--
Reading books with ReadEra
https://readera.org

https://youtu.be/nV0PoANM1L0?si=Mdt7KsqlvJ-yseoH

https://youtu.be/xSv9gQn4HPM?si=iH0z0NN4JBCbqI2C

1 DECEMBER (1861) It is finished

‘When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.’ John 19:30 suggested further reading: Revelation 14:6–13

When Christ said ‘It is finished,’ the words had effect on heaven. Before, the saints had been saved as it were on credit. They had entered heaven, God having faith in his Son Jesus. Had not Christ finished his work, surely they must have left their shining spheres, and suffered in their own persons for their own sins.

I might represent heaven, if my imagination might be allowed a moment, as being ready to totter if Christ had not finished his work; its stones would have been unloosed; massive and stupendous though its bastions are, yet had they fallen as earthly cities reel under the throes of earthquakes.

But Christ said, ‘It is finished,’ and oath, and covenant, and blood set fast the dwelling-place of the redeemed, made their mansions safely and eternally their own, and bade their feet stand immovably upon the rock.

Moreover, that word ‘It is finished!’ took effect in the gloomy caverns and depths of hell. Then Satan bit his iron bands in rage, howling, ‘I am defeated by the very man whom I thought to overcome; my hopes are blasted; never shall an elect one come into my prison house, never a blood-bought one be found in my abode.’

Lost souls mourned that day, for they said, ‘It is finished! and if Christ himself, the substitute, could not be permitted to go free till he had finished all his punishment, then we shall never be free.’ It was their double death-knell, for they said, ‘Alas for us! Justice, which would not allow the Saviour to escape, will never allow us to be at liberty. It is finished with him, and therefore it shall never be finished for us.’

for meditation: Heaven and hell are the only places where it can be said ‘It’s started, so it will never finish’ (Matthew 25:46; Luke 16:26). We, who are by nature God’s enemies (Romans 5:10), can be delivered from the prison of hell only by the full payment of the penalty for our sins—either we accept now that Christ has fully paid that penalty, or we commit ourselves to the never-ending task of paying the penalty ourselves (Matthew 5:25–26).

sermon no. 421

Evening, December 1

“O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men.” —Psalm 107:8

If we complained less, and praised more, we should be happier, and God would be more glorified. Let us daily praise God for common mercies—common as we frequently call them, and yet so priceless, that when deprived of them we are ready to perish.

Let us bless God for the eyes with which we behold the sun, for the health and strength to walk abroad, for the bread we eat, for the raiment we wear. Let us praise him that we are not cast out among the hopeless, or confined amongst the guilty; let us thank him for liberty, for friends, for family associations and comforts; let us praise him, in fact, for everything which we receive from his bounteous hand, for we deserve little, and yet are most plenteously endowed.

But, beloved, the sweetest and the loudest note in our songs of praise should be of redeeming love. God’s redeeming acts towards his chosen are for ever the favourite themes of their praise. If we know what redemption means, let us not withhold our sonnets of thanksgiving. We have been redeemed from the power of our corruptions, uplifted from the depth of sin in which we were naturally plunged.

We have been led to the cross of Christ—our shackles of guilt have been broken off; we are no longer slaves, but children of the living God, and can antedate the period when we shall be presented before the throne without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Even now by faith we wave the palm-branch and wrap ourselves about with the fair linen which is to be our everlasting array, and shall we not unceasingly give thanks to the Lord our Redeemer? Child of God, canst thou be silent?

Awake, awake, ye inheritors of glory, and lead your captivity captive, as ye cry with David, “Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.” Let the new month begin with new songs.

Spurgeon, C. H. (1896).