It is Finished (Part 1)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.�

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the

Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio. My name is Mike Abendroth, Mike Kafferhorff for those of you that are just visiting.

We have lots of nom de plumes and special type of names. We say always biblical, always provocative, always in that order.

And we say, we try to focus on Jesus because He never compromised, correct?

He perfectly obeyed the Father. And when I think of the cross, there was no compromise there of God�s justice or love or any of His perfections or attributes.

They were all exercised simultaneously. And in light of that, Bill O�Neill just said, �You weren�t born to win.�

Hi, Wren, how are you? So anyway, in light of Christ�s lack of compromise as a representative, as a federal head, and in light of His great death as a substitute, we don�t want to compromise.

I know I do, but Joe just said, �Am I hearing an echo or did you start over ?�

I don�t know what you�re hearing. Maybe it�s a ghost. Maybe it�s a ghost. For the no -compromise radio listeners,

I�m trying to do a live feed Facebook, let�s see, what can

I get here? I�m trying to entertain the masses. And so I do have my special pope, and he�s a solar pope.

And since it�s not sunny out today, he�s not waving with much earnestness.

You know, I like earnest, but he doesn�t really give you much earnestness. So anyway,

I don�t know if you have anything for that echo or not, Joe, but other than that,

I can�t tell you what to do. When I go to different countries, and I even saw it in Orlando when

I was officiating a wedding last week. You see these buildings, they�re halfway built, and then they stop.

They don�t finish well. It�s hard to finish well. It�s easier to start a job than finish a job, is what

I usually think. But how do you finish well? And even when it comes to gospel ministry, there are people that start off running the race well, and they don�t finish well.

Bill just said �epopralos� for the solar pope.

Epopralos. Okay, I have to get back to the show�s content, because the hordes demand it.

It is finished. How do you start something and then not finish it?

Well, maybe you didn�t count the cost. Maybe you don�t have enough resources. Maybe there was an emergency.

And so when it comes to your salvation, you ought to be very thankful that when Jesus set out to accomplish salvation, that He did it.

It was a true mission accomplished. There were no unforeseen circumstances.

There were no higher powers. There were no�even when you think of Satan and how he was trying to get

Jesus to go from Christ�s plan, the Father�s plan for Jesus, that is to say, the theology of the cross and then glory is the plan versus Satan�s strategy.

The theology of�Josh is now watching, it says�the theology of glory first, right?

To truncate it. That was what Peter did, did he not? When he said to Jesus, you know what, basically

I�ll speak for Satan and it�ll be theology of glory and let�s just skip the cross.

So when Jesus Christ had a job to do, He finished the job and now can be that perfect high priest, a sympathetic high priest.

It says in Hebrews 5, although He was a son, I mean, you kind of aren�t going to really expect the next thing, are you?

As grammarians call this the contra -expectation. How about that?

That�s kind of a cool word. I never knew that word until I read it in a commentary. By the way, did you hear Bible works is kaput?

Bible works is no more. That�s a crazy thing. No more Bible works.

I don�t know. I opened Bible works today. It seemed to work, but how long, I don�t know. What�s going to happen when Lagos is done?

Then all these books that I gave away are sold. Who knows what will happen?

But contra -expectation, although He was a son, He learned. So far, no contra -expectation there. But He learned obedience through what

He suffered. That�s the surprise, that�s the, wow, sons have to obey.

But does this Son, this eternal Son, this Son in Hebrews 1, 1 -3, who�s supreme, who purges sins, who sat down at the right hand of the

Father, who creates things, who upholds things, does He have to suffer? And to be a high priest, to be a sympathetic high priest, the answer is yes.

It�s all part of the plan of God. And then Jesus finished that. He ran the course well.

It says in Hebrews 12, when we think of finishing, it says, �Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and finisher, or perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.�

It is difficult to finish, and it�s difficult to finish well. But in fact,

Jesus can be the perfect high priest because He did finish well.

Stephen just said, �Hi, Stephen, by the way. Hope you�re surgery. Hope you�re not a sore in your surgery.

