says, "The head that once was crowned with thorns is crowned with glory now, the royal diadem adorns the mighty Victor's brow." He is out of the reach of men. They aren't going to push Him around. They aren't going to crucify. They aren't going to nail Him to a tree. How do you know that those thieves that were hailing Him and cursing Him on the tree were not part of the crowd of the thousand He fed. He did not discriminate. He did not say, "Give it to Jews, but not to those, and not to those Greeks, and..." He said, "Feed them!" Well, He throws His mercy over the air, over a hundred nations, a thousand peoples this afternoon.
"Tell me the story of Jesus,
Write on my heart every word.
Fasting alone in the desert,
Think of the pain that He bore,"
Oh, my God, my God. To me it is insufferable that the church has lived for 2000 years and there is still a person in the world that doesn't hear the gospel. There are still 1000 tribes that don't have the written Gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ. Partly our fault. I am glad, I lived in a house where all was talk about God and missionaries - I prayed for missionaries when I didn't know if they were missionaries or football players - but I prayed for them.
He said, "It is finished." What is finished? Man's power over Him. What is finished? satan's abuse of Him. satan's testing of Him.
He started with forty days in the wilderness and He ministered three years. How long did He live before the three years? Thirty years. So He had ten years training for every year He was going to minister. That's pretty good training, isn't it?
Thirty years of training? But again, He is going to do in this one act what all the "blood of beasts on Jewish altars slain, could give no guilty conscience peace nor wash away one stain, but Christ, the Heavenly Lamb, takes all our sins away." Ten million oxen have been slain. Thousands of sheep, sacrifices have been made, new moons and Sabbaths; people have done all kinds of things, and Jesus ties it all up in one redemptive act: Christ the Heavenly Lamb.
No, He is not going to be tempted anymore now. He is not going to be looking out of His eye corners as He carries that awesome Cross, and carries the sin of the world and thinks, "I can't see Peter around or anyone." He suffered heartbreak because His disciples were unfaithful. He suffered heartbreak because the synagogue and the temple rejected Him. I say they knew the law and the prophets. They heard Isaiah 35 so many times; they dreamed of it. The highway shall be there and bondages are going to cease, the Romans will lose their power over us. There is going to be no cripple, no lame. He is going to heal and cure and everybody is going to be sanctified." And when they met Him in flesh and blood they didn't even know Him. Do you know why? Because He didn't do it their way - that's why. Because He put new wine in the old wine skins, and they burst.
The last great outpouring - a lot of people say it's here, I don't believe that for a minute. I believe we have one or two tickets, but surely not an outpouring. Someone said recently, "Well, if this is the visitation; if there are fifty million born again people, they why is the nation in this condition?" Well, the salt has lost its savor. I believe there will be such a visitation that even the workings of God will become headlines above the sports headlines, above political headlines, above economic headlines. There are going to be such manifestations of divine power that God is going to get the glory for His Son. That's going to shake the world too. It is finished! When He said, "It is finished," really He is saying, "I don't need this body anymore. I don't need food anymore. I don't need sleep anymore. I am not a human being any more in the sense you know humanity. IT IS FINISHED!" Men have no power over Me. satan has no power over Me."
It is finished. What was finished? The tyranny of the devil. I don't think the church has wakened up to that yet, but it is finished. It is so. I believe that when Jesus cried with a loud voice it echoed down every corridor in hell. IT IS FINISHED! I can almost hear the demons in hell say, "What? He's broken our power." You mean that satan doesn't have...?" No, no, no. satan is bound. And not only that, death has lost it's sting." What? "Yes, death has lost it's sting. And more than that...The vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus his pardon receives." It doesn't matter if he is going in the Waldorf Astoria this afternoon with somebody else's wife dripping with diamonds. Or if he is a bum down the street. Or he is with the folk that still go naked to the beach every week there in San Diego and defy the police to arrest them. Or whether he is a big ecciestiastical guy standing behind the desk with his mind loaded with such modernistic ideas. It makes no difference. If he comes to the Cross..." Well, we sang about it this afternoon, "That old rugged Cross, so despised by the world has a wondrous attraction."
"It is finished." The implication of the Greek word is "This is complete." This is redemption complete. You can't add to it. You can't subtract from it. It doesn't need something the priest says added to it. Jesus made a perfect redemption for men. His blood was shed. It's more than all the blood of beasts. Because again, it says in Hebrews 10:9, "If the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works." He not only paid the total sum of human sin, He nailed it to the tree. That's what He did.
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(continued with # 5)
[Copyright/Reproduction Limitations: This file is the sole property of Leonard Ravenhill. It cannot be altered or edited in any way. I may be reproduced only in its entirety as "freeware" without charge. Copyright (c) Leonard Ravenhill, Lindale, Texas"]
Saturday, November 3, 2018
It Is Finished # 3
It Is Finished # 3
Did people stand in awe and say, "The priest has gone in, will he come out?" This is what they said as the holiest man that ever lived trudged up that road that they call the "via dolorosa," staggering under a Cross. 'Ha, ha, He is the Man that talked about being strong and He gave strength to the weak, and eyes to the blind, and He did a lot of things, and look He can't keep up the load." He wasn't sinking under the load of the Cross. He was carrying the weight of the sin of the world!!
