Confidence

Welcome to this week's message from the Church at Chelsea Westover.

Our core values are vibrant worship, intimate fellowship, fulfilling service, and clear biblical truth.

We pray that this message changes your life.

Let's tune in to today's message and see what God has in store for you.

I want you to turn with me this morning in your Bibles to Luke chapter 23.

Luke 23 · chapter mention

And if you do not have a worship guide, please raise your hands and we'll make sure you have one because it has the outline on the back.

Everyone has their worship guide this morning.

And I want to say thank you and uh for not just being here this morning, but coming ready to hear the word of God.

Not only are we a church that worships God in spirit, but we are a church that worships God in truth.

You know, we were in our staff meeting this week going over our four core values with our staff.

And we also shared with them our four core values in order.

Because not only are they four core values, but they're in order for the emphasis of what this church stands for.

And guess what number one is?

Our number one core value is.

I wonder if I could ask uh Tabitha Stan, Rick Stan, Susan Stan.

Where's David?

Oh, he's out in the four-year.

Okay, and my uh Renee and uh Sonia, that's our staff that meets once a week on Tuesday.

So what we taught them was our number one key core value is what?

Clear biblical truth.

Clear, thank you.

You may be seated.

Clear biblical truth.

Because if we don't have the truth, the foundation of God's word to build this church upon, hey, then what we do is nothing more than sink in sand.

Amen.

Yeah, it is.

It is.

Upon this rock, I'll build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

But guess what the rock is?

It's Jesus Christ.

And guess what Jesus Christ is?

Jesus says, I am the way, what?

The truth.

And the life.

No man cometh unto the Father except by me.

So clear biblical truth is what this church is built on.

And then we go into the other three core value, I mean core values, and one is is vibrant worship, and then intimate fellowship, and then using our gifts serving at home and abroad.

So those are our core values in this church, and they are very important to this church.

And when you hear me say them all the time, they're written.

There you go.

Clear biblical truth, vibrant worship, fulfilling service at home and abroad, and intimate fellowship.

So that's, and by the way, that's why we have the love feast, intimate fellowship over here.

The love feast every Sunday together, 1 Corinthians 11, for intimate fellowship.

And I look forward to that meal every day every Sunday with you so that we can fellowship.

And I just go around and hug everybody's necks and just say I love you.

And what can I pray for you about?

You'll be amazed at how much God allows me to minister to you and to us as a church on that love feast, because we're able to find out what's going on in your life.

You share with me, we pray, and it's exciting.

And uh it really is, it really is.

Also, before we get started, the end of May, the last two Saturdays in May, Darren's gonna be doing work days.

Now, here's what we gotta do.

Men, we need your help.

And uh, ladies too, in fact, uh, after watching Deidra and Elaine on the Honduras trip, I'm not gonna exclude the women when it comes to painting and stuff.

But uh, but no, really, men, we're gonna get ready.

We're gonna start building some work teams to start on the soccer field, to start on the volleyball courts, and getting things ready uh for uh this fall.

We're gonna go to work.

We're gonna get that thing ready.

And Darren's gonna be heading that up.

And any of you that have some machinery, other, I know he's got he's got several bobcats big to eat, but if you got a piece of equipment you can use to help move dirt, load dirt, unload dirt, uh we want to put a team together so we can start working on some Saturdays, uh getting our uh because we've checked in.

Do you know how much money we can save if we do those fields?

Probably$100,$150,000.

Did you hear me?

And we can do it.

We can do it.

Uh and so let's do it.

Let's do it so we can get these kids.

Uh Rick was telling me, look, I want you to I want you to see this.

I'll have seen it from the moment that we bought the land, but I want you to catch this vision.

He is a soccer coach.

Did you play soccer?

You look like a linebacker, not a soccer player.

Okay, but he played soccer.

Soccer linebacker.

But he's a soccer coach.

And in fact, we visited a home the other day, and his little boys on his team.

So that was a great lead right into the home.

But are you ready for this right over the mountain at uh narrows?

Is it narrows right there?

You know those soccer fields right there?

Are you ready for this?

3200 kids from 18 from what's the youngest they start?

Three to eighteen.

3200 kids paid$110 to play soccer.

Now I know what you're thinking.

I'm thinking too,$110, 32.

Just a thought.

That pays for the field.

Hello.

Amen.

Pays for itself.

That's a good thing.

And plus it pays for itself, but yeah, but we'll be a little cheaper, I promise.

But, but, but, but what I'm thinking about, 3,200 families.

Did you hear me?

3,200 families that we can get on this property to share the love of Jesus Christ with them.

It doesn't get any better than that.

So you want to be a part of a mission work?

You want to be a part of a mission work?

You've got a chance.

Hey, we go to Honduras every year.

We're fixing to go to Dar Salaam, Africa.

