It is finished. It is enough

The Gospel of John, please, chapter 19. John chapter 19 and verse 28. After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, says, I thirst.

Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar, and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon Hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus, therefore, had received the vinegar, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up the ghost.

Those words in verse 30, it is finished. One more reference in Genesis 45. Verse 25.

Now the setting here, as many will know, is that Joseph is second in command in Egypt, and his brothers have come down there to get food. And at the beginning of chapter 45, Joseph reveals, they didn't realize it was Joseph. They thought he died, or was out of the picture many years before.

And Joseph tells them to go back home, and bring their father, and come with, and them to come with him to Egypt. So in verse 25, and they, that is Joseph's brothers, went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father, and told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not.

And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them. And when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived, and Israel said, it is enough. Joseph my son is yet alive.

I will go and see him before I die. Now here in verse 28, those words of Jacob, it is enough. We read in John 19, it is finished.

We read in Genesis 45, it's enough. I wonder if there's anyone left here this afternoon, after this conference of two days, who in a hundred years, you're not going to be with the Lord Jesus. You're not going to be with Christians.

You see, this is what encourages me. This is what encourages the assembly here to preach the gospel at the end of a conference. Not just to go through the motions of going through another gospel meeting, but because my friend, you are going to live somewhere forever.

And if there's just one person here that isn't ready to meet God, there's never been a time in your life when you've been truly born again. It's worth it all. Now I don't know everybody here.

I know a few. I don't know everybody. And I know it's, if you've been here for two days, it's been a lot of meetings, long weekend, many people wearied.

I understand that. But you know, if you're not saved right now, you could be saved before you leave the conference. Because we read those words of the Lord Jesus on the cross.

It's finished. Everything has been done that needs to be done. So a sinner like you and a sinner like me can go to heaven and know for sure.

Do you know for sure? You know, I was saved a number of years before I heard that you could know for sure. I didn't know for sure. But I'll tell you, it's one of the greatest truths that God has shown me.

That my getting to heaven doesn't depend upon me. How I live before I'm saved, how I live after I'm saved, it depends on what Christ did on the cross. And those words, it is finished.

My friend, he has done everything that needs to be done to solve your biggest problem. You say, well, I have a lot of problems. Let me tell you, your biggest problem it's your sin that separates you from God.

It separated me from God for 25 years. And most of those 25 years, I didn't realize it because I never read the Bible, never heard the gospel. It didn't change anything.

If I had have died, and you know, I grew up in Canada. I was going to school in Toronto. And I board my roommate's car, a little Volkswagen Beetle or bug.

And I used to play in a band and I was at the guitar player's house, his parents' house. He was Italian and had a big meal. And I was going back to where I lived.

And I used to drive too fast in those days. And there's a road in Toronto, cobblestone streets, and I used to like to drive that as fast as I could. And I don't remember much of what happened.

But I do remember waking up and looking at the face of a paramedic and hearing the siren sound of the ambulance. And I had lost control, hit a tree, I was thrown out of the car, and the neighbor who saw the accident told the police she doesn't know how anybody could survive an accident like that. The only part of the car that wasn't demolished was right in the driver's area.

God was so kind to me, I ended up with some head injuries, but it turned out to be not that severe. But the reason I'm telling you this story, if I had died then, and I could have, I was in my early 20s, I'd be in hell right now. And I would deserve to be there because of my sin.

But friend, there's no sin with God, there's no sin in heaven. And if you're ever going to be in heaven, your sin's going to have to be taken away. And this is why the Lord Jesus came.

This is why God sent his one and only son, eventually to the cross death, to do for you what you can't do for yourself. To solve your biggest problem, the problem of your sin. Does it mean anything to you tonight that Jesus says it's finished? Listen, if your sin has never been a burden to you, it's not going to mean too much, just words, right? But I'll tell you, if your sin is a burden to you, these words can mean everything.

It's finished. You know, my wife had a totally different background and upbringing than I did. She grew up in a Christian home, heard the gospel from her earliest years, and yet it wasn't until she was a girl of 15 that she was born again, that she was really saved.

And it was through these words, it is finished. You know, she'd been struggling, she knew she needed to be saved, she believed everything she heard, she thought. And people would talk to her, well, you believe this, believe this? Yeah, she believed it all, but she knew she wasn't saved.

She believed about it. She wasn't resting in what God said, until that night she was singing to those words, it's finished. And she simply realized, he's done everything, I don't have to do anything.

She just rested in what Christ did on the cross. What did he do? He died for our sins. He took the penalty our sins deserve.

All our sins, past, present, and future. In a few hours, the Lord Jesus experienced what we should experience in hell and the lake of fire forever. This is what he came to do, for the love of God.

He said it's finished, and he died. Now the question is, is that enough for you? Is that enough? Are you looking for something more? You know, we read about Jacob. When his sons came back from Egypt, and they told him, you know, Joseph is governor of the land of Egypt.

He's alive. Now, Jacob thought, mistakenly, that Joseph had died many years before, that he had been killed by a wild animal. What do we read there? Jacob didn't believe it.

The words of his own sons, Jacob didn't believe it. And they told him what Joseph himself said. Jacob still wouldn't believe it, until he saw the wagons.

Now, Joseph had sent these wagons for his aged father and families to come back. What do we read? When Jacob saw the wagons, he believed. And what did he say? It's enough.

I'm satisfied now, Jacob's alive. Now, Jacob had to see something before he would say, it's enough. A lot of people today, they want to see something, they want to feel something, they want to do something, before they'll say, it's enough.

My own mother, she never became a Christian until late in life. I was the first one saved in her family. And she used to tell me, you know, I was trying to tell her about the Lord and about the gospel.

