Thank you. Alright, if you have your Bibles, turn with me to Luke chapter 23. Luke 23. And today we come to the last of the seven sayings of Christ on the cross. And today we would have studied every single one of the words that Jesus spoke from the cross. We've looked at every word, every sentence, every syllable. There's seven sayings, there's eight sentences, there's fifty words. We've looked at every bit of it. And I'm thankful for it. I think it's been a great journey. They say the last words are the lasting words. And we have studied the last words of Jesus. Every single one of them. And this is the last one. And here we come to the last words or the dying words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And that's the title of the sermon. The Dying Words of Christ. So I want you to stand with me. I'm just going to read to you three verses starting in Luke 23, verse 44. And we'll read through verse 46. And you'll see there in verse 46 The last words. These dying words of Christ. These are the last words that He would say before He gives up the ghost and dies. We know He'll be resurrected on that Sunday and He has other things to say, but these are the last words of His earthly life. So starting there in verse 44, let's read together. Verse 44, this is the Word of God, and it says, And it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, and I may not say this in a sermon, I want to say it now, the loud voice is a mega voice. Almost as if He has a megaphone. The word is mega in the Greek. It's a mega voice, loud voice. He says it with a great voice. And He said, Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit. And having said thus, He gave up the ghost. These are the dying words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And we need to look at every single word here. There's a lot for us to learn. So let's pray together and we'll study these words. Father, we thank you for the dying words of your son. I think these few words here, just a handful, speak volumes to us and could teach us so much about dying. How he died and how he left us an example for how we should die. So God, teach us these words. Show us the truth that's buried deep within these words. And I thank you, God, that you saw fit to record these things in your Word. That we have them, we can study them, we can know them, and we can learn so much from them. Help me to teach them. Help me to get the truth out of this and to the people in their ears here today. Again, I think this is the most important part of any worship service. I love the singing, I love the giving, I love the fellowship. But I think the most important part is the preaching of the Word of God. So God, teach us from your Word today. Speak, Lord, for your servants, your people are listening. And we ask and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. You can be seated. There was an undertaker many years ago in Washington, D.C. who used to sign at the bottom of every single letter that he would send out. And this undertaker was very famous. He would bury a lot of people in Washington, D.C. and he would write letters to a lot of different people at the bottom of every single letter he would write, eventually yours. And what he's saying there is that sooner or later you're all going to be in my hands. And it's a truth that he understood and that we need to understand too. There's only two types of people in the world and in this room today. And those two types of people is that one type is going to die soon and one type is going to die later. Every one of us is going to die sooner or later. We're all going to die someday. One day death gets us all. That undertaker knew that. We need to understand that. I think we spend all of our life fighting against death, but one day, death is going to get every single one of us. One out of one will die. Everybody dies. The Bible says it's appointed unto man once to die, and after that, the judgment. Everybody here has an appointment with death. We will all die. That's the truth. We know we're going to die. We don't know when. We don't know the way. It could be a thousand different ways that we could die. You could die in a tornado. You could die in a torrential downpour that we've been getting this week. You could die in a car accident. You could die of cancer. You could die in quicksand. I don't know why quicksand. I watched a lot of shows growing up, people getting stuck in quicksand. There's a thousand ways that any of us could die. We don't know when. We don't know the way. But what I'm going to ask today is how will you die? We can all determine how. The way that we face death. You can all decide that today. How will you face death? How will you face that final moment of your life when you're about to breathe your last breath? What world will you be like? How will you face death? And we have an example. I know it's a hard question for us, but I believe that here in this passage, we have a perfect example for us on how to die. I know that we know the truth about the cross. I've never looked at the cross in this way. We know the historical fact of the cross that Jesus did die. Everybody knows that. Everybody understands that. It's a historical fact. We've seen it on the cross. It's the worst possible death that anybody has ever died. We know Jesus died. You've heard it all. We've studied it for weeks now. Then we've learned the theological truth. We know who He died for. We know why Jesus died. It's said repeatedly over and over that Jesus died for me. That's one of the great words in the Greek is huper, which means He died on behalf of me or in the place of me. We