The Surety's Thirst. Sermon 17. By Horatius Bonner. This sermon was created with an artificial voice for the audiobook initiative on Sermon Audio. there may be mispronunciations or occasional repetitions. To report a mistake, please email us at info at sermonaudio.com and include the sermon ID or title of the message and the time at which the error occurs. We will do our best to get it corrected for future listeners. John 19, 28 The present is the only reference which the Lord makes to pain of body. The others are to the griefs of his troubled soul. No doubt in the Psalms he alludes once or twice to his bodily sufferings, as when he speaks of his bones being out of joint, his heart melted like wax, his strength dried up like a pot shirt. But these intimations of corporeal pain are few. It is of the sorrows of his soul in connection with the wrath of God that he speaks so fully. In the Gospels, this cry of thirst is the only expression of bodily anguish that is recorded. And from the way in which it is introduced, we are plainly given to understand that even this cry would not have been uttered, had it not been for the fulfilling of Scripture. However terrible the thirst, the cry would have been repressed, had it not been for what was written in the Psalms concerning this. In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink, Psalm 69, 21. For thus the evangelist writes, After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Not that the cry was unreal and merely uttered, as one might say, to serve a purpose. The cry was the embodiment of the most real anguish ever felt on earth. But this anguish was, as we see in the Psalms, only poured out into the father's ears. For these psalms which I refer to are the secret and confidential utterances of Christ in His intercourse with the Father. The outpourings of His human griefs, the outcries of His anguished spirit, were not for man's ears. Only on the present occasion He allows Himself to be overheard by man in order that thereby He might put honor. Upon the Father's word, and show himself in all things the obedient son, the doer of the Father's work, the fulfiller of the Father's will. Terrible was that cry, I thirst. For it was the cry of God. It is a fearful thing, they say, to see strong men weep, or hear strong men cry. But here was one stronger than the strongest, higher than the highest, the Son of God Himself constrained to give vent to His suffering in this piercing cry, I thirst! To what an extremity of weakness is He here reduced and under what a burden of agony is He weighed down when He utters it? He would rather not utter it. He has repressed it long. He has put forth his strength in repressing and in bearing up under the pain, uncomplaining. But now he can refrain no longer. He must cry out, that he may give vent to the long-pent-up agony. Terrible was that cry, for it was the cry of one sinking into death under the condemnation of man's sin, under the weight of infinite guilt. It was the cry of one subjected to the wrath of Him who is a consuming fire, of one who felt himself about to be overcome of his great enemy, in deadly conflict. of one who knew that no help was nigh, that he was to be left unsuckered by God and man. Such was the cry of the Substitute, a piercing, bitter, agonizing cry. No parched and weary Ishmaelite, throwing himself down in despair beside a dried-up well, ever uttered such a cry as this. But it is the very bitterness of the cry that tells us its efficacy. It is a cry wholly relating to the sufferer himself, not to us. It is the cry not of intercession but of agony. Yet it is not on that account the less sufficient and satisfying for us. It tells of propitiation fully made, of redemption gloriously accomplished, of the debt paid to the last farthing. It tells us too of love, love immeasurable and unutterable. love triumphing over shame and anguish, over hunger and thirst, love which many waters could not quench, nor the floods drown, love to the Father, love to the sinner, the love of the shepherd to his flock, the love of the head to the members, the love of the elder brother to his brethren, the love of the Redeemer to his church, the love of the bridegroom to his bride-elect, the love that passeth knowledge and whose breadth and length, whose height and depth are beyond all measure and comprehension, the love of the just to the unjust, the holy to the unholy, the heavenly to the earthly, the creator to the creature, the love of the only begotten of the Father like himself, infinite and divine. That awful cry as it was the expression of the bodily anguish which was filling him, as the substitute, so was it the indication of that bodily torment from which his people had been delivered by his endurance of it in their stead? He drank it that they might never taste it. for they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sunlight on them, nor any heat. God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, for the former things have passed away." Revelation 21, 4. That awful cry as it was the expression of the bodily endurance through which the surety passed, so is it the announcement of the bodily torment of the lost forever. Oh, what must hell be! What must be the unquenchable fire? What must be the everlasting thirst? What must be the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth? Have mercy upon me, cries the rich man in hell, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. Luke 16, 24. Such is the eternal thirst and such its awful utterance. A day's thirst, under a scorching sun, is terrible. What must be an eternity of thirst in the heat of the devouring fire? O lost soul, you must thirst for ever. Because thou hast, while here, forsaken the fountain of living water and hewn out for thyself cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water, therefore, instead of the living water, clearest crystal, thou shalt drink of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation, and shalt be tormented with fire and brimstone, in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb." Revelation 14, 10. 3. The Answer. From above there came no answer. God was silent. From around there came derision. Man answered with laughter and with vinegar. It is not God's want to be silent in such a case. He feeds the young ravens when they cry. He regards the prayer of the needy. His ear is ever open to the cry of the destitute and the sorrowful. But here he answers not a word. No wonder that Christ should say, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? he thirsts. But the father seems not to regard his thirst. He cries, but the father gives no heed to his cries. When Hagar cried out for thirst in the desert of Beersheba, God sent his angel and led her to the unseen well. When Israel cried at Marah, God sweetened the bitter waters for them, and when they cried in Horeb, He smote the rock and the waters gushed forth. When Samson cried out for thirst at Ramathel Hai, God opened a spring for him in the very jawbone which he had used as a weapon, but now God answers not. It is not Hagar, nor Israel, nor Samson that cries, but one far greater and more beloved than these. Yet God answers not. This is the crisis of the abandonment. God must have forsaken him when a cup of cold water is denied. An angel came to the sufferer in Gethsemane to strengthen him, but no angel comes with a cup of water to quench his thirst. All heaven seems to stand aloof. Ah, this is the hour and the power of darkness. He has taken the sinner's place and he must bear the sinner's anguish, both in soul and body. He must suffer the sinner's thirst, as well as die the sinner's death. Every drop of the cup given him he must drink, and neither he himself nor his father will interfere to put aside the draft or to abstract a single drop. The father's love to the son is still the same, but righteousness stays his hand and restrains the forthputting of his delivering power. His readiness to hear the prayers of the beloved son remains unaltered, but love to sinners, love to the church, constrain him to shut his ear against this last cry of anguish. Ah, that no answer from heaven, that silence of the Father, is the proof that the great surety work for us is going on successfully and approaching its consummation. In the infliction of judicial wrath and the withholding of fatherly deliverance in the hour of need, we see the inflexible carrying out of those principles of law and justice on which alone substitution can proceed, forgiveness be founded and salvation secured. It is not of diluted wine, nor of a half-filled cup, that the sin-bearing Son of God must drink. The wine must be unmixed and the cup full. Otherwise the sin is not wholly born, nor the great work perfected, of the just for the unjust. Love would have said, Oh, hear that cry and quench that thirst. But Law said, Not so, else the sacrifices blemished and the surety ship rendered invalid. Thus the father kept silence. He who alone could have relieved that anguish stood aloof. Justice took its course, and Law was satisfied. The sacrifice was completed and the penalty exhausted. For immediately after this, Jesus said, it is finished, and bowing the head, He gave up the ghost. End of the Surety's Thirst. Sermon 17.