Those poor dumb, blind folks that stood there, the gamblers, and the thieves, the lawyers and the doctors and the soldiers had no eyes to see. Here is a man staggering up this road Who is going to take the consummate sin and grief, not of one nation, but of the WHOLE WORLD! He isn't burdened under a Cross of wood - He is carrying the sin of the world which Samson, with all his strength, could not carry. He is solving a problem that Solomon, with all his wisdom, could not solve.
Oh, blind idiots looking out of their chariots, those Romans with their proud garments, those priests who thought they had an investiture from God, those merchants who scorned His poverty. God pity them!!
He is going to the Cross. He hasn't got a dime in His pocket! Nobody stood by Him. Not even His disciples. Isn't there a hymn that says:
"The pain in His heart was the hardest to bear,
The heart that was broken for me."?
Again, I say, He is not going to repeat the act. He is doing it once and for all. That's what He is doing. See, Jesus is the consummation of everything, every type that is in the Old Testament. You can take the sacrificial type - He is the red heifer. - He is the perfect lamb. He is the dove whose breast was put in blood and thrown away, sent out into the air.
But the priest has no sacrifice. It does not cost him a thing - he is using the blood of beasts. This Man is going to enter the holiest place of all in His own blood. Not every year but once forever. The priest that walks into the holy place to the astonishment and amazement of all the people is going to go once and eventually is going to die - but our High Priest is going to live forever. He is the perfect offering and He is the perfect Priest, He is the perfect Prophet and He is the perfect King.
Moses is the greatest prophet, but a "greater than Moses is here." You take the perfection of every one of those characters in the Old Testament and He is the ultimate in perfection. He has the wisdom of Solomon. He has the patience of Job. He has the self-reliance of Nehemiah. He has the statesmanship of Moses. He has the courage of Joshua. He has the broken heart of Jeremiah. All rolled into one personality. Do you wonder that satan said, "If you can get that Man out of God's will, if we can push Him out of the main track, we can hold the world captive for millions and millions of millenniums.
Again, going down that road the people mocked Him - that's what the Bible says. "They that passed by reviled Him wagging their heads." What a bunch of dumb, blind, senseless folk. If Caesar comes down the road they bow the knee and say, "Hail, Caesar." If the priest comes, they stand in awe. But, you see, He not only was, He IS. In this mad, insane, world in which we live,k HE IS STILL DESPISED AND REJECTED OF MEN!
As you know, I am not very fond of translations of the New Testament - I like the good old King James. But I love this verse in Phillips's translation. I am going to get it printed as a little card. His translation of Ephesians 1:10 is this: "For God has allowed us to know the secret of His plan. He purposes in His sovereign will that all human history shall be consummated in Christ." I don't care how drunk the nations are with their iniquity today! I don't care that politicians are as hypocritical today as they were in Nixon's day or anybody else's. I don't care how intoxicated men are with iniquity. I don't care that people say we are nearer a blowout in the Middle East at this moment than ever we've been for years. But listen, God has allowed us to know. Come on, lift your chin up however rough the going. God has allowed us to know. We are initiated. We are believers. We know Him, and He has allowed us to know the secret of His plan, and it's this: "He purposes in His sovereign will that all human history shall be consummated in His Christ.
Could you try and imagine what Jesus was thinking on that road to the Cross? I think the earth shook beneath His feet. I say God draped the sun - He would not let anybody see His Son bear the sin. He became sin for us! Remember please, will you? When Jesus utters these three words - it is finished - it is after the three hours of darkness that covered the whole earth. There was a historian in Egypt at the time who wrote this, listen, "in this awful mid-day that has become midnight, either God is suffering or Somebody He loves is suffering." That was a pagan testimony. The whole world shook under the impact. He is not bearing millions or trillions or quadrillions. He is bearing the total sum of human sin! Not only committed sin but depravity as a whole.
They reviled Him, they shook their heads. Verse 41 of that 27th chapter of Matthew says, "Likewise the chief priests." These are the men who know the law and the prophets. These are the men that read Isaiah 35 so many times, "When He comes the eyes of the blind shall be opened." And He did it before them and they still spit on His face, because that's what it says a bit later on.
Oh, you have it rough and I have it rough at times. Anybody boot your behind and nearly break your spine? Anybody get a nice mouthful of flem and spit in your eye? Anybody take your beard and pull the flesh out with it? Anybody say, "Well, I know you of course, you are devil possessed"? They mocked Him, they scorned Him, they reviled Him. The people passing by wagged their heads. And then the priests mocked Him. But wait a minute, there were two men beside Him crucified, you know what they did? The thieves which were with Him, they cast the same in His teeth. Isn't it amazing that to the very doorstep of hell itself they scorned Him and blasphemed Him? And they were a heartbeat away from eternity. Well, one of the hymns says about this Lord Jesus of ours, "It is the way the Master went, should not the servant tread it still?"