know that He who knew no sin became sin for us. Charles Spurgeon said this, for you. the thorn crown. For you, the spittle on his cheeks. For you, the plucking of his beard. For you, the accursed lash that scourged his sacred shoulders. For you, the nails. For you, the sponge of vinegar. For you, the gall. For you, the spear. For you, he died. We know why he died. We know the way he died. Now I want to show you how he died. That's what we see here. How Jesus faced death. When Jesus came to that last moment, that last breath, at the end, how did He face it? He faced it like nobody else ever did. He lived like nobody else ever lived. And here He's going to die like no one ever died. And I think in this passage today, in these final words, Jesus teaches us how to die. I don't know if you've ever had a sermon, and if I wasn't doing this in a series, that's what it would have been. Jesus teaches us how to die. How many sermons have you ever heard about how to die? John Wesley used to say it about Methodists that we die well. All people know how to die. We not only need to know how to live, we need to know how to die. So Jesus here gives us an example in how to die. He changes how we are to approach death. So I want to teach you that today. I want to teach myself that today. Because again, I started with the main point, we're all going to die. The question is, how are we going to die? So let's look at this lesson that Jesus teaches us here on how to die. I found a verse in Numbers 23 that said, let me die the death of the righteous. Let's die differently than everybody else. Let's learn today to die like Jesus died. So I'm going to give you three points as we work our way through this final statement. The dying words of Christ. Number one, I want to show you Jesus' comfort in His death. And His comfort in death should be your comfort in death. Look at these words. He starts out there. And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, again, a mega voice, a mega phone. He didn't whisper this. He said it with a loud voice. He says, Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit. This is a direct quote from Psalm 31, verse 5. And I went back and studied Psalm 31. It's the Psalm of David. It's the Psalm of Trouble. David is facing trouble in Psalm 31. And this is what he's saying. This is his heart. And I want to read it to you. You don't have to turn there, but I want to read to you Psalm 31. It says, In Thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. Let me never be ashamed. Deliver me in Thy righteousness. Bow down Thine ear to me. Deliver me speedily. Be Thou my strong rock, my house of defense to save me. For Thou art my rock and my fortress. Therefore, for my name's sake, lead me and guide me. Pull me out of the net that they have laid for me. For Thou art my strength. Into Thy hand I commit my spirit. Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, God of truth. Jesus is quoting scripture on the cross. Psalm 31 is the evening prayer that they would pray as families. They would memorize this, they would read it before they laid down to go to bed. This was their, now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. We memorized that as a kid. They were memorizing Psalm 31 as a kid. This was their evening prayer. And Jesus had this Scripture on His mind and coming out of His lips as He's dying. All seven sayings that He said from the cross has come from Scripture. All tied to the Word of God. Jesus lived by God's Word. He was a man of God's Word. He prioritized God's Word. He memorized God's Word. He loved God's Word. He read God's Word. He trusted God's Word from the time He was born until up to His death. He was quoting God's Word. And now Jesus died by God's Word. Trusted it all the way to His death. Coming to His final seconds. And His life had been so full of Scripture that His final seconds Out is coming flowing scripture out of his mouth. So I say this at the start of what was his comfort? God's word was his comfort in death. And I think that we ought to take exactly what He's doing there, and in our time of death, we need to make sure that Scripture is coming out of our mouths. That if we are living in the Scriptures, and we are men and women of one book, and it's filling our mind, and it's filling our heart, and we love it, and we read it, and we memorize it, and we preach it, and we trust it in life, then as we go to die, out from our mouth will come Scripture. It'll be on our minds. It'll be in our hearts. It'll be our comfort as we're dying. And as we're breathing our last breath, we're hanging on to God's Word. Get this. Scripture should be our comfort in our last breath. God's promises should be our comfort in our last breath. You'll need a solid rock to stand on as you walk through the valley of the shadow of death. And that rock is the Word of God. We need it in life so that we can hold on to it in death. K-love songs won't cut it when you're dying. Coffee mug verses won't cut it when you're dying. Some people know so little scripture they won't know what to hold on to when they die. When you're dying, will you be holding on to, judge not lest I be judged? Will you be holding on to, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me? Or will you be holding on to, thou art my rock and my strong tower? In Thee have I placed my trust. We need to be so full of Scripture in life that we are holding on to it in our last breath like Jesus was. The Word of God was His comfort. And second here, His comfort. Look at it with me. Not only is He quoting Scripture, but He's trusting the Father. You see that? The very first word there. When