Jesus had the anointing, so I�m told by my charismatic friends.� Are you taking

Percocet right now, Stephen? Is that why? So, the other time in the

New Testament that�s the glaring, obvious spot to understand that Jesus finished is when on the cross

He said, �It is finished.� And so that�s what we�re going to look at today a little bit. Pastor Steve is preaching through the Gospel of John when

I�m gone, and I think he�s in 17, 16, 16 or 17, so it�ll be a while before he�s in 19, so I�m not going to ruin anything for the

Tuesday guy. John 19 says this, �When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took

His garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier, also his tunic.

But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. So they said to one another, �Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.�

This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, �They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.�

So the soldiers did these things, but standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother and His mother�s sister,

Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

When Jesus saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, �Woman, behold your son.�

Then He said to the other disciple, �Behold your mother.� And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.�

Now we�re leading to the part where Jesus will say, �It is finished.� And that�s the concept of Hebrews chapter 5, a perfection, a finishing, a completion.

You gave me a job, and I have done the job. After this, Jesus knowing that all was now finished,

He said to fulfill Scripture, �I thirst.� A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to His mouth.

When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, �It is finished.� And He bowed

His head and gave up His spirit. It is finished.

What�s finished? Now, when I was a kid, I was told Jesus did not say, �I am finished.�

He said, �It is finished.� And what did Jesus finish?

Well, John 4, earlier in the same gospel, Jesus said to them, �My food is to do the will of Him who sent

Me and to accomplish His work.� This second Adam, this last Adam, perfectly obeyed the

Father and did the work that was given Him. John chapter 9, �We must work the works of Him who sent

Me, while it is day, night is coming when no one can work.� So Jesus finished the work.

There's no more penalty to be paid by anyone. So just imagine, if Jesus did half the work, you fill up the rest.

You can't do it. Jesus suffered the agony of a propitiatory sacrifice, 85%, and then now you do the rest.

Jesus paid it 90%, 90 % I am glad He paid.

How does the song go? Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. So Jesus paid 90%. As Josh has just said, this is limited atonement, winning, and Jesus paid for everything.

He just didn't make it possible. He just didn't make people savable. When you look at the language of Scripture, look at the language of redemption, propitiation, reconciliation.

It is the language that's past tense, and it is the language of completion. It is not the language of potentiality.

When I was a kid, I think I studied some physics, and I don't know what is kinetic energy. You can probably type and tell me.

But I know the potential kind of thing was not what Jesus did. He didn't die for everybody to make them all savable.

Now they have to believe He finished the work. And when Jesus said, �It is finished ,�

He meant it's completed. What the Father gave Him to do was done.

This is the kind of language that has a perfect tense thrust.

It is perfect tense. I just have to talk on radio. You have to talk yourself clear. It was accomplished in the past and has ongoing relevance.

How do you make the Bible relevant? Well, here, this particular thing that Jesus did happened in time, right, on earth, and it has ongoing effects.

And when Jesus said, the Greek word was tetelestai, He meant it was finished.

Spurgeon called this, this is kind of neat, the most charming note in all of Calvary's music.

And when you think of the seven sayings of Jesus on the cross, while they're all spectacular, this is the one that seems to have the refrain in people's minds over and over that they like, that they know.

I know they know the other ones, but this is the one word that seems to be a comfort for so many people, because who can really measure the depths of the comfort to this one word?

It is finished. And A .W. Pink said, eternity will be needed to make manifest all that tetelestai contains.

Matthew Henry said, this is a comprehensive word and a comfortable one. That's so true.

It is finished. Can you imagine? I mean, seven Jehovah's Witnesses come to your door.

It's not finished for them. They've got to go complete the work. And sometimes I'm nice to them and just preach the gospel to them, and other times maybe

I'm a little more firm. And what do I say to them? I say, well, if only 144 ,000 of you are going to make it into the heaven of heavens.

I've seen a lot of Jehovah's Witnesses over the last 20 years living in the same house. They seem to be working harder than you're working.

And I'd get a move on it if I were you, because if only 144 ,000 make it in, you better get going.

I mean, you better, you know, run faster than the other person who just has to run faster than the bear, as it would be said.

To Telestai, it is finished. It's done. That's why in the book of Hebrews, the response to a

Jesus who is a high priest is rest. If it is not all the way finished, then work.

If it's not all the way finished, then run. You've got to merit things. But since it's finished, then you get to rest.

You get to trust. You get to say to yourself, you know what? Everything is done. Everything's been paid for.

I'm just going to take God's Word for it, that He's given me a representative and a substitute, and I can rest in Him.