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(continued with # 4)
Copyright/Reproduction Limitations: this file is the sole property of Leonard Ravenhill. It may not be altered or edited in any way. It may be reproduced as "freeware" without charge. Copyright (c) 1995 Leonard Ravenhill, Lindale, Texas.
Did people stand in awe and say, "The priest has gone in, will he come out?" This is what they said as the holiest man that ever lived trudged up that road that they call the "via dolorosa," staggering under a Cross. 'Ha, ha, He is the Man that talked about being strong and He gave strength to the weak, and eyes to the blind, and He did a lot of things, and look He can't keep up the load." He wasn't sinking under the load of the Cross. He was carrying the weight of the sin of the world!!
Those poor dumb, blind folks that stood there, the gamblers, and the thieves, the lawyers and the doctors and the soldiers had no eyes to see. Here is a man staggering up this road Who is going to take the consummate sin and grief, not of one nation, but of the WHOLE WORLD! He isn't burdened under a Cross of wood - He is carrying the sin of the world which Samson, with all his strength, could not carry. He is solving a problem that Solomon, with all his wisdom, could not solve.
Oh, blind idiots looking out of their chariots, those Romans with their proud garments, those priests who thought they had an investiture from God, those merchants who scorned His poverty. God pity them!!
He is going to the Cross. He hasn't got a dime in His pocket! Nobody stood by Him. Not even His disciples. Isn't there a hymn that says:
"The pain in His heart was the hardest to bear,
The heart that was broken for me."?
Again, I say, He is not going to repeat the act. He is doing it once and for all. That's what He is doing. See, Jesus is the consummation of everything, every type that is in the Old Testament. You can take the sacrificial type - He is the red heifer. - He is the perfect lamb. He is the dove whose breast was put in blood and thrown away, sent out into the air.
But the priest has no sacrifice. It does not cost him a thing - he is using the blood of beasts. This Man is going to enter the holiest place of all in His own blood. Not every year but once forever. The priest that walks into the holy place to the astonishment and amazement of all the people is going to go once and eventually is going to die - but our High Priest is going to live forever. He is the perfect offering and He is the perfect Priest, He is the perfect Prophet and He is the perfect King.
Moses is the greatest prophet, but a "greater than Moses is here." You take the perfection of every one of those characters in the Old Testament and He is the ultimate in perfection. He has the wisdom of Solomon. He has the patience of Job. He has the self-reliance of Nehemiah. He has the statesmanship of Moses. He has the courage of Joshua. He has the broken heart of Jeremiah. All rolled into one personality. Do you wonder that satan said, "If you can get that Man out of God's will, if we can push Him out of the main track, we can hold the world captive for millions and millions of millenniums.
Again, going down that road the people mocked Him - that's what the Bible says. "They that passed by reviled Him wagging their heads." What a bunch of dumb, blind, senseless folk. If Caesar comes down the road they bow the knee and say, "Hail, Caesar." If the priest comes, they stand in awe. But, you see, He not only was, He IS. In this mad, insane, world in which we live,k HE IS STILL DESPISED AND REJECTED OF MEN!
As you know, I am not very fond of translations of the New Testament - I like the good old King James. But I love this verse in Phillips's translation. I am going to get it printed as a little card. His translation of Ephesians 1:10 is this: "For God has allowed us to know the secret of His plan. He purposes in His sovereign will that all human history shall be consummated in Christ." I don't care how drunk the nations are with their iniquity today! I don't care that politicians are as hypocritical today as they were in Nixon's day or anybody else's. I don't care how intoxicated men are with iniquity. I don't care that people say we are nearer a blowout in the Middle East at this moment than ever we've been for years. But listen, God has allowed us to know. Come on, lift your chin up however rough the going. God has allowed us to know. We are initiated. We are believers. We know Him, and He has allowed us to know the secret of His plan, and it's this: "He purposes in His sovereign will that all human history shall be consummated in His Christ.
Could you try and imagine what Jesus was thinking on that road to the Cross? I think the earth shook beneath His feet. I say God draped the sun - He would not let anybody see His Son bear the sin. He became sin for us! Remember please, will you? When Jesus utters these three words - it is finished - it is after the three hours of darkness that covered the whole earth. There was a historian in Egypt at the time who wrote this, listen, "in this awful mid-day that has become midnight, either God is suffering or Somebody He loves is suffering." That was a pagan testimony. The whole world shook under the impact. He is not bearing millions or trillions or quadrillions. He is bearing the total sum of human sin! Not only committed sin but depravity as a whole.