Jesus was in a crowd with a loud voice, He said, Father. I'll stop right there. He says, Father. The word that he used a lot, I like this, is first words. I always like that my kids' first words, and Steph can confirm this, she probably won't, but I have five kids and every one of them says da-da first. You say, why do they do that? Because I'm whispering in their ear from the time they're born until they speak that first word, da-da, da-da, da-da, da-da, da-da, da-da, da-da, da-da, da-da, da-da, and then they can't help it, the first thing out of their mouth is da-da, be quiet! Dad, dad, dad, dad, dad, dad. I want them to say dad, dad. I want them to say, so I can look at step and say, you had them, they love you more, but they said my name first. Was Jesus' first words father? I don't know. We don't know if it was or not. I'll tell you this, the first words that he spoke that were in red in scripture was father. You go to Luke chapter two and the first words that Jesus has ever recorded in scripture, he says, I must be about my father's business. So the first words that is quoted of Jesus in Scripture is His Father. And the last words that is quoted in Scripture Jesus is saying is His Father. And throughout His life, He speaks of the Father. His first sermon, the Sermon on the Mount. Seventeen times He says, Father. He talks about worrying. He says, don't worry. Your Father knows the fowls of the air, the lilies of the field, the hairs on your head. Your Father in Heaven will take care of you. The last sermon he ever preached, John 14, 51 times he said, Father. His first words on the cross, Father, forgive them. His last words on the cross, Father. Over and over and over, he's speaking, Father. We know that in the middle of the cross, he said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But now that has passed. The darkness has passed. The cup is emptied. And now in his final breath, he's drawing comfort not only from the promises of the Father, but the presence of the Father that's with him. I like that. At his worst, when his body is suffering, when he has nobody else to turn to, it's father. Jesus is showing us who to turn to as we're dying. We're holding on to God's promises and we're holding on to his presence. That's what will get you through your final breath. You won't be holding on to a science book, will you? Or a math book? Or a history book? You'll be holding on to the Word of God. And as you're dying, you're going to need to bank on He's here with me. That's what Jesus is doing here. He's going to the same place that we can go. to the father. And not everybody can do this. This is not a universal fatherhood of God that we're all God's children. No, no, no, no. We are adopted and saved into God's family. We are born again into the family of God. Only saved people can call out to God as father. We have the same unspeakable privilege. And I won't just say it at death, but in every hour of trouble that we ever face, we can call out father. Jesus taught us to say, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. He told Mary, I go to my Father and your Father. At the worst possible time of your life, you can cry out, Father, and He's going to be there. He doesn't say dictator. He doesn't say judge. He doesn't say master. He says, Father. He's calling out to a loving, kind, compassionate, welcoming, understanding, and forgiving Father. That's who we call out to in our worst of times. We cry out to the Father. No matter what is going on, no matter what we're facing, we'll always find comfort that the Father in heaven is with us. We never have to worry about dying alone. We went through COVID. Heard a preacher say the other day that he was, he survived, but he was on his deathbed with COVID just a year or so ago. He said, they wouldn't let nobody else with me. He said, my son was getting ready to break the window out of the hospital just so he could come in and tell me bye. They wouldn't let anybody in. Nurses would come in and they were decked out head to toe and I didn't know who they were. Doctors would come in. I didn't know who they were. I thought I was going to die. He said, but I was not dying alone. I knew the Father was with me. You never have to worry about dying alone. Our comfort is the promises of God. and the presence of God as we die. That's what Jesus is holding on to. He's always there. Always holding my hand. That's the way I think about it. You may not draw comfort from this, but I have my little, almost two-year-old girl, and she's at that age where that hand goes up everywhere she goes. We were in Pound two days this weekend, walking around town, around all kinds of people, doing all kinds of things, and every time she wanted to go someplace, she'd put that hand up. And she wouldn't take a step unless I reached down and grabbed a hold of that hand. And she's a little lower than I am, and I'm sitting there, you know, just waddling around, holding her hand. And she'll go anywhere and she'll face anything as long as Daddy's got a hold of her hand. There's no time in your life that you can't reach out to the Father, and He won't reach down and walk you through whatever it is you're facing. Whatever it is you're facing, and especially as you're walking through the valley of the shadow of death, thou art with me. You can face death because you're holding on to the word of God and you're holding on to the hand of God. Your father is with you. Jesus in his final breath is holding on to the father. Psalm 139, and you don't have to turn there. I think this is a good way to transition to the next point, Psalm 139. Verse 3, Thou compassest