But we got a mission field that we can work and use our energies and our time right here to build this facility.

I'm telling you, God's laid this strongly on my heart.

We can see hundreds, hundreds of families on this campus, and out of that, hundreds will come to know Christ as Lord and Savior.

And there's nothing like that, Mayor, on this side, all the way to Siliconga.

And not only that, the botanical gardens and the paths.

We walked it the other day when I was with the guys with the Frisbee Golf Corps.

We can possibly have almost a two-mile track around the whole facilities and back going through the trees and all and walking back, a half a mile track halfway through.

It's just going to be unlimited what we can do.

But we're going to do it.

We're not, we don't have the money.

If we wait to raise the money, and let me tell why.

We want to put the money in the building.

Can I get an amen?

So we can get in that building next two to three years.

We need to.

We got to.

So we can have it.

And I'm telling you.

So you want to go to work, hey, you may not go visiting, but you can go, hey, you can go move some dirt.

Or you can you can uh plant flowers.

I mean that we can do.

So I just want you to get excited as I am.

When when when he said 3,200 kids, I said, ha, we're talking about right over the mountain.

And we can have that right here.

Right here.

Right here.

Right there.

And it's ready to be done.

All right.

Can you tell I'm a little excited?

I tell you, when the when the ice cream truck gets rolling, I get excited.

I love that truck.

I love that truck.

Amen.

In Luke chapter 23, we're finishing up today the seven words from the cross.

Luke 23 · chapter mention

And starting next week, we will start our new series in the book of James.

You don't want to miss it.

The book of James in the New Testament is the proverbs of the New Testament.

It is practical living.

Living, we either live by, hey, we either live by the flesh or we either live by faith.

And it's practical lifestyle faith lived out, the book of James.

It's going to be exciting.

It's going to be life-transforming.

And so I've already been working on it and I'm excited.

I've never preached through the book of James.

I've preached parts of James.

So it's going to be exciting.

But today I want to finish up with the really the icing on the cake, the capsule of this series of the words from the cross.

You know, we started out with the words, the word of forgiveness.

And you know, in my quiet time, God gave me all peas.

What it means to me personally.

The word of forgiveness to mean, to me, means pardon.

Amen.

We've been pardoned by God's grace.

And then we looked at the word of assurance.

When he turned and he said to the thief, Today thou shalt be with me in paradise.

To me, that means a word of promise.

I have a promise that when I die, to be absent from the body is going to be present with the Lord.

2 Corinthians 5.8.

And then we looked at the word of affection in John 19, 26 and 27, where Jesus looked down and he said, Woman, behold thy son, and disciple John, behold thy mother.

And to us that was the word of affection.

To me, that was the word of provision that God always has and always will provide for me.

Can I get an amen?

And then we looked at the word of anguish in Matthew 27, verse 46.

Matthew 27:46

When he said, My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?

The word of anguish.

To me, it means the word of pain.

It means that in life we will suffer pain.

We will go through the good, the bad, and the ugly.

But thank God He's with us.

He'll see us through.

And then the word of agony, I thirst, which we didn't preach on that.

I kind of combined it, but I really didn't want to.

I'm going to save that for next Easter.

Because it was so powerful.

I just didn't want to probably be a two-parter.

But anyway, the word of agony, to me, that was the word of parchment.

You know, when you thirst, you're dry.

We all go through a period in our lives of dryness.

We really do.

I mean, even us that are walking, or you may be walking with the Lord daily, there's still sometimes you feel like even though you're studying the Word of God, you're praying, you're doing everything you're supposed to do, you almost just feel dry.

You, in fact, you sometimes you just feel, God, I know you're here, but where are you?

Amen.

Have you not been there?

If you haven't, you will be.

And then we come to the word to tell us die.

It's finished.

The word of triumph.

But to me, it means the word of power.

That I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me.

That nothing's impossible with my God.

Luke 137.

I have his power.

I have his power to finish my course.

Can I get an amen?

To finish what God's called me to do.

Very important.

And then it brings me to the last word.

In verses 46 through 49.

And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, that's important that you understand that Jesus cried out.

I meant to the, I mean, it was a yell.

Because most criminals, those most criminals at this state of crucifixion, they were so exhausted, so uh, you know, unable to breathe, because most of them died because of suffocation.

And so they barely said anything, if anything.

They just died.

So for him to be able to pick himself up and cry out was a tremendous, I'm talking about, example that God himself and Christ alone was still in control of this crucifixion.

And you'll see that.

Very important.

Very important.

And it was about the sixth hour.

Excuse me.

And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hand I commend my spirit.

And having said this, he gave up the ghost.

Now look at verse 47.

Now, when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man.

In Matthew and Mark, it says that he said, Certainly this was the Son of God.