They reviled Him, they shook their heads. Verse 41 of that 27th chapter of Matthew says, "Likewise the chief priests." These are the men who know the law and the prophets. These are the men that read Isaiah 35 so many times, "When He comes the eyes of the blind shall be opened." And He did it before them and they still spit on His face, because that's what it says a bit later on.
Oh, you have it rough and I have it rough at times. Anybody boot your behind and nearly break your spine? Anybody get a nice mouthful of flem and spit in your eye? Anybody take your beard and pull the flesh out with it? Anybody say, "Well, I know you of course, you are devil possessed"? They mocked Him, they scorned Him, they reviled Him. The people passing by wagged their heads. And then the priests mocked Him. But wait a minute, there were two men beside Him crucified, you know what they did? The thieves which were with Him, they cast the same in His teeth. Isn't it amazing that to the very doorstep of hell itself they scorned Him and blasphemed Him? And they were a heartbeat away from eternity. Well, one of the hymns says about this Lord Jesus of ours, "It is the way the Master went, should not the servant tread it still?"
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(continued with # 4)
Copyright/Reproduction Limitations: this file is the sole property of Leonard Ravenhill. It may not be altered or edited in any way. It may be reproduced as "freeware" without charge. Copyright (c) 1995 Leonard Ravenhill, Lindale, Texas.
It Is Finished # 2
It Is Finished # 2
I was thinking of this great hymn of Wesley today. He is talking about the Cross and he says this:
"Would Jesus have the sinner die?
Why hangs He then on yonder tree?
What means that strange expiring cry?
Sinner He prays for you and me,
'Forgive them Father, O forgive.
They know not, that by Me they live.'
Thou loving all atoning Lamb
Thee - by Thy painful agony,
Thy blood, Thy sweat, Thy grief, Thy shame,
Thy Cross and passion on the tree,
Thy precious death and life - I pray
Take all, take all my sins away!"
And then, in the rapture of that, Charles Wesley says this (and it's so wonderful. I can see that woman crying at the feet of Jesus, and I can see John Wesley, scholarly, dignified, trailing his academic gown behind him in Oxford University.)
"Oh, let me kiss Thy bleeding feet.
And bathe and wash them with my tears,
The story of Thy love repeat,
In every drooping sinner's ears,
That all mankind with me may prove,
Thy sovereign everlasting love."
"Oh, let Thy love my heart constrain."
You see if He works it inward, it's going to work outward somewhere. God only puts up with words so long. A brother said to me during this week, "You know, brother, I think we die in areas of our life. We don't die totally to God's Spirit. We die in areas. God gives up on us, in certain areas. He does not tolerate anymore. We said so much, we made our vows, we won't do it, God bypasses us in that area." Hold fast to that that thou hast that no man take thy crown! (Not demons, but that men take thy crown.)
So Charles finishes his hymn by saying this:
"Oh, let Thy love my heart constrain,
Thy love for every sinner free,
That every fallen soul of man
May taste the grace that found out me,
That all mankind with me may prove,
Thy sovereign, everlasting love."
This, I say, was the most momentous moment in history. Hell had feared this moment for centuries, for millenniums!
Why do you think the devil greased the path of Jesus and tried to make Him take a short cut to conquer the world? Why do you think he stirred up enmity among the religious people? You see, there is one rotten canker that is in so many churches, as well as it was before. What does it say about Joseph? His brothers sold him. For what? For envy. What does it say about the Lord Jesus? The priests sold Him for envy. That festering thing in the heart of men and women. They sold Him because of envy. They sold Him because they hated Him. He was only a little baby, less than two years of age, when they had what history calls the Massacre of the Innocents.
I said to you before, I'll say it to you again, whether you love me or hate me for it: If you've got children you ought to be up an hour before they go to school and cover those children every day with the blood of Jesus and really lay hold of the promises. They live in a hell of a world in the day in which we live. If you don't do it, I'll do it for you. Remember, when satan thinks there is something going to happen, he is going to dog that child. I prayed, and I still do, whether you know it or not. I pray for some of our kids, if I am here or not, if Jesus tarries, they will become some of the leaders half a generation, a decade from now. God will make them missionaries and evangelists, and teachers, and apostles, in the last great awakening (which men are trying to work right up no and you can't do it.) But He is going to get youngsters and fill them with the Spirit, and teenagers in their early years.
Remember Moses. You know, people say if you are good you do as the government tells you. If you are good, you tell the government to go to hell if they want to go and you obey God! And the father and mother of Moses did not obey the government, they hid their baby when the government said it should be destroyed. He is going to be the law giver, he is going to be one of the greatest men in history, and satan says NO! The same thing happened in the life of Jesus. Jesus is not two years old and Herod is troubled and all Jerusalem with him," and they said, "destroy Him." I often think about king Herod - he had more than than the disciples. Somebody said, "You better believe it, that little fellow is the Son of God with power and authority. He is going to dethrone you and wreck your kingdom." And so just as they tried to destroy Moses at two years of age or under, they tried to destroy Jesus. From the moment He was born to the last thing on the Cross.