my path and my lying down. Thou art acquainted with all my ways. There is not a word in my tongue, but O Lord, Thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laying Thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high and I cannot attain it. Where shall I go from Your Spirit? Where shall I flee from Your presence? If I ascend up into heaven, You're there. If I make my bed in hell, You're there. If I take the wings in the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Your hand lead me. Your right hand shall hold me. There's no place we'll ever go as God's children that He will not be with us. Jesus is showing that in death we hold on to His Word and we hold on to His hand. That's a great comfort that you are not alone. John Calvin said this, a godly man unable to find comfort anywhere else in the world unburdens all his griefs and all his cares in the lap of his heavenly Father. That's where Jesus is when He says Father. That's his comfort. Let's move to the second point. His confidence in death. Jesus died confidently. Look at the next one. I like this because he says in v. 46, Father, and then he says, into thy hands. That's a good phrase. It says into thy hands. And the key word there is hands. I underline the hands. What does that mean? Again, what does he mean into thy hands? Because he had been in the hands of angry men. We've said that repeatedly. I'll give you a few examples. Matthew 17. The Son of Man shall be betrayed into the hands of men. Matthew 26 says, sleep on now. The hour is at hand. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Verse 50, they laid hands on Jesus. Acts 2, Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, He hath taken Him by wicked hands, crucified and slain Him. Psalm 31a, the same psalm he's quoting, says he's in the hands of his enemies. So on the cross for a whole day, he's been in the hands of wicked and evil men. These men have done their worst, get this, by their hands they stripped Jesus naked. By their hands, they dressed him in a mocking robe. With their hands, they took a reed and beat him up on the face. With their hands, they slapped Jesus. With their hands, they plucked his beard. With their hands, they made a crown of thorns. With their hands, they pushed it on his head. With their hands, they pushed him up the hill. With their hands, they nailed him on the cross. Wicked and evil men, with their hands, crucified Jesus. He's been in awful hands. And there comes a time when man's hands are done. Psalm 31, the same psalm he quotes, he says, my time are in thy hands. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies. And now as he's about to die and he's breathing his last, man's hands are done. Never again will he be in the hands of sinful men. Never again will he be at the mercy of wicked men. And now he says I'm no longer in the hands of men. and I'm placing myself in the hands of the Father. Look at this. We can go through life, and life is so wicked, and life is so cruel, and life is so evil, and it's so bad, and our bodies take a beating, and our lives can be so hard, but here at His death, as He's giving up the ghost, He's giving Himself into the hands of a loving Father. Look what He says. Into thy hands I commend my spirit. Let's take it a word at a time. He says his spirit, his body stays. That's where all of us. Bruised, disfigured, tortured body will stay. And his spirit will go. That's the way it works in death. His body will be taken off the cross. His body will be cleaned up. His body will be laid in a tomb. It's the same thing that happens to us. Our body is going to stay here and our spirit which is who we really are. It's our memories. It's our personality. It's who we are. It's the most valuable, most important thing about us. Our soul is our precious treasure. Value it more than anything else. We work out our bodies so much to try to make sure they're healthy. Put so much into it. We diet and we exercise. And I'm okay with that. But we need to see that our soul is more valuable than even our body. Our bodies are perishing. Our souls ought to be flourishing. It says my soul, my spirit. What's most important, most valuable. I take it. And I hand it over. That's what the word commit or command is. I hand it over. I give it to you. I want you to look after it. It's like I'm giving Hallie. I take my hand and I hand her over to somebody to watch her. Me and Steph do that and as we've gotten older, we're more careful. We hand her over. You watch her? Yeah. You sure? You really gonna watch her? Hand her over to Gracie. You really? Put your phone down. You gotta keep both eyes on her. Watch where she's eating. Watch where she's drinking. Watch where she's going. We're handing something so valuable, so precious, and we're handing it over to you to take care of. You gotta be careful who you let babysit your kids. Here. That Jesus is handing over His soul. The preciousness of His soul. Giving it over to be taken care of. This word commend. Handing over. Putting it into the hands of. It's like Noah getting on the ark. Door shutting. Giving myself and my family over to You. Who's He giving it to? Father, into Your hands, I'm giving You the most valuable thing I have. My soul. The Father's hands is a place of security. The Father's hands is a place of safety. There's no safer place in all the universe than in the hands of the Father. You understand that? I've got another passage I want to read to you. John 10. You say, prove that to me. I'm not handing my soul over to just anybody, are you? I don't even want it in my own hands. It's not safe with me. So when I get saved, I'm handing my eternal soul over to somebody who can handle it better than I can. Look what it says, John 10, verse 27. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give them to them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them to me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." And there's a statement. We give our eternal souls. When we come at salvation, we're saying, my soul belongs to the one I trust with it. What I value most, what is most precious. Have you taken your soul and given it to the Lord Jesus Christ? I'm handing it to You. My eternal soul is in Your hands. Not my hands. I can't do it. My hands can't hold on to my soul. My hands can't get me to heaven. My will, my promises, my resolutions, it won't work! I can't do it. But I'm handing it over to my Father, the One who can safely and securely keep it. It's not only our souls we give to Him, I think every single day we're placing ourselves in his hands, or should be. You wake up every morning and you say, get this. I don't know about you guys, but I do. I drive away from my house and as I'm backing out, trying not to hit the mailbox. I'm backing out of my house and I'm praying it. And maybe, I don't know if I've told you guys this before, but I say the same prayer every morning as I'm backing out of my house. God, I'm leaving here and my kids and my wife are no longer in my hands. So I'm leaving them into Your hands. Take care of them. Watch over them. Be with them until I return. I'm handing them into safer hands than even my own. What I value most in this world is in His hands. My health is in His hands. This church is in His hands. We're placing everything that we care about into His hands. His hands are so much better than my hands. I could look at you today and we could give an altar call. And there are things on your mind that you're trying to control, that you're trying to take care of, that you can't. And we used to give altar calls. We used to say, lay it at the altar. I don't want you to lay it at the altar. I want you to give it to him. If he can take care of my eternal soul, he can take care of whatever it is that's on your mind right now. I don't know what it is, but whatever it is, it's safe in the father's hands. His hands are strong. I can say that about my eternal soul. Get this. And I don't want to be mean about it. It may sound that way, and I don't know if it will be. But there are Baptist denominations that believe you can lose your salvation. That I can give Him my soul and place it in His hands, and He is weak and can't hold on to it. And that He's going to just say, whoop, whoop, whoop. Whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop. Sound like three stooges. Whoop, whoop, whoop. And God is just going to let it go. When I give Him my eternal soul, He's holding on to that. And He's not letting go. No man shall pluck us out of His hands. Strong hands. And if He can take care of my soul, then He can take care of whatever it is I'm going through in life. And we can only say this at death. We can say it every day. Into Your hands I commend this. Whatever it is. And if you do that, let me just go If you've given him your life, your soul, and you've given him your life, then and only then can you say what Jesus said at the end, I'm giving you my death. I've trusted him with what I value the most. I've trusted him with everything in my life. And now that I'm dying, I can confidently say that I will be safe in the hands of my father. That's what he's saying there. We commit our soul to his care at our death. As we're dying, get this. You can turn to Acts 7, you don't have to turn there. This is almost the exact words that Stephen said as they were stoning him. Into your hands I commend my spirit. Augustine died saying these words. Martin Luther died saying these words. Jan Hus, I know you guys don't know him. He's an old Christian reformer preacher. And they were getting ready to kill him. And they took him, and as they were leading him off, they said to him, we are committing your soul to the devil. You'd hate to hear that at death, right? And as they were killing him, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. Dying words of some great men. Knowing that he's taking care of my soul, he's taking care of my life, I am confident that he will take care of me in death. It shows we can trust him. As I'm dying, it's in his hands. How do we know it's safe? How do we know that as I'm dying and I'm handing my death over to him, my body will stay and he's going to, here's my, here's my eternal soul. We don't know what's beyond the grave, do we? I mean, we don't understand. We have nobody who's come back to tell us and say, hey, this is what you see. This is what happens. This is when you open your eyes. This is it's safe. Go on. How do we know? Was Jesus taken care of? He gave his soul to the father. Did the father take care of Jesus? You better believe he did. He handed it over on Friday. He arose on Sunday. You think he took care of him? You better believe he did. He was resurrected just as we will be one day. It won't be a Friday to a Sunday, but as we're buried in the ground one day, our bodies will meet with our souls and we will be resurrected. He will take care of us. We're in safe hands. He ascended to the Father. He's seated at the right hand of the Father now. So if Jesus was safe, we can know certainly, confidently that as we die, we'll be safe. Charles Spurgeon said, because of this passage, I know that there is a seat in heaven that will be mine one day. And we can all die confidently. So I've showed you. Jesus' comfort, Jesus' confidence, and I want to show