And she said, well, if I could see him, see him do something, then I'd believe in him. That's what she used to say, like so many. You say, well, I know I'm not going to see anything.

But the point is, is it enough for you, my friend, what Christ did and what God says? What's God say? God says Christ said it's finished. You know, we believe things that people tell us. And sometimes it's not true.

And yet we're so slow to just believe what God says. So back to the question, is it enough? Sometimes you're saying, is it enough that Jesus died and that he died for me? You know, just a little while ago, I saw in the news something that happens with regularity every year around the time of Easter over in the Philippines. Maybe you have seen this, but there are people there that whip themselves until their backs bleed.

And there are some on the island of the Philippines, they even allow themselves to be nailed to a cross, a wooden cross with these stainless steel nails for a few minutes every Easter. And one man's done it, I don't know how many times. Why do they do it? I'm going to quote from a news source here.

This is what they say. These people, they undergo the hardships, the whippings, the being put on a cross. They undergo the hardships in the belief that such extreme sacrifices are a way to atone for their sins.

They're simply saying they do this so that all this suffering that they do, I mean, can you imagine having nails in your hands and feet? They go through that thing that's going to make up for their sins. So they can have their sins somehow taken away. See, what Christ did on the cross, that's not enough for them.

They think they have to do something. In fact, and again, I'm going to quote from, this is NBC News. This was a tourist from Denmark who went over there and saw this.

These people put up on a cross for a few minutes. This is what one woman said. It's intriguing and fascinating.

What makes people do something like this? How you can believe so much that you make yourself suffer to that extent. Here's a woman. She's so amazed that these people can believe so strongly that they're willing to suffer to such an extent.

The question is, they believe what so strongly? That if they do something, somehow they're going to get right with God. Again, these people, what Christ did on the cross isn't enough. Now maybe you say, I don't understand why anybody would whip themselves and get nailed to a cross and think that somehow that's going to get them to heaven.

No, maybe you wouldn't do that. But are you still waiting to see something, feel something or do something else? Let me say this. If you're not saved tonight, if you're not on your way to heaven or this afternoon, what Christ did on the cross isn't enough for you.

Up to this point, it's not enough. My friend, God is just waiting for you to realize there's nothing you can do. You sinned against God just like I have.

And one of the hardest things in my life to realize, and it took me so long, and I'm ashamed of the depths that I had to sink and sin before I would realize God is right and I'm wrong. And if I got what I deserve, it wouldn't be heaven. I deserve to be in heaven.

You know, pride is so deep a root in every one of us. And I know we can look around and think, well, I'd never do what she's doing or what he's doing. And so we fancy that maybe we're a little better than somebody else.

Listen, the day the Lord saved me, I wasn't looking around at anybody else. I knew it was me that had the problem. And the day the Lord saved me, I didn't want another party or another anything else.

I just wanted the burden of my sin taken away. And I knew I couldn't do it. And I'm so thankful that a lady I was working for faithfully talked to me about the Lord Jesus and about being saved, even though I argued with her.

I was reading Eastern religions and, you know, doing yoga and meditating, being a vegetarian, all these things. Really, looking back on it, I was trying to purify myself. I'll tell you, it was hard work.

It was impossible work, because the harder I tried, I realized the worse I am. It was like I was being pulled apart. I'm glad she told me about the Lord Jesus.

And at first, I wasn't listening. I wasn't buying what she was telling me. But I'm so thankful that God loved me anyway.

He not only brought me in contact with this Christian, but he ever caused me to see that I needed the Lord Jesus more than anything else. My friend, you need the Lord Jesus more than anything else. Oh, there's things maybe that you're concerned about and you would like.

But I'm going to ask again, where are you going to be in 100 years, in 200 years, in 1,000 years? Where are you going to be? Listen, only one thing is going to matter then. Do you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior? Have your sins been taken away? And I know the world doesn't like to talk about sin. It never used to be part of my vocabulary.

I mean, it was part of my activity, but I never, that wasn't, never talked about sin. You know, just before I close, let me just say there's another place in the Bible where somebody said it's enough. It was Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

And if you're familiar with the Exodus there, the Israelites are down in Egypt and God sent Moses to bring his people out of Egypt, take them to the promised land. And Pharaoh didn't want to let the people go. And I'm going to try to boil this down, but so God brought judgments on Egypt.

One of those judgments, it was hail. Pharaoh, the king said, it's enough. He's saying, I've had enough.

He went on to say, you know, if God takes it away, then I'll let you go. Well, you know, God did take it away and he didn't let him go. But you know what he was saying? I've had enough of God's judgment.

You know what it makes me think of? There are people in hell right now, and I hope I'm not speaking to anybody and you will be there one day, but there are people that are likely saying it's enough. I've had enough, but it's not going to be enough. My friend, there is eternal judgment, eternal.

And that's what, I mean, it's horrifying. And my friend, this is why the Lord Jesus had to undergo such agony on the cross that we'll never fully understand. We only stand at a distance and we see it so dimly.

We can read in the word of God a little of what he experienced, but we have no idea of what he suffered. And we have no idea what it's like. Everything that needs to be done to save a sinner from being there.

I'm so glad Christ Jesus came into the world to save, to rescue people just like you and me, sinners. Do you know this man? Or do you just know about him? Likely everyone here knows there's a Savior and it's Jesus Christ. But the question is, is what he did on the cross, is that enough to take away your sin? My friend, God says it's enough.

And there's people in this room and all over the world, they're just satisfied with what God says, what Christ did. We're not resting in anything that we've done. We're resting in what Christ has done.

My friend, I hope that it's never happened before that this afternoon, today would be the time when you just rest in those words of the Lord Jesus, it is finished. And the cry of your heart would be, it is enough. Let's pray.