As I've said so often, I still say to myself - I need to - that even if you've gone to the Cross, even if you got on the Cross, the old devil comes with subtlety and he says, "Listen, get down from the cross and save yourself. Nobody is living like you. They live it up. They can't tell the difference, except they go to church on Sunday. Other than that, as for prayer and fasting and seeking God and travail...so... Why do you do it? Why don't you get an easier job? Get ten times as much as you get - going round her or going to some fancy church or some other thing - He comes to you in some way. You've decided you were going to live according to the standard of the Lord Jesus and he says, "Well, why don't you pinch it a little bit here, and reduce your convictions there, and not be so stiff right there, and do just a little compromise. Ha, everybody gets away with it."
From His infancy to the Cross, the last thing they did, I read in Matthew when He had gone to the Cross, they passed by - the scum of the earth passed by - and they wagged their heads and reviled Him. It was nothing unusual to see a man go down the street carrying a cross. It's as common as a boy carrying a baseball bat. "Hey, look who is going, do you know who that is?" So what, they put many a false prophet to death. Only He is a bit more brazen than the others, you know, He preached a sermon He aid would shake the world, called it the Sermon on the Mount. He has a bit more power but, you know why He does it? You know why He pushes devils around? Because He is the prince of devils, they have to obey Him." Here is the holiest, purest, most spotless man that ever lived. What does the world do? Blister Him, Blast Him, Bruise Him.
They watched a man go down the street. Well, when the high priest went into the holy place, did he go in rags like this? Stained with His own blood? Had He been up for hours? Had He been pushed around by a vassel king by the name of Pilot, who said, "Oh, You get over to Herod. You are in his domain." And Herod says, "You get back into his territory...I don't want this, responsibility?" You think the high priest could have gone into the holy place with a faded gown that once belonged to a king, and a crown of thorns, and spit on His jaw, and hair pulled from His face, struggling under a load as though He was drunk? The priest went into the holy place in garments of glory and beauty, the most beautiful garments in the world, all hand sown, meticulous, marvelous. He went with a crown on his head, he went with a breast plate. Beautiful stones.
How did Jesus go? Jesus went staggering to the Cross. Did He have a stone? A red stone on His breast? No, Just His own blood, that's all. Did He have an immaculate garment threaded? No, a peasant's garment. Did He have a golden crown with "Holiness unto the Lord? No, He had a crown of thorns with holiness in His spirit.
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(continued with # 3)
[Copyright/Reproduction Limitations: It may be reproduced as "freeware" and not altered in any way. Copyright (c) 1995 by Leonard Ravenhill, Lindale, Texas.
I was thinking of this great hymn of Wesley today. He is talking about the Cross and he says this:
"Would Jesus have the sinner die?
Why hangs He then on yonder tree?
What means that strange expiring cry?
Sinner He prays for you and me,
'Forgive them Father, O forgive.
They know not, that by Me they live.'
Thou loving all atoning Lamb
Thee - by Thy painful agony,
Thy blood, Thy sweat, Thy grief, Thy shame,
Thy Cross and passion on the tree,
Thy precious death and life - I pray
Take all, take all my sins away!"
And then, in the rapture of that, Charles Wesley says this (and it's so wonderful. I can see that woman crying at the feet of Jesus, and I can see John Wesley, scholarly, dignified, trailing his academic gown behind him in Oxford University.)
"Oh, let me kiss Thy bleeding feet.
And bathe and wash them with my tears,
The story of Thy love repeat,
In every drooping sinner's ears,
That all mankind with me may prove,
Thy sovereign everlasting love."
"Oh, let Thy love my heart constrain."
You see if He works it inward, it's going to work outward somewhere. God only puts up with words so long. A brother said to me during this week, "You know, brother, I think we die in areas of our life. We don't die totally to God's Spirit. We die in areas. God gives up on us, in certain areas. He does not tolerate anymore. We said so much, we made our vows, we won't do it, God bypasses us in that area." Hold fast to that that thou hast that no man take thy crown! (Not demons, but that men take thy crown.)
So Charles finishes his hymn by saying this:
"Oh, let Thy love my heart constrain,
Thy love for every sinner free,
That every fallen soul of man
May taste the grace that found out me,
That all mankind with me may prove,
Thy sovereign, everlasting love."
This, I say, was the most momentous moment in history. Hell had feared this moment for centuries, for millenniums!
Why do you think the devil greased the path of Jesus and tried to make Him take a short cut to conquer the world? Why do you think he stirred up enmity among the religious people? You see, there is one rotten canker that is in so many churches, as well as it was before. What does it say about Joseph? His brothers sold him. For what? For envy. What does it say about the Lord Jesus? The priests sold Him for envy. That festering thing in the heart of men and women. They sold Him because of envy. They sold Him because they hated Him. He was only a little baby, less than two years of age, when they had what history calls the Massacre of the Innocents.