Probably the first, I believe this, the first conversion after Christ's death on the cross.

Right here.

The centurion.

Powerful.

And then he says, and all the people that came together to that site, beholding the things which were done, smote their breast and returned.

And all his acquaintance and the women that followed him from Galilee stood afar off beholding these things.

Now, as we come to this last word of the seven spoken from the cross, as we examine the final utterance, we find that it is mainly concerned with the divine sonship of God.

Now that's important.

Because if we don't believe in this doctrine of the divine sonship of our Lord, guess what?

Then we cannot believe in the love of God for salvation.

If we don't believe that Jesus is who he said he was, that Jesus is God, and that God is Jesus, and that God for, hey, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life, then you and I cannot be saved.

If we, or how can we put our faith in somebody that we don't believe is God?

Very important.

In fact, when Jesus was brought before Caiphus, the high priest, and he was asked whether or not he was the Christ, the Son of God, Jesus answered, look at Matthew 26, 46.

No, that's not 46.

It should be.

Go to verses 64 and 65.

Matthew 26, do we have that?

There we go.

Matthew 26, 64 through 65.

Now look at what he says.

Jesus answered Caiphas.

He says, It is as you said.

Oh, it is as you said.

Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter, you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power and coming on the clouds of heaven.

Then the high priest tore his clothes, saying, He has spoken blasphemy.

Blasphemy.

Now, he's the Caiphus, oh, he couldn't stand it.

He said, There's no way that you're claiming to be God.

Basically, it's what he said.

That's why we know that when Pilate made this profound statement, look at John chapter 19, verses 6 and 7.

John 19:6

Watch this.

Oh, tremendous.

And when Pilate declared, he said, I find no fault in him, the mob cried out, We have a law, and according to our law, he ought to die because he made himself the Son of God.

Now, here the high priest is crying out blasphemy because he's claiming to be the Son of God.

Now, Pilate, hey, hey, finds no fault in Jesus because he was sinless.

But the mob's crying out, wait a minute, crucify him, crucify him.

No, he is claimed to be the son of God.

So in his own words, Jesus is affirming the divine sonship of God, our Lord.

He really is.

And we see that.

When he says, now watch, as we go back now to verse 46, when he says, Father, Father, if Jesus is not the Son of God, then there is no revelation of the love of God.

If he is not the Son of God, how could we quote John 3.16?

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten archangel.

Hello.

No.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.

So we see this whole last word deals with the divine, eternal sonship of Jesus Christ.

No created or finite being is equal to the total act of God's creation.

In other words, here's what Jesus was saying.

I am co-equal with God.

Wow.

I am co equal, that's what he's saying, with God.

I am co-eternal with the Father.

Now, if we do not believe in the divine sonship, then we know nothing.

Now watch.

If we do not believe in the message of the divine sonship, we know nothing of the message of divine servanthood.

Amen.

Now, see, when you understand the theology of the divine sonship, you get excited about the message of divine servanthood.

You want to serve, you want to do something.

How much work every week do you really do for the Lord?

See, I'm convinced we don't understand who we are in Christ.

Because if we understand who we really are in Christ, hey, that not only are we in Christ, but if we're in Christ, we're in God.

Folks, there's a light ought to go off.

Really?

And we're going to look at that this morning.

That's why this is such a powerful, powerful message.

We see in 1 John 4.14, the Father sent the Son as Savior of the world.

For God, hey, did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

John 3.17.

So we see right here, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

His Calvary experience.

Now watch this.

It started, it commenced with a prayer for others.

Remember what he said?

Father, forgive them.

For they know not what they do.

Now, he starts out with a prayer for others.

Now he ends the words, these words, with a prayer for himself.

Wow.

Now think about that.

Because this prayer is packed with all that encompasses the sonship of God.

And all that is encompassed encompassed in the sonship of God, you and I have access to.

That ought to make a Presbyterian shout.

Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.

And then it concludes.

Spirit.

Here then is some things that are affirmed.

I want to give you three things this morning.

Look at the first one.

Number one, Christ's confidence is in the security of the sonship.

Christ's confidence is in the security of his sonship with God.

Hanging on the cross, Jesus could say, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit throughout his life.

He had confidence in the security of his sonship with God.

He knew that God was never going to leave him.

In fact, I love at the age of 12, he said to his earthly parents in Luke 2.49, Did you not know that I must be about my father's business?

In other words, his security was in God the Father completing his business.

Ladies and gentlemen, your life will radically change when, hey, your business is, hey, in completing what God's called you to do.

Your life will radically change.

Guaranteed.

Instead of you doing what you want to do and you start doing what God wants you to do, your life is going to radically change.

You go to another level with an awesome Almighty God.

But we see that again and again throughout the gospel, he referred to that devoted, affectionate, sonly relationship.