you lastly, His control. Jesus died in total control. Look at this. As you look at it in verse 46, it says, Father, in thy hands I commend my spirit, and having said thus, Having said that, He's done. I'm not going to get to that He gave up the ghost just yet. He's made His final cry. There's nothing left to be said. There's nothing left to be done with His final statement. He's made seven statements from the cross and He's finished. There's nothing left to be said. I like that. He is completely done. It is finished. It is accomplished. There's nothing left for Him to do. I love that He left. He didn't leave anything left to be done. What's this? Just in the statements that he shared. And I want to make this very practical for you. Get these things done before you die. In his final statements, he shared salvation with a thief on the cross. In his final statements, he had forgiven all of his enemies. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. In his final statement, he had cared for those he loved the most, his mother. In his final statement, he said, it is finished. I've done everything that I have been called to do. I like that. He almost gives us a list of things that we need to get done before we die. You say, what is that? I think we need to make sure that we share salvation with everybody around us before we die. I need to make sure that everybody that God has put in my path, that I have shared the way of salvation through Jesus Christ and Jesus alone with everybody that I've crossed paths with. I look around. I was at a game the other day, a baseball game. And I looked around. I was just looking at the crowd of people from Big Stone. I do that. Baseball games last about three, four, six, seven, eight hours. My boy bats about once every three innings. So there's some time there. And I'm looking through the crowd. I'm saying, I've shared the gospel with them. I've shared the gospel with them. I've shared the gospel with them. Not them. Bullseye. Watch out. I'm sitting beside you next game for seven hours. Who's in your life have you not shared the gospel with yet that you need to before you die? And if there's anybody left, I want whoever preaches my funeral to make sure they share it with them while they're sitting there. You're not just going to come in and say, hey, I'm sorry, Josh died and leave. Everybody, there's going to be a lock at the door. Everybody comes in, has to stay for the sermon. Write that down. Put that on my wish list there. Jesus shared salvation with a dying thief. He forgave all of his enemies. You don't want to go to the grave with somebody you're holding bitterness towards. Don't die bitter. Don't die angry. Don't die with a hit list. Don't die with, I hate them and I'm going to hate them all the way to my dying breath. Father, forgive them. I ain't going to hold nothing against nobody. I don't want to, there may be some people angry at me, but I don't want to be angry at them. They may not forgive me, but I want to forgive them. This is practical. How about caring for his mother? I need to make sure that my wife and kids are cared for if I die. Those are the closest to me. And I need to make sure that I've done everything that God has called me to do so that I can say it's finished and I've left nothing undone. Like Paul in Acts 20 as he's leaving the church at Ephesus and he said, I've preached everything that I should preach to you. I didn't leave nothing unsaid. And you guys know me, I may preach every single book expositorily from Genesis to Revelation before I die. And if not, we'll get what we can. Believe nothing undone, nothing unsaid. It is finished. And Jesus now has done all that. He's ready to die. What an example that He's left us of things to do here. And now, now that He has all those things done, all those things said, made sure it's all been accomplished, now and only now can He say, He gave up the ghost. He dies. This is a strange statement. Just follow with me on this. And having said thus, the last phrase, then, and I put a line after thus, then he gave up the ghost. Or the Greek would read, he breathed his last. When Mark speaks of his death, he says the same thing. He gave up the ghost. In John, he says he gave up the spirit or he bowed his head. Almost like he's falling asleep. Matthew 27, and I like this one the best, says he yielded up the ghost. That word yielded, if you look it up, it means he dismissed it. It means he allowed it to happen. It means he had authority over it. This is so good. I love that. He dismissed his spirit. He said, you can now go. It's like a teacher that says, the bell doesn't dismiss you. I don't know if they have bells anymore, but they used to say that to us. The bell doesn't dismiss you, I dismiss you. You know, the bell would ring and everybody would start gathering their stuff and they'd get up and the teacher's like, no. Sit down. They all sit there scared. What? You got more to say? No, just wanted to show you who's in authority. Now you can go. And Jesus is here saying He yielded up the ghost. He allowed it to happen. He dismissed it. He's saying here, the Romans didn't take my life. The Jewish leaders didn't take my life. No man takes my life. I freely lay it down and I can freely raise it again. He's in complete control of his own death. I like that. Jesus' death is absolutely unique here. It can't be said of anybody else. You get this, we can die with comfort because Jesus said so. We can die with confidence just like Jesus. But none of us can die in complete control. None of us determines that. Only Jesus does this. Jesus shows that nobody else decided when to breathe