I said to you before, I'll say it to you again, whether you love me or hate me for it: If you've got children you ought to be up an hour before they go to school and cover those children every day with the blood of Jesus and really lay hold of the promises. They live in a hell of a world in the day in which we live. If you don't do it, I'll do it for you. Remember, when satan thinks there is something going to happen, he is going to dog that child. I prayed, and I still do, whether you know it or not. I pray for some of our kids, if I am here or not, if Jesus tarries, they will become some of the leaders half a generation, a decade from now. God will make them missionaries and evangelists, and teachers, and apostles, in the last great awakening (which men are trying to work right up no and you can't do it.) But He is going to get youngsters and fill them with the Spirit, and teenagers in their early years.
Remember Moses. You know, people say if you are good you do as the government tells you. If you are good, you tell the government to go to hell if they want to go and you obey God! And the father and mother of Moses did not obey the government, they hid their baby when the government said it should be destroyed. He is going to be the law giver, he is going to be one of the greatest men in history, and satan says NO! The same thing happened in the life of Jesus. Jesus is not two years old and Herod is troubled and all Jerusalem with him," and they said, "destroy Him." I often think about king Herod - he had more than than the disciples. Somebody said, "You better believe it, that little fellow is the Son of God with power and authority. He is going to dethrone you and wreck your kingdom." And so just as they tried to destroy Moses at two years of age or under, they tried to destroy Jesus. From the moment He was born to the last thing on the Cross.
As I've said so often, I still say to myself - I need to - that even if you've gone to the Cross, even if you got on the Cross, the old devil comes with subtlety and he says, "Listen, get down from the cross and save yourself. Nobody is living like you. They live it up. They can't tell the difference, except they go to church on Sunday. Other than that, as for prayer and fasting and seeking God and travail...so... Why do you do it? Why don't you get an easier job? Get ten times as much as you get - going round her or going to some fancy church or some other thing - He comes to you in some way. You've decided you were going to live according to the standard of the Lord Jesus and he says, "Well, why don't you pinch it a little bit here, and reduce your convictions there, and not be so stiff right there, and do just a little compromise. Ha, everybody gets away with it."
From His infancy to the Cross, the last thing they did, I read in Matthew when He had gone to the Cross, they passed by - the scum of the earth passed by - and they wagged their heads and reviled Him. It was nothing unusual to see a man go down the street carrying a cross. It's as common as a boy carrying a baseball bat. "Hey, look who is going, do you know who that is?" So what, they put many a false prophet to death. Only He is a bit more brazen than the others, you know, He preached a sermon He aid would shake the world, called it the Sermon on the Mount. He has a bit more power but, you know why He does it? You know why He pushes devils around? Because He is the prince of devils, they have to obey Him." Here is the holiest, purest, most spotless man that ever lived. What does the world do? Blister Him, Blast Him, Bruise Him.
They watched a man go down the street. Well, when the high priest went into the holy place, did he go in rags like this? Stained with His own blood? Had He been up for hours? Had He been pushed around by a vassel king by the name of Pilot, who said, "Oh, You get over to Herod. You are in his domain." And Herod says, "You get back into his territory...I don't want this, responsibility?" You think the high priest could have gone into the holy place with a faded gown that once belonged to a king, and a crown of thorns, and spit on His jaw, and hair pulled from His face, struggling under a load as though He was drunk? The priest went into the holy place in garments of glory and beauty, the most beautiful garments in the world, all hand sown, meticulous, marvelous. He went with a crown on his head, he went with a breast plate. Beautiful stones.
How did Jesus go? Jesus went staggering to the Cross. Did He have a stone? A red stone on His breast? No, Just His own blood, that's all. Did He have an immaculate garment threaded? No, a peasant's garment. Did He have a golden crown with "Holiness unto the Lord? No, He had a crown of thorns with holiness in His spirit.
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(continued with # 3)
[Copyright/Reproduction Limitations: It may be reproduced as "freeware" and not altered in any way. Copyright (c) 1995 by Leonard Ravenhill, Lindale, Texas.
It Is Finished # 1
It Is Finished # 1
John 19:30 "When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar He said, "It is finished" and bowed His head and gave up the ghost"
I said last week that I'd attempt to talk to you on the three most important words, I believe, in history - IT IS FINISHED. This is one of the seven sayings, as we say, of the Lord Jesus on the Cross. Just three words - IT IS FINISHED. The greatest Words ever uttered by the Greatest Man that ever lived.
In these three words I see the consummation of all the Old Testament truth and the germination of all New Testament truth.
I don't believe that ever in history, anywhere, at any time, by anybody, were three words more pregnant with meaning than these three words given by one Man at the end of His life - It is finished. It is finished.
Now supposing that you were here and I was where you are - How would you start to handle text like this? I feel as though I am trying to catch the wind in my arm. I am trying to pick up the Atlantic Ocean up in a sieve. How do I deal with it? Its magnitude staggers me, its mystery staggers me, its majesty staggers me.