And as he bows his head to die, he breathes the word Pater, Father, Father.

Let me give you, as I was doing all my research, a devoted father came into the room where his eight-year-old little boy was dying from an incurable disease.

And the child, sensing that he was not going to get well, asked his father.

He says, Daddy, am I going to die?

Why, son, are you afraid to die?

The child looked up into his eyes of his father and replied, No, Daddy, not if God's like you.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

No, Daddy.

Not if God's like you.

Now I'm gonna tell you something, folks, that convicted me so strongly I had to just stop and say, God forgive me.

For sometimes not being the daddy that I need to be.

What a testimony.

But this is what he's talking about.

Some trust in chariots, some in horses, but we will trust in God.

Psalms 27.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

He leadeth me in what?

Green pastures.

Oh, he leadeth me.

Oh, I may boldly come into the throne of grace that I might receive mercy in time of need.

Hebrews 4:16.

Hebrews 4:16

We have boldness and confidence in a relationship with Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 3.12.

The righteous or bold as a lion.

Proverbs 28, 1.

Wow.

The Lord is on my side.

Woo-hoo! I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

Psalms 118.6.

That, my friends, is the security that you and I have in his sonship.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God.

Can I get an amen?

Romans 8.

No man can pluck them out of my hand.

John 10.

In contrast.

And in considering the security of his sonship, it is important that we see in Jesus' final prayer two things that I think that give us confidence and security.

Number one, look at it.

The revelation of the essence of sonship.

When Jesus uttered the words, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit, he was given expression of one of the cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith.

When Jesus said, Father, he was claiming co-equality and co-eternity and the one divine essence.

He had ever, hey, in other words, he was saying, I was the Son before I came to earth.

I'm the Son while I'm living on earth.

And now that I'm about to depart to go back to heaven, I'm still the Son of God.

Before anything was, I was.

And after everything will be, I still will be.

That is the unbelievable essence of sonship.

When we are in Christ.

I had a little spell this morning.

I wrote this down.

First of all, I'm a child of the king.

Secondly, I'm ambassador for the king.

Thirdly, I'm a servant of the king.

Thirdly, I'm an heir of the king.

Woo! I'm somebody.

He took a nobody and transformed him into somebody.

I am a saint.

Hey, do you realize you're a saint if you're crazy?

If you're a Christian today, you're a saint.

Be proud of that.

I'm a saint.

Somebody said, Oh, I'm not a saint.

I said, Were you saved?

Yeah, but I'm not a saint.

That means you don't understand the divine, hey, sonship of God.

Because, see, I know what you're thinking, yeah, but I'm rotten I'm no good.

You are, guess what?

I know you.

You are.

Guess what?

I am too.

You know me.

But aren't you glad that when God looks down, He doesn't see me?

He sees the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

I'm with him.

Amen.

Well, that's good.

All my righteousness is as filthy rags.

I'm a child of the king.

Next time somebody starts giving it to you, say that's okay.

I'm a child of the king.

Amen.

Devil starts giving you a hard time.

Just remind him who you are.

I'm a child of the king.

I'm an heir to the throne.

Amen.

Man, that's good.

But there's something else.

There's the restoration.

And what's this?

He prayed.

He knew that the restoration of the enjoyment of fellowship, sonship, was about to be restored.

As the Savior prayed, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

He announced the restoration, basically.

You see, when Jesus died on Calvary's tree, we talked about this last week.

The father had to turn his face from him.

Why?

What that meant to the Son of God, you and I will never know.

But that is why he cried out, Oh my God, my God.

Why hast thou forsaken me?

See?

In Matthew 27, 46, when he made that statement, the relationship between the Father and Son remains the same.

Remember, I said God turned his hey back, not on Jesus, but on the sin that Jesus had taken upon himself.

Because, see, you can't be, whoo, this is about to.

There's two things with God.

When you get saved, you just established a relationship with him.

You agree with that?

Say amen.

That's why I'm not religious.

You can be religious and be lost.

Because you can be religious without a relationship.

Hello.

Hello.

Come on.

But once you have a relationship, ha ha.

Hey, you don't care about religion.

Thank you, Jesus.

Somebody asked me, are you a Baptist?

I said, No, I'm a Biblicist.

Huh?

What?

What does that mean?

I said, but that's, I always say that second.

Really, when they say, are you a Baptist?

I say, no, I'm a Christian.

I ought to really throw them off and say, no, I'm a saint.

Huh?

What's a saint?

I know you ain't one if you don't know what that.

I'm a Christian.

And then secondly, I'm a Biblicist.

Amen?

That's who I am.

There's no labels in the New Testament except Christian.

Or saint.

So I'm a Christian.

I'm a saint.

Now, I I'm very excited about being part of the Southern Baptists in Shelby County and what we do for people.