I mean, rest is a good thing, and I need that kind of rest physically, but when it comes to all my obligations, think about it, you nine viewers, nine viewers, we would all say together, we have obligations before God that have been unmet, and we have not obeyed.

Therefore, we have liabilities that must be accounted for. But they're all taken care of.

It's all settled. Everything's done. Gregory just said, finished, account settled and closed.

Steve said, good thing it's not up to us. And when Jesus said, it is finished, this is not the cry and the kind of man that's been defeated.

He is the one who has said, it is finished, and He did the work.

He's not calling for uncle, He's not saying, you know, I'm done for. It has nothing to do with that.

Christian, you're safe and secure. Why? Because it's finished. Whatever sin, debt, obligations, liabilities you have, discharged forever.

Jesus is on the cross, and for those dark hours from noon to three, He drinks the wrath, the unmitigated wrath of God that we deserve, the sinless

Son, He didn't deserve it. But Jesus drinks that cup, and it is finished.

Did He leave a couple drops for you to drink? Did He leave a few swigs for you to drink?

Do you have to do that, or has justice been paid? Yes, mercy is demonstrated, yes, love is demonstrated, but justice has been paid.

It is finished. And the idea with the perfect tense is, it is finished, it stands finished, it'll always be finished, and whenever you say to yourself, you know,

I kind of feel like I want to respond with something I need to do to keep my status before God, to keep my justification before God, because all these crazy people are talking about end justification and final justification and this crazy

Roman Catholicism, N .T. Wright, who knows what it is stuff. It's finished. This is my exhortation to John Piper and to Thomas Schreiner and to N .T.

Wright and anyone else who has some type of hybrid of final justification. It's finished.

It's finished. I know we don't want people to run around like little hellions.

Stressing holiness is great, but stressing holiness at the expense of justification is wrong.

You can't do that. It is finished. I mean, how great is that? What would be your last words on your deathbed?

Are you worried about dying? Now, I've been to people's deathbeds before, and I've asked them. Christian people,

I think they were really Christian people. And I would say to them, are you afraid to die?

And they would say to me, this one particular person said, no. I said, don't you think you should be?

Stand before a thrice holy God? You're going to meet Him soon. And this particular gentleman said,

Jesus paid for all my debts. He could have said, it is finished. I don't have to add anything more.

Divine self -satisfaction, as one person called it. I mean, if you go back to Genesis chapter 1,

God saw everything He made, and behold, it was very good. God was satisfied with all that He had made.

And now Jesus, the Son at Calvary, He made satisfaction. He made propitiation, but it was done well.

Past completed act with present effect. That is the perfect tense.

Jesus had a mission to redeem sinners. Did He do it? Yes. He redeemed sinners.

Therefore, what does Romans 8 say? There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You are accepted

Christian based on the work of another. And when you study this word, tetelestai, it is finished.

There's some interesting ancient world uses that help you, help me, understand a little bit more.

It was used for servants. So servants would have a job to do.

A slave would have a job to do. Someone would assign me a job, and let's say it would be, I need to clean my room.

Let's say I need to mow the grass, I need to feed the cattle, I need to put up a fence. When I would get that job done,

I would go to my father or my employer or my owner, and I would say, tetelestai.

I would say, it's finished. I did all the work that you sent me to do, and when

I return, I'm telling you it was done, finished. I mean, that is the will of Him who sent me kind of language.

It's finished. I glorified you on earth, Jesus said, and I accomplished the work you gave me to do.

I love that kind of language. It's also used in ancient literature for priests. So here's what the priest would do.

Okay, you'd like to give a sacrifice, and you can't give a bad animal for a sacrifice. It wouldn't be sacrificial.

You give me a lame sheep, that's not sacrifice. So I want a blameless sheep.

I want a spotless sheep. I want a sheep that doesn't have some kind of eye clouded over with a bunch of flies all over it and a bunch of pus coming out.

This is to God. You need to give God your best. You've sinned. You need a substitute, and let me, the priest,

I'll check it over, I'll examine, I'll look at it, I'll see if there's any kind of disfiguring, look under the legs, are the hooves fine?

I'll look in the ears, are there any kind of lice and mites and other things? And after I checked out that lamb, and if that lamb was faultless and perfect and acceptable, according to this particular research, they would say, the priest would say,

Tetelestai looks good, finished, done, without sin.

