This is the third book

'I Thirst'

The words Jesus uttered when on The Cross are most important, as are the last utterances of anyone moving from this life.Three of the last quotations we have of our Lord Jesus were to His Father God, one to the thief, another to John & Mary and the last one to the folk who stood by.Generally speaking these words Jesus spoke at Calvary can be split up into two groups, the first showing that our Lord was indeed the Son of God and the other group indicating He was the Son of Man.To coin a phrase our dear Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten of The Father was and is the great 'God-Man'.In the words which Jesus spoke at that time in history, this being a turning point in the affairs of mankind, there was shown in our Lord Jesus His Divinity and Humanity.In the understanding of the Dispensations, they all commenced and finished with a big event.The Crucifixion ended the Dispensation of Law and introduced the Dispensation of the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; this period will end in the personal return of this same Jesus

The words of Jesus when on The Cross which I wish to dwell on for a few moments are just two, they read 'I thirst', these words were spoken showing His humanity.The One by whom we enter the Covenant of Grace got tired and had to rest; the one who restores our souls was hungry so He partook of food.Jesus, the One through whom our eternal destiny is sealed knew what sadness and grief were and the One from whom springs fountains of living water, He got thirsty and had to drink.Yes, our dear Lord Jesus Christ was The Son of God and also the Son of Man, the 'God-Man'

What has already been stated is accepted teaching so let us go a little deeper.In the record we are dealing with it was at the end of the Cross experience of our blessed Lord, during the few days previously everything had been thrown at The Master.Firstly through Judas, then Caiaphas the High Priest, to follow on with Herod and the Roman Pontious Pilate, all this because of the sins of mankind, but then finally our own personal sins in particular.It was God who so loved the world that He gave Jesus to the point of The Cross and beyond, then at Calvary the 'world' threw everything at Him.This all meant that The Master went through, yes through and not just into the experience of The Cross, through the agony and anguish of His experience at Calvary.It is only through this same Jesus that we can have our sins 'removed', 'forgiven', not 'remembered' by the one who cannot forget, put 'behind the back' of His and our Father God who is omniscient.It was the major turning point in the history of mankind, with this being recognized at that time by the natural world by darkness, a quake and the religious affairs in the temple by the veil.In the midst of all this Jesus said, 'I thirst', showing His humanity

In answer to those words our Jesus spoke at the end of His Cross experience, all the world could offer Him was SOUR WINE.This was passed to Him in a sponge which was FILLED, given to Jesus on HYSSOP, our Saviour TASTED it and then He 'GAVE UP THE GHOST', what can we learn from these five points?

Through the Calvary experience our Lord partook of the SOUR WINE of our sin, that was His 'cup', His 'portion.Our redeemer paid the price for all of the sins of mankind, not just for a selected few, the sponge was FULL.It is the desire of our Father God that we all have the opportunity to come to Him through our blessed Lord Jesus, it is the 'whosoever will' gospel, it is inclusive and yet exclusive.The HYSSOP is a bitter and pungent herb, the experience of The Cross to our Lord Jesus and His Father God was agony indeed and yet Jesus went through it, 'For the joy which was set before Him', 'He endured The Cross and despised its shame' to obtain this joy.This joy was in making us sons and daughters of the living God.Yes, Jesus TASTED it, experience it to the SOUR WINE of our sin to the full, He became sin for us, He did 'bare our iniquities', then of His own free will our blessed Lord in co0mpleting His task, 'GAVE UP THE GHOST'.Now all this was the 'cup', the 'portion' our dear Lord 'drank' at Calvary, remember the words about the 'cup' of our Lord Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.Jesus said, 'Let this 'cup' pass from Me, nevertheless, not as I will, but a Thou wilt'

Springing form our Lord's experience at Calvary, His 'portion' His 'cup' we have our share, the hymnist wrote that we in our Lord 'Drink of the Royal Wince of Heaven'.May we now taste slowly of this vintage wine.With the first sip we rejoice that in The Master our sins are fully forgiven, then we taste again and know new have peace with God and this peace passeth, goes beyond all understanding.Our taste buds are now very sensitive as we enjoy real, quality, personal fellowship with our Holy, Righteous, Redeeming, Eternal loving Heavenly Father.Following from this we cam have real fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, not just having cups of tea and biscuits, but sharing with each other what we understand of our Lord, let us dwell on this point for a few moments..........We cannot enjoy real Christian fellowship with others of the Household of Faith unless our daily Personal Devotional Life with our Lord is real.Please now turn to 1 John c1 v7, as our vertical relationship with our Lord is healthy so this will be expressed in our vertical experience with other believers.As we 'drink' all the vintage 'wine' that is our 'portion' we know that we can talk to our Father God, in and through this same Jesus our Great High Priest who is interceding for us, all this with language which cannot be uttered by His Spirit in prayer

We now come to the words about Jesus, that He 'GAVE UP THE GHOST'.Mankind did not take our Lord's life from him, He could have walked way from The Cross at any time, Jesus gave His life freely for our redemption.From what I understand of the legal requirements of the day, the trial of our Lord was not in accordance with the law at that time; it should have been stopped.BUT it was in the, 'Determine counsel and foreknowledge of God, that Jesus was taken by wicked hands and crucified'.It is by this same Jesus on The Cross that we can become sons & daughters of the living God and all this means, we enter into the Kingdom of our God and His Christ.It is not by own own efforts, we cannot do works to save our souls in any way, our Lord has done this work for us.Just read Ephesians c2 v8 & 9, our salvation is in and through our dear Lord Jesus, yes He is dear to us.If we think otherwise, I almost dare not record it, we sweep on one side the Calvary experience of our Lord, God forbid that we should think or live this way.This to me is the unforgiveable, see the teaching in John c16 v8 we have three points made, note the order of them with sin being the first one and this is not understanding who Jesus is, to deny Him is unforgivable.But now read v10 of the chapter in Ephesians, this is in close proximately to v8 & 9, it should be through our works that our faith is expressed.The words in Philippians c2 v12 tell us to 'work OUT' our salvation, not work FOR it

Just one final point that I have already touched upon a lit tle.Such was the experience of our Lord at Calvary, it was a turning point in the history of mankind, this being recognized by the natural world.In the middle of the day there was darkness over Jerusalem for three hours, at the moment Jesus gave up the ghost there was an earthquake, the evidence of which is still there today so I understand.Just to cap it all, in the religious world of that time, the veil in the temple was ripped in twain from the top to the bottom, it was 25mm thick (1 inch).Had this been done by some of the temple staff the tear would have been from the bottom to the top, need I write any more?

Through the work of our dear Lord Jesus on The Cross, as we put our trust in our Father God, through this same Jesus, by His Spirit we are in the Upside Down Kingdom

In ourselves we are poor, but in The Master we are rich,

By ourselves we are weak, but in our Lord Jesus we are strong,

In ourselves we die, but in our Saviour we live,

By Himself that life is eternal, everlasting, an absolute certainty

Because Jesus could not lie

This is the third book