But that's because we you can do more together than by yourself.

And we do a great work together.

We really do.

But that has nothing to do with my relationship.

Now there are some Southern Baptists who think if you're not a Southern Baptist, you're not going to heaven.

But I got news for them, they're wrong.

You, hey, you got to have that relationship.

Now watch what happens.

When you have the relationship, then you also have fellowship.

Amen.

Now watch this.

Now you can have a relationship with God and not have fellowship with God.

Hello?

I have a relationship with my wife.

We're married till death do us part.

The word divorce has never come up in our marriage.

Murder.

She wants to murder me.

Not me murdering her.

No.

No.

She's got a lot of crowns of waiting, honey me for putting up with me.

I know.

I do.

At least I'm honest.

Terrible.

Don't smile.

You are too.

By God's grace.

Amen.

By God's grace.

That's what it is.

Thank God for his grace.

That's it.

That's it.

But but but what I want you to understand is, see, when you're fellowshipping with God, you're having the time of your life.

You're enjoying Christ says, I come to give you life and give it more abundantly.

So you're having that abundant life.

You have that intimate, you have that peace, you have that joy, you have that excitement, you have that calmness.

That's a good word.

When you're walking in the spirit, you're calm.

Unless you ADD like Trent.

And me, and me.

I knew Susan and what about me?

Susan said, Well, you're upset.

I said, No, I'm not.

I'm calm.

She said, Well, you sure don't sound like it.

But I I live at this level a lot of times, folks.

I mean, I mean, I get up.

I mean.

Brant's a lot like that.

I saw that yesterday, son.

I loved it.

Let me tell you about our church.

I'm saying, I just said, but go, boy, go.

But see, you've got this fellowship.

But now look what happens.

When sin comes into your life, that relationship's still there.

Because what?

Nothing can separate you.

Nothing.

Even sin can't separate you.

You grieve and you quench the spirit, but it doesn't separate you from God's relationship.

But it does separate your fellowship.

And so when Jesus was hanging on the cross and he cried out, My God, my God, why has I forsaken me?

He knew that his fellowship with God the Father that had never been severed since his existence.

And you said, Well, when did he begin?

I don't know.

Because he was before anything was.

But that relationship for the first time of all the however many years or centuries had now been severed.

The fellowship.

Wow.

Why was it severed?

Because of sin.

The fellowship was severed because of sin.

And that's what we see that's being restored here.

The parable and the doctrine of all in one.

I mean, hey, can you imagine we can know this last word of the cross in terms of personal experience when we came to know Christ for as many as received John 1.12, for as many as received him to them, gave he power to become the sons of God.

We've got a relationship.

And that relationship is awesome until we sin.

And then when we sin, we grieve and we quench the Holy Spirit of God.

And you feel distance.

You feel a guilt.

You feel a conviction.

Now, if you don't, examine yourself whether you be in the faith or not.

That's why when people say, oh, I've been saved.

I did that a long time ago.

I say, well, you go to church.

I ain't been in church in 20 years.

But yet you say, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I've been baptized too.

Okay.

Will you mind if I show you a few scriptures in 1 John?

He that says he loves me and keeps not my word is a liar and the truth's not in him.

Come on.

Amen.

So don't start telling me you know the Lord and you're not hadn't been obedient to anything he's asked you to do.

You said, well, I got baptized, all you did was get dunked.

That's it.

No change, no salvation.

Now I didn't say you're perfect, because there will be those times.

But we see, oh, the res hey, the relationship was, hey, restored.

Oh, for as many are, hey, this is what it says in Romans 8.14, for as many that are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

Is that not good?

And then, hey, what about Galatians 4.7?

We are no more a servant, but a son and an heir through Christ Jesus.

So, when we sin, the fellowship is severed, not the relationship.

If you understand that, I want the whole church to say, Amen.

That's very important you understand.

That's liberating.

You don't lose your salvation, you lose your fellowship.

Big, big explanation point right there.

Now, watch this.

That's where I'm going.

If you confess your sins, he is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

Woo! You confess it, you turn from it, repent of it, and boom! Woo! That fellowship.

Why do you think, why do you why do you think that Peter could be cursing God, hey, at the fire of the Roman soldiers and the lady confronted him, and then what, a week or two weeks later, he's preaching the greatest message in the New Testament where over 3,000 people are saved.

Because of grace.

Amazing grace.

Is that not good?

So we see the restoration of the enjoyment of the sonship.

He knew that for those three hours, possibly six hours, but we know for sure at least three from 12 to 3, he was separated from the fellowship of God when he said, to tell us that it is finished.

What he was so excited about was that he was going to restore his fellowship with his father.

There's nothing sweeter than after you sin and feel guilt and confess and you really bring it to this altar.

Hey, I'm not talking about an emotional confession.