It seems to me that here is a terminus in the life of the Lord Jesus: all the prophesies, all the law, all the prophets, terminate in this saying of the Lord Jesus Christ. And everything from here blossoms out because that is the beginning of it all. Three simple words - it is finished.
I suggest to you in all reverence that these three words terrified hell! IT IS FINISHED!
You see, this English phrase of ours, this little sentence, is not in the Greek at all. And I don't know much about Greek, but I did discover that in the Greek it is just one word: FINISHED!
Matthew 27 says that Jesus cried with a loud voice: "FINISHED!" And I am sure all hell shook! You see, this is an arena into which Jesus is moving. You can say the life of Jesus was a three act drama. You get the first years of His life, 30 years in preparation for 3 years. The first chapter has been written, the second chapter is now coming to a climax on the Cross, the third chapter is yet to come in all His resurrection splendor
There is nothing to equal it anywhere!
I get indignant when I hear people say, "What we need to do is study comparative religion." Well, I say again with some heat and some feeling in my spirit, Christianity is not a comparative religion, it's a SUPERLATIVE religion! Because this one saying of Jesus Christ explodes every other religion on God's earth! They are all fakes! They are all useless. This momentous event ... I can see demons peeping out from hell as they see Jesus has gone to the Cross. I can see angels looking over the parapets of heaven, I can see the Jews and the Romans and the Greeks. They are all at the Cross!
The Cross of Jesus...we sing the hymn -
"Beneath the Cross of Jesus I fain would take my stand,
The shadow of a mighty rock within a weary land,
A home within the wilderness, a rest upon the way."
Look, if you put the Cross on Palestine, like that, and let the arms go round, you can scoop them round the whole world, because geographically, the Cross is almost the center of the world. It is the center of time. When we shot a rocket, did we change the calendar? When we invented the atom bomb, did we change the calendar? Isn't it amazing a little Baby came into the world and He divided time? - He divided men - He divided nations. People say, "If we have revival we'll all be one." NO!! If we have revival we will be more divided than ever!
The first thing Jesus did before He could walk or talk was divide men. Herod was troubled and all Jerusalem with him." The last thing He did on the Cross was divide men. In His lifetime He divided men. He went into the Synagogue and there was a division because of Him. Wherever Jesus goes there is division.
And those demons were looking down in terror. Come on, come on, you've forgotten. Think again about the majesty of this event. You know how great it was? One of His other sayings was, "My God, my God why hast Thou forsaken Me?" In a tongue He knew so well, He says, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani." Which we can hardly interpret except: "My God, I am deserted." Everybody deserted Him. You see, there at that moment when Jesus said: "It is finished," Mercy and Truth met together, Righteousness and Peace kissed each other... and hell went into panic! How do I know? Because the earth was shattered. The whole earth rocked on it's axis. The earth trembled under the impact of the sin that He bore for us. Heaven trembled under the impact of the sin that He bore for us. Heaven trembled.... I've been to art galleries around the world, you've been in many I guess, you saw some beautiful pictures. But you know, there never was a photo of the Cross; it's representations are all imagination. That event was so sacred that, as it were, God took His coat off and hung it over the sun. And there was darkness for three hours. He would not let anybody see His Son become corruption.
Jesus Christ, in the mystery of God's divine grace, was, as Wesley says, God "contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man," in the incarnation. The heaven of heavens cannot contain Him. Yet, He clothed Himself in flesh and blood and crept into a woman's womb. How God became man I do not know, but less, less, less do I know HOW DID HE BECOME SIN?
You know the answer? No, you don't. Neither does any living person. Every man who's honest - take Spurgeon or anybody - the more honest the man is he, more he says, "I am baffled." As I get older I see more and more that, "great is the mystery of Godliness." I said to a brother today, "I feel that in spiritual matters, after 55 years walking with God, I don't have my feet wet, not even the sole underneath, never mind water to the ankles, or the knees, or the loins."
God has opened His treasure house to us. As I've used the phrase so often: Do we really explore the possibilities of God? What's the most exciting thing in your life? Don't answer me, answer straight up to God. Tell Him what is the most exciting thing. That you become more knowledgeable, make more money, become more fit? What is the most exciting thing to you? Is it that day by day you slip in to Him and worship and adore Him?
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(continued with # 2)
Copyright/Reproduction Limitations: It may be reproduced only in its entirety as "freeware" without charge. "Copyright (c) by Leonard Ravenhill, Lindale, Texas).
John 19:30 "When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar He said, "It is finished" and bowed His head and gave up the ghost"
I said last week that I'd attempt to talk to you on the three most important words, I believe, in history - IT IS FINISHED. This is one of the seven sayings, as we say, of the Lord Jesus on the Cross. Just three words - IT IS FINISHED. The greatest Words ever uttered by the Greatest Man that ever lived.
In these three words I see the consummation of all the Old Testament truth and the germination of all New Testament truth.