his last. He decided it. He's in total control over his own death. It wasn't fate. It wasn't an accident. He wasn't a helpless victim. Jesus died on purpose. He decided to die. He decided it was time to go. He controlled the timetable of his own death. He didn't breathe his last until he said, OK, breathe last. He fell asleep when he wanted to fall asleep. Sam said that to me last Sunday. I love a good Sunday nap. We ate, I sit down on the couch, I looked at her and I said, I'm now going to sleep. And she said it wasn't two seconds later, out. She said, how in the, I woke up and she's looking at me. How in the world did you fall asleep when you wanted to fall asleep? So it's a gift. But nobody dies when they want to die. Only Jesus can say, I've now breathed my last. You say, how can we apply this? He's in control of his own death. We aren't in control of our own death. But he does control our death. He controls the timetable of every single one of our deaths. He's always in control. He was in control when he was sleeping on the boat, the storm was swirling all around him. He was in control when the soldiers came to arrest him. He was in control of his dying moment. And now, whatever death it is we face, we don't know when it'll be, we don't know what it'll be, we don't know how it'll be, but we know it'll be under his control. If I die in quicksand, It'll be because he said so. It's appointed and the man wants to die. Who made that appointment? Not me. I don't know when it is. I know there's no way I'll miss that appointment. So whenever it is we die, you need to understand that I didn't die before my time. I may die at 41 years old and everybody said, oh, he was so young and I am. He died way before his time. We died way past his time. He lived way too long. Whenever it is we die, it's the appointed time for us to die. We don't control that. He does. We're on his timetable and we will die exactly when he says for us to die, as he says for us to die, and no other way will we die. It's under his control. And now, finally, And I'm closing. He gave up the ghost. The seventh phrase brings him to a place of rest. And now Jesus rests. God created, and I love Johnny talking about the stars this morning, he created, God created all things in six days and he rested on the seventh. And now Jesus, get this, has done an even greater work. Nobody worked any harder than Jesus did in saving you and me from our sins. Nobody worked any harder. It took work unlike anything we could ever imagine to save us. We're not saved by our works in no way, shape, form or fashion. We can't work hard enough to save ourselves. We are saved by works. The works Jesus did on the cross. And He died on the sixth day of the week. And He rested on the seventh. And for us, when it's time for us to breathe our last, as believers, our eyes will close and we'll find rest from our labor. And then someone could say about us, may they rest in peace. Because when we yield up our ghost, when we lay it down, and our eyes are closed and we breathe no more, that's when we'll find the ultimate rest. People say that to me all the time. Josh, you need to slow down. Josh, you need to slow down. Josh, you need to slow down. And I say it jokingly, I'll rest when I die. But after reading this and studying this, that's the truth. We work, work, work, work, work. And when we breathe our last, that's when we find the rest that God wants us to have. I say it like this. When Jesus says he gave up the ghost, When we give up the ghost, we'll close our eyes and we'll wake up somewhere different. That's another sermon. We'll wake up somewhere better. It's like Hallie. I've used her several times today. I'm going to close with her. The other day she fell asleep with me. Rare. Sleeping on the couch. She laid down. I know how to get her to sleep. We just start singing, we don't talk about Bruno. I know every single word. I'm not going to sing it. I'm not going to sing it. I'm not going to sing it. And she laid down and she fell asleep. She didn't want to fall asleep with me. She laid down on my shoulder. She fell asleep. And I was able to pick her up. And she fell asleep in the living room with her dad. And I picked her up and I took her downstairs and I laid her in bed. And when she woke up, she was in a much better place. She was in a different place. And she's always going to think about it when she wakes up, how in the world did I get here? Wasn't I up there with him? And now I'm down here with my favorite person in the entire world? This is much better than up there. And that's what happens to believers when they die. We fall asleep here. It's our eyes closed here. That's why they call it, for believers, it's a rest. It's a sleep. That's a great comfort for us. I'll close my eyes here. And because of the Word of God, I know it's true. My faith is in Jesus and my sins are forgiven and I trust it. Holding on to it. And when I close my eyes here, And Smurgeon said that if we knew as much about heaven as the Bible teaches us about heaven, everybody would cheer every time a Christian died. I close my eyes here. And I don't know what it will be like, but I know that when I open my eyes, and I will open my eyes because the Bible teaches life after death. I will open my eyes in a different place. And I'll open my eyes in a better place. And I'll open my eyes with my favorite person in the entire world. And you say, oh, is that Steph? No, she's second. And you say, with your kids? No, no, no, they're next. I'll open my eyes and I'll be with my Savior. And what a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see. And I look upon His