I'm talking about a real confession where you turn from your sin.

There's not a greater joy, greater peace afterwards, and it's almost like you got saved again.

That's the only time I wished I could be a Pentecostal.

Somebody, you know why?

So I could get saved again, again, again, again, because it's good.

But see, it's not salvation, it's fellowship.

Amen.

And I love being my granddaddy's Pentecostal.

I know I don't have any any bit.

I'm a crossbreed.

I got Baptist theology, I got a Pentecostal heart, and I got Jehovah's Jehovah's Witness feet.

I'm a Baby Costal witness.

That's what I am.

Yes.

He said, I'm gonna rise and go to the Father.

And it wasn't that he had been, hey, he, hey, his relationship with his father had not been severed.

Come on.

Why?

Because, hey, when he came, when he came home, the father was getting up every day, looking out, wanting him to come home.

And boy, when he came home, what did he do?

He ran to him.

Good analogy.

So we see Christ.

Confidence in the security of his sonship.

Now, secondly, Christ's confidence in his dependency of his sonship.

Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

Just as he manifested confidence in the security of his sonship throughout his life and in the hour of his death, he also demonstrates right here confidence in the dependency of that sonship in two areas.

Two areas.

One, in life, he was completely dependent upon his father.

In life, he was completely dependent upon his father.

Now I'm going to give you something that I never connected before to this week.

And when I did, I said, my, my, my.

Now I want you to go to Psalms 31, verse 5 and look at this.

Psalms 31:5

We have reason, after researching this and all the theologians that I was reading this week, to believe that every morning he prayed Psalms 31, 5, and we believe that the Jewish children were brought up in their homes.

If you take Deuteronomy chapter 6, where they taught them the Word of God when they sat down, when they rose up, when they lied down, when they everything they did, they were teaching them the word.

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

We know this had to be part, and we know for a fact part of what they taught their children the moment they were able to pray and to read Psalms or quote Psalms that Psalms 31, verse 5 must have been one of the first that they learn.

Psalms 31:5

From which the last word of the cross is undoubtedly quoted.

I've never seen this before.

It is the prayer that every godly Jewish mother I know taught their babies and their children.

Notice what it says.

Into your hand I commit my spirit.

You have redeemed me.

Oh Lord God of truth.

Now you need to memorize that.

Put it down this week, and I want you to wake up every morning and I want you to say, Lord, into your hands I commit my spirit.

Today.

Because you have redeemed me, oh Lord God of truth.

What a powerful way to start your day.

Oh Lord Jesus, today I come.

Hey, I commit my spirit and my life, my soul, my all into your hands because you have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.

Now, notice what Jesus did with this powerful statement.

Jesus put the word Father before it and declared this phrase.

Wow.

What a powerful statement.

Jesus put the word father before it and declared the phrase, you have redeemed me.

Since it did not apply to him, his prayer every day was, Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit.

He didn't say, Oh Lord God of truth, because he was truth.

He didn't have to say God had redeemed him because he wasn't lost.

But that statement was so powerful.

Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

That's what we need to do every day because we have been redeemed by the Lord of truth.

So today, Lord, I I commend and commit my spirit into your hands.

Is that not good, or is that not good?

That was the attitude of his life, the whole life.

In his words, he never spoke.

Now, watch this.

I want to give you this.

This is so good.

In his words, he never spoke without the dependency upon God.

Watch what he says.

This is so good.

Look at John 14, 10.

Here's what he said.

The words that I speak to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me.

Wow.

Is that not what we're supposed to do?

1 Peter 4.11?

If any man speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God?

Wow.

What does he say in Colossians 4.6?

Let my mouth be full of grace, seasoned with salt, that I may know how to answer every man?

Oh, is that not good?

And then what about Psalms 19, 14?

Let the words of my mouth, the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.

And then what about his works?

What about his works?

He could say, look at look at John 5.30.

Here's what he said.

I can of myself do nothing.

I do not seek my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me.

The Father who dwells in me does the works.

My meet is to do the will of him that sent me to finish his work.

John 4 34.

That's what he says.

And I thought, what is my prayer?

Should I prayer not be?

I delight to do thy will, O God.

Thy law is within my heart.

Psalm 48.

See, if you really delight to do the will of God, the word of God will be in you.

If you desire this morning and in the morning to get up and say, I commend and commit my hands and my spirit and my soul and my life into your hands today, because you have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth, then the truth ought to be in you.

You ought to have spent at least five to twenty minutes in the book of truth.

A Proverbs a day keeps the devil awake.

And then what about Psalms 143, verse 10?

Psalms 143:10

Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God, lead me in the land of uprightness.

Wow.

And then his words, his work, totally dependent upon God.

Now, what about his ministry?