I don't believe that ever in history, anywhere, at any time, by anybody, were three words more pregnant with meaning than these three words given by one Man at the end of His life - It is finished. It is finished.
Now supposing that you were here and I was where you are - How would you start to handle text like this? I feel as though I am trying to catch the wind in my arm. I am trying to pick up the Atlantic Ocean up in a sieve. How do I deal with it? Its magnitude staggers me, its mystery staggers me, its majesty staggers me.
It seems to me that here is a terminus in the life of the Lord Jesus: all the prophesies, all the law, all the prophets, terminate in this saying of the Lord Jesus Christ. And everything from here blossoms out because that is the beginning of it all. Three simple words - it is finished.
I suggest to you in all reverence that these three words terrified hell! IT IS FINISHED!
You see, this English phrase of ours, this little sentence, is not in the Greek at all. And I don't know much about Greek, but I did discover that in the Greek it is just one word: FINISHED!
Matthew 27 says that Jesus cried with a loud voice: "FINISHED!" And I am sure all hell shook! You see, this is an arena into which Jesus is moving. You can say the life of Jesus was a three act drama. You get the first years of His life, 30 years in preparation for 3 years. The first chapter has been written, the second chapter is now coming to a climax on the Cross, the third chapter is yet to come in all His resurrection splendor
There is nothing to equal it anywhere!
I get indignant when I hear people say, "What we need to do is study comparative religion." Well, I say again with some heat and some feeling in my spirit, Christianity is not a comparative religion, it's a SUPERLATIVE religion! Because this one saying of Jesus Christ explodes every other religion on God's earth! They are all fakes! They are all useless. This momentous event ... I can see demons peeping out from hell as they see Jesus has gone to the Cross. I can see angels looking over the parapets of heaven, I can see the Jews and the Romans and the Greeks. They are all at the Cross!
The Cross of Jesus...we sing the hymn -
"Beneath the Cross of Jesus I fain would take my stand,
The shadow of a mighty rock within a weary land,
A home within the wilderness, a rest upon the way."
Look, if you put the Cross on Palestine, like that, and let the arms go round, you can scoop them round the whole world, because geographically, the Cross is almost the center of the world. It is the center of time. When we shot a rocket, did we change the calendar? When we invented the atom bomb, did we change the calendar? Isn't it amazing a little Baby came into the world and He divided time? - He divided men - He divided nations. People say, "If we have revival we'll all be one." NO!! If we have revival we will be more divided than ever!
The first thing Jesus did before He could walk or talk was divide men. Herod was troubled and all Jerusalem with him." The last thing He did on the Cross was divide men. In His lifetime He divided men. He went into the Synagogue and there was a division because of Him. Wherever Jesus goes there is division.
And those demons were looking down in terror. Come on, come on, you've forgotten. Think again about the majesty of this event. You know how great it was? One of His other sayings was, "My God, my God why hast Thou forsaken Me?" In a tongue He knew so well, He says, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani." Which we can hardly interpret except: "My God, I am deserted." Everybody deserted Him. You see, there at that moment when Jesus said: "It is finished," Mercy and Truth met together, Righteousness and Peace kissed each other... and hell went into panic! How do I know? Because the earth was shattered. The whole earth rocked on it's axis. The earth trembled under the impact of the sin that He bore for us. Heaven trembled under the impact of the sin that He bore for us. Heaven trembled.... I've been to art galleries around the world, you've been in many I guess, you saw some beautiful pictures. But you know, there never was a photo of the Cross; it's representations are all imagination. That event was so sacred that, as it were, God took His coat off and hung it over the sun. And there was darkness for three hours. He would not let anybody see His Son become corruption.
Jesus Christ, in the mystery of God's divine grace, was, as Wesley says, God "contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man," in the incarnation. The heaven of heavens cannot contain Him. Yet, He clothed Himself in flesh and blood and crept into a woman's womb. How God became man I do not know, but less, less, less do I know HOW DID HE BECOME SIN?
You know the answer? No, you don't. Neither does any living person. Every man who's honest - take Spurgeon or anybody - the more honest the man is he, more he says, "I am baffled." As I get older I see more and more that, "great is the mystery of Godliness." I said to a brother today, "I feel that in spiritual matters, after 55 years walking with God, I don't have my feet wet, not even the sole underneath, never mind water to the ankles, or the knees, or the loins."
God has opened His treasure house to us. As I've used the phrase so often: Do we really explore the possibilities of God? What's the most exciting thing in your life? Don't answer me, answer straight up to God. Tell Him what is the most exciting thing. That you become more knowledgeable, make more money, become more fit? What is the most exciting thing to you? Is it that day by day you slip in to Him and worship and adore Him?
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(continued with # 2)
Copyright/Reproduction Limitations: It may be reproduced only in its entirety as "freeware" without charge. "Copyright (c) by Leonard Ravenhill, Lindale, Texas).
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