That's amazing. Sometimes they'll even say, in ancient literature, artists would use this language.

So you're painting away, and you've got some brush strokes, and you're trying to put a lot of pigment here, there, the other,

I don't know how to talk the language of artistry, but Stephen would. And after you were done, you know, you're getting close, you step back and you think, okay, could use a few more hues and shades and colors, and so you'd work on that.

And then when you step back again, I don't know, it needs a couple more things, and you finally step back the last time, and you think,

I think it's done. I don't think I need to correct it, I don't think it needs anything, I don't think it needs to be improved,

I don't think I need to scrap it, I think it's perfect. You might just mumble under your breath,

Tetelestai. It's finished. That's pretty cool. That's really cool.

And of course, the one that you probably know the most is when it comes to buying and selling and merchants, right?

So what would happen? I've got a bill, and I need to pay you what I owe, and it could be a promissory note, it could be what we call an

IOU, and I might sign my name and how much I owe, and this, that, and the other, and then once I did what you needed me to do, if it was a barter system or exchange, or I paid you back,

I could write across that promissory note, Tetelestai. It's finished. It's complete.

It's paid for. And that's why many times you'll see people say Tetelestai means paid in full, because that's the effect, paid in full.

So Jesus, He pays in full what God's law demands, both positively and negatively.

That is, we have a work to do, we have, if you want to look at the two great laws, we are to love

God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves. We have that obligation.

And then when we break that obligation, we have these liabilities. Jesus is just taking care of everything.

And as Spurgeon said, there's no mortgage on the saints. I'm glad. And even when you study ancient literature, this one, there seems to be less documentation, but some have talked about prisoners, and the prisoners' use of Tetelestai, if they have been redeemed out of jail,

Tetelestai, somebody paid for them to get out. So as we're wrapping up today, have you committed crimes, not against the state, but against God?

I could ask you this, what's the worst thing you ever did? Don't say it out loud.

I guess if you're watching on Facebook, you could, on the radio. What's the worst thing you ever did?

What's the worst thing you ever thought? I mean, God knows all that. You've got to pay for that.

I mean, you're a created being. We're created to worship God, and to honor Him, and to love

Him, and do what He says, obey His laws. To what degree do we have to obey?

Perfectly, perpetually, entirely, it's a personal obedience, and we can't do it.

And even our best, do you ever think about this, Isaiah 64, 6, we have become like one who's unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.

That's my righteous deeds are still so tainted. So what am I going to offer to God? I need someone else to pay in full for everything

I've done. I need somebody to do such a work that they would say, all your sins are forgiven.

When you didn't love your wife as you should, forgiven. When you coveted, forgiven.

When you have self -righteousness, forgiven. And everything in between, the justice of God, satisfied, fully, to tell us,

Di, when Jesus, the ransom, dies on the cross. As Spurgeon said, we are safe beneath the cross.

I'm happy for that. It's easy to be kind of a radio show host, or do this, that, or the other, but I'm wicked on the inside.

And I see that come out. I mean, I don't want to, but the thoughts that go through my mind, I used to have enough self -restraint so I don't do anything, but to think them, my thought life, and God knows all those things.

But because of to tell us, Di, what does Colossians 2 say?

Having forgiven us all our trespasses. So that worst thing that you did, that worst thing that you thought, those things where you didn't measure up to God's law and you didn't measure up to His standards, forgiven, canceling the record of debt that stood against us with all its legal demands.

That's Colossians 2. That's to tell us, Di. That is Christ paid it all.

That's when Satan goes up, as it were, and says, see what that guy did? To tell us,

Di, paid in full. When they object, when other people object about how we don't measure up, when it comes to God and His eyes,

Jesus paid it all, therefore, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.

You don't need to do anything to keep your salvation, you don't need to do anything to earn your salvation, it's been paid.

That's why you can rest, the book of Hebrews, to rest, to trust, no matter what about Satan indwelling sin, you know, like,

I'm not worthy, yeah, I know, but it's all about Jesus, it is finished. So, on today on No Compromise Radio, all the insiders,

I was just trying, I just pushed, I thought, you know what, Ben would want me to just push this button and see what happens.

So I'm stopping the show here, but then there's going to be extra for you guys. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible -teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.