Consider his teaching ministry in Matthew chapter 11.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

Watch this, verses 25 and 26.

I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.

Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight.

Wow.

It is quite evident that he could not adequately minister to his disciples without the dependency upon his father.

What about his healing ministry?

Hmm, boy, this is good.

What about his healing ministry?

We see him outside the city walls, struggling with the man because of the man's disbelief to make him hear and speak.

So the Savior touched him, but unbelief still prevails.

Now watch.

Look at Mark 7, 34 through 37.

Jesus sighed and lifted his eyes to heaven in prayer.

Then and only then could he turn to the man and say, Be opened.

And we read that the man's ears were unstopped and his tongue released, so that all who stood by were amazed.

Again, we see the dependency on God.

And we watch him standing by the grave of Lazarus before he calls forth the man who had been dead for four days.

He demonstrated his dependency upon the Father.

In John 11, 41 through 44, he says, Father, I thank you for you have heard me, and I know that you always hear me, but because of the people who are standing by, I said this, that they may believe that you sent me.

In other words, that all power comes from heaven through the Father-Son relationship.

All power to me and you comes through the relationship that we have through Jesus Christ, through the person of the Holy Spirit of Christ.

And then what about his feeding ministry?

When he fed 5,000 males, probably 15, 20.

He told them to sit down in groups of 50 and 100.

And he took the loaves and the fishes to break and feed the multitudes.

But he first looked into his father's face and said, I thank thee for what you're about to do.

So we see in his life he was completely dependent upon the Father.

Notice the second thing.

In death, he was completely dependent upon his father.

Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

Now, and look at Psalm 16.

We find words that were obviously in his mind.

Oh, this is so good.

As he anticipated the demissal of the Spirit, he could say, Notice what he said.

Another passage of scripture, you need to put a star by and you need to spend some time in this week.

Here's what he said.

I have set the Lord always before me.

Oh, man, that's good.

In other words, first thing I do, I get in a book.

Last thing I do, I pray to him before I go to bed.

I set all during the day, I have set the Lord always before me.

Now watch, because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices.

My flesh also will rest in hope.

And then look at verse 10 for you will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will you allow your holy one to see corruption.

Now you're talking about security.

I mean, his totality of his being is mentioned.

Father, concerning my body, I trust you.

Father, concerning my soul, I trust you.

Father, concerning my spirit, I trust you.

What a comforting word this should be to all of us.

That's why Paul, look at what Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 4.13.

No wonder he exhorts the saints in Thessalonica.

He says, to sorrow as others who have no hope.

Even in the hour of death, we can know without, hey, with absolute confidence that the body, soul, and spirit are taken care of.

Folks, we don't have to worry about death.

We have that security.

We have that dependency.

To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

2 Corinthians 5.8.

We have that confidence.

We have that dependency that as he did to the thief on the cross, he will do to us today, that shall be with me in paradise.

Another couple examples that was so good.

When we're talking, when we're talking about the total dependency on God the Father, listen, in 1951 of the Southern Baptist Convention in San Francisco, M.

T.

Rankin, who was Jerry Rankin's dad, who just retired from our Southern Baptist Mission Board as the president, and now David Pratt, which many of y'all know, some of you, he was your pastor for a while, is now the new president.

But Jerry Rankin's dad made this statement at the convention that year in 1951.

He prayed, it was a prayer of thanksgiving for a life of martyred missionary.

William Wallace had just been martyred.

And people, he was a famous missionary for the Southern Baptist Convention, and they were, everybody was just upset, they didn't know what to do.

So Brother Rankin got up, and here's what he said.

The prayer included this one sentence, and rich in theology.

Here's what he prayed.

God is too wise to make a mistake and too good to do evil.

I'm gonna repeat that.

You may want to write it down.

God is too wise to make a mistake and too good to do evil.

That's Romans 8.28, for we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are called according to his purpose.

Romans 8.28.

That's it.

Again, God is too wise to make a mistake and too good to do evil.

There was another illustration in that same book that I was reading about George MacDonald, of a mother who had two sailor boys.

She had often been taunted by infidel neighbors concerning their precarious life that they were living.

They were in the Navy, and they always would come up to her and say, You're gonna lose your sons.

They will drown like so many other sailor boys.

They would say.

But then one day the mother said back to them, But they will still be safe.

They said, What in the world do you mean?

They will still be safe.

Oh, she said, Have you never read what is, hey, under the sea?

Hey, here's what she said.

Have you never read the word of God?

And they kind of looked, you know.

She said, Isaiah 40, 12 says, Who holdeth the waters in the hollow of his hand?

If they drown, they will fall right into the hands of God.

Woohoo! Wow.

Unbelievable.

Well, it brings me to the last point.

Not only did Christ's confidence, we see Christ's confidence in his prayer and the security of his sonship, the dependency of his sonship, and the last thing, the authority.