face, the one who saved me by His grace. And He takes me by His hand. And He leads me through the promised land. What a day. Oh, what a day that will be. There'll be Abraham of old and all the prophets, we are told. They'll be standing around God's throne as we all go marching home. But the one I long to see is the one who died for me. What a day. What a day. What a day that will be. You'll close your eyes here. and you'll open them then. So that you can say with great comfort, and with great confidence, and knowing he's in control, as you breathe your last, Father into thy hands, I commend my spirit. I've taught you how to die. I showed you how he died. Now my question is for you today, and I don't want to scare you, but you're going to die sooner or later. That undertaker says eventually yours. I see these funeral directors around here and I think they're going to get me one day. They're going to get us all one day. Question is, is how will you die? How will you die? You're going to. We don't like to think about it. We are in a culture today where nobody likes to talk about it. Nobody likes to think about it. I've never seen it before where nobody even likes to go to funerals anymore. You don't like to, but nobody comes to funerals anymore. It's as far away from death as we can, but every now and then you need to think about it. How will I die? And the only way any of us will die with comfort and with confidence and knowing it's under control is if you have placed your soul into the hands of the Father. And you've put your full faith and trust in Jesus Christ. I have no, I have no comfort to give you if you're not saved. None. There's no comfort. You can't say, Father, as I commit my spirit. You know why? Because the Bible says if you're not in the family of God and God isn't your Father, then you're of your Father, the devil. And if you're not going to die and wake up in the hands of a loving Father, you're going to die and wake up in the hands of an angry God. That's your two options. If you're a believer in Jesus, you'll die and wake up in the hands of a loving Father. And if you're not saved, you'll wake up in what Jonathan Edwards called, sooner than the hands of an angry God. That's your two options. And the only way to be in the hands of a loving Father is to have faith in Jesus Christ. That's it. That's the only way. Again, I'm not trying to scare you to death. But I think fear is a good thing. Fear keeps us from a lot of things. Fear will keep you from running across the road without looking both ways. I'll tell you that. Don't scare people into heaven. I scare people out of death all the time. Don't do that. Don't touch that. It'll burn you. We do it all the time. Hallie gets a piece of candy, wants to put it in her mouth. She'll get choked. Don't do that. Oh, she's scared. People today say, don't scare them. I think fear is a good thing. Fear is a good motivator. If you don't want to go to hell, you need to be saved to put your faith in Jesus Christ. It's the only way. You need to be... The only way you can be ready to die is by putting your faith in Christ. Into your hands. Safe, secure, strong hands. I give my soul. And He'll take care of it. He'll take care of you. Can you do that today? I'm asking you. If you were to be sooner rather than later, and death was coming your way, could you confidently say, I know where I'll be when I open my eyes? And if you can't say it confidently, if you can't say it with assurance, if you can't say it, I know, then today you need to, as we pray, say, God, into your hands I give my spirit, my soul, my life, my all. And he'll take phenomenal care of it. No man will pluck you out of his hands. What great truth. Put it in the secure hands of Christ. Your soul is too precious, too valuable for you not to take it and put it into safe hands. So put your faith in Jesus today and you will be ready to die. You can die like he did with comfort, with confidence and knowing it's completely under control. Taught you how to die. And it's only, let me say this and I'll close. It's only when you know how to die that you truly know how to live. So I hope everybody in here has learned today how to die. And now, We can all walk out these doors knowing how to live. That's what Christians do. We live better than everybody else because we die better than everybody else. These are the last words of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Father, in thy hands, I commend my spirit. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for these words. Eight sentences, seven sayings, 50 words. And it's been some of the best studying that I've ever had the privilege of doing. I've enjoyed every single second of this study. I've learned so much about you. I've learned so much about what happened on the cross. I have grown from this study. And I pray God that everybody in this room today can say the same. That they've heard all seven. If they haven't, go back and listen to all seven. and they'll know you better and let them understand the cross better. And God, I pray that everybody in here today is ready to die. We don't like to think about it, but we can get that settled today. We don't have to dwell on it forever, but today, if there's anybody in here, God, who's not saved, let them settle that today and put their faith in Jesus. And they'll never have to worry about that again. So God, please, by your spirit and by the power of your word, convert people in this room today. I pray it's been edifying for the Christians, and I pray, God, that it be saving for the unbelievers. And we ask and pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.