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.