He was exercising his rightful authority as a son of God.

I want to illustrate that in two ways.

And we're through.

Number one, on Calvary's cross, now watch.

This is powerful.

Jesus ordered his death.

Man did not take Jesus' life from him, he willfully gave it up.

If you don't hear anything else, you must understand that.

He was gathering up, when he says, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

He was gathering up all that was involved.

Are you ready?

In the method of the crucifixion, in the manner and in the moment of the crucifixion.

For example, the method.

Look at Luke 24, verse 7.

Luke 24:7

The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and the third day rise again.

On a number of occasions, people and the enemy and Satan tried, attempted to put him to death by stoning, hey, by lynching him, by throwing him off the mountainside, but his hour, hey, his hour had not yet come, and Jesus Christ knew exactly the method that had to be used for his death, and it was the cross.

Crucifixion.

Why?

John 12, 32.

That's why, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men into myself.

Who, his own self, bear sins in his body on the tree.

That we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes we are what?

Healed.

1 Peter 2.24.

Then look at the manner of his death.

Oh, this is good.

Oh, you're gonna really like this.

The word, the Bible tells us in in uh John 19, 30.

You remember when he says to telesti.

But the Bible tells us, go to John 19.30, watch this.

When Jesus therefore had received the veneracy, he said, it is finished, and he bowed his head.

You kind of just jump over the word bow.

I have.

It's the Greek word Kleino.

Kleino.

The word bow.

Now watch this.

It's the same word that is used in Matthew 8 20, where Jesus declares that the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.

So just as deliberately as he would lay his head in sleep, hey, to poise his head in sleep as you and I do when we go to bed at night and we lay our heads down on the pillow and go to sleep, he lowered his head in honor and prayer to God the Father and commended his spirit to him.

He controlled it.

Just as you and I controlled us laying our heads down and going to sleep.

Is that not good?

Revival was here.

That's good, preacher.

That's it.

That's how much in control he really was in the method and the manner of his death.

And then the moment.

Just as clear and certain to us.

See, death is always the master to us, but to him, death was his servant.

Death was his servant.

Without, hey, with absolute precision and poise, he is the only one who has ever done this.

But I let me tell you, I found illustration.

Saint Augustine put it perfectly when he wrote, He gave up his life because he willed it.

Now listen to what he said.

When he willed it and as he willed it, he gave his life up.

He willed it.

I saw this and I was so touched by the illustration.

Only rarely does someone get to have the opportunity to give his life for someone else.

Now we've heard stories of that taking place on the battlefield.

Well, this was one in a in a concentration camp in World War II.

And uh let me see if I can pronounce their names correctly.

A prisoner had escaped from the Nazi camp.

The inmates of Block 148 were lined up by the Germans.

Sergeant Franciski Gurkowski of the Polish army was chosen for death as a reprisal of the inmate that had escaped.

Overcome, he cried out, My poor wife, my poor children, goodbye.

About that time there was a shout.

Number 16670 prisoner, Father Macmillan Colby, stepped forth, stepped forward, and approaching the camp's deputy commander, he said, I would like to die in the place of the man who has the wife and children.

The substitution, the substitutionary death of Father Colby allowed Krychaski to live.

Two thousand years ago.

Jesus died for you.

And me.

Instead of Danny Levin going to the cross, he said, wait a minute! No, don't send Danny Levin to the cross.

No, don't send Danny Levin to the cross.

No! I'll go for it.

I'll take his sin.

Now you can put every one of your names right there.

You should have been the one crucified.

I should have been the one crucified.

He did nothing wrong.

That's when you're ready to get saved.

When you turn to Jesus as a thief, turn to Jesus and said, Oh, Lord, remember me.

You do not deserve this.

You've done nothing wrong.

You are dying for me.

Now you're ready for salvation.

And the last thing on Calvary's cross, Jesus overcame death.

I will lay my life down.

Oh, listen to what he said in John 10, 17, 18.

And oh, what a way to close.

The words of the prayer were the earnest of his triumphant over the grave.

Notice what he said.

Therefore, my father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it again.

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on myself.

I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.

This commandment I have received from my father.

So as he hung right there upon the cross in those closing moments of his redeeming work, he could look through the gloom to the glory.

He looked through the gloom to the glory, from death to life, from tragedy to victory.

Hey, from the thorns to the throne, from the bleeding to the banquet, from the beating to the blessings, from the crowd mocking him to the crowns.

It is finished.

The battle is over.

The word of confidence.

The divine sonship.

Because Jesus is God.

And because you and I know Jesus.

We are in God.

And through the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit of God, we have that security, we have that dependency, and we have that authority.

To live that victorious Christian life.

Thanks again for tuning into this week's message.

We pray that your life has been changed.

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