Good morning. Let's turn in our
Bibles to the book of John. John chapter 18. John chapter 18. I want to speak
to you for a few minutes about this man called Barabbas. And draw some parallels. Between
him and redeemed sinners. John 18, we'll begin in verse
28. Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas
unto the hall of judgment, and it was early. And they themselves
went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled.
but that they might eat the Passover. Pilate then went out unto them
and said, what accusations bring ye against this man? And you
notice that they don't answer that question. They simply say,
if he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him
up unto thee. Then said Pilate unto them, take
him, take ye him and judge him according to your law. The Jews
therefore said unto him, and this is where they betrayed their
true intentions, it is not lawful for us to put any man to death
that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled when he spake signifying
what death he should die. Then Pilate entered into the
judgment hall again and called Jesus and said unto him, Are
thou the king of the Jews? Jesus answered him. Sayest thou
this thing of thyself, or did others tell it of thee? Pilate
answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and chief priests
have delivered thee unto me. What has thou done? Jesus answered,
my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world,
then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered
to the Jews. But now is my kingdom not from
hence. Pilate therefore said unto him, art thou a king then?
Jesus answered, thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was
I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should
bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth
heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is
truth? And when he had said this, he
went out again unto the Jews and said unto them, I find no
fault in him at all. But ye have a custom that I should
release unto you one at the Passover. Will ye therefore that I release
unto you the king of the Jews? They cried out all again, saying,
not this man, but Barabbas. And this last verse tells us,
now Barabbas was a robber. Now a robber is someone who takes,
sometimes by force, things that belong to another. And mankind,
by nature, I should take from God what is rightfully His, His
glory and His praise. The Lord tells us in Isaiah 42,
8, I am the Lord, that is my name, and my glory will I not
give to another, neither my praise to graven images. But religious
folks try to claim that their salvation is a joint effort between
them and God, them doing their part, God doing His. And they
acknowledge that, yes, the foundation for salvation was laid by Christ,
But in order to make that effectual, they really have to add to it
with their belief. It's kind of like they believe
it's like a seed planted in dry ground. It will not spring forth
until it's watered. And they look at it as their
belief is the water that helps salvation spring forth. Malachi asked the question, will
a man rob God? You bet they will. Men try to
rob God of the glory that's due his name for the work performed
on behalf of his elect. Christ did all that was necessary
to satisfy God's holy law, and yet men say that it is not enough,
that the sinner must make it effectual. Ephesians chapter
one, verses one through 12 expound this better than I can. And it
talks about predestination, In verse 4, if you want to look
at it with me, you're familiar with these verses, but Ephesians
chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. We won't read all these verses for
the sake of time. But verse 4 says, according as
He had chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Now, this clearly says that God
chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. Yet
men choose to rob God of the glory due His name and make the work of Christ ineffectual
unless their decision gives it life. But God says, his glory
will he not give to another. Verse five, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will. This clearly says that God predestinated
us to the adoption of children. But natural, unregenerate man
says otherwise. He decides to give his heart
to Jesus. And by doing that, he makes himself a child of God. Then verse 11, it says, in whom
we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will. But again, men claim that they
have a free will and they are the ones that decide to give
their hearts and lives to Jesus. Turn over to Mark, Mark 15. We
read another account of this same occurrence that we just
read about in John. Mark chapter 15. Mark 15, we'll begin in verse
seven. It says, and there was one named
Barabbas, which lay bound with them that had made insurrection
with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection. And the
multitude, crying aloud, began to desire him to do as he had
ever done unto them, begin to pilate. But Pilate answered them,
saying, will ye that I release unto you the king of the Jews?
For he knew that the chief priest had delivered him for envy. But
the chief priest moved the people that they should rather release
Barabbas unto them. And Pilate answered and said
again unto them, what will ye that I shall do unto him whom
ye call the king of the Jews? And they cried out again, crucify
him. And Pilate said unto them, Why,
what evil hath he done? And they cried out to more exceedingly
crucify him. And so Pilate, being as spineless
that he was, willing to content the people, released Barabbas
unto them and delivered Jesus when he had scourged him to be
crucified. Now, verse seven of this chapter
says that there was one who lay bound with him who had made insurrection
with him. This definition of insurrection
is the act or instance of open revolt against authority. The act of rising up against
authority, a conflict in which one faction tries to wrest control
from another. Now here we have a perfect description
of mankind. This verse tells us that Barabbas
lay bound. It was impossible for him to
do anything to improve his condition. And such is the condition of
every man and woman born into this world. They were born into
bondage and they stay in that bondage until they're delivered.
Barabbas was in chains. He was not only in a dungeon,
he was in chains in a dark, dank dungeon. Now, I don't know if
any of y'all have ever been to Mammoth Cave before and taken
some tours, but there's one that you take. that they take you
into the cave and shut off the lights, and you literally cannot
see your hand in front of your face. And that's the way these
dungeons were, dark, dark, pitch dark places. And Hebrews 2 tells
us that our condition was the same as Barabbas in bondage.
Starting in verse 14, it says, for as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself took part of
the same, that through death, He might destroy him that had
the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who
through fear of death were all their lifetimes subject unto
bondage. We were under the bondage of
sin that Hebrews describes as that sin which so easily doth
beset us. Now this word beset is an interesting
word. It means to attack from all sides,
to trouble persistently, to harass, to attack. It's just not the
perfect description of what sin does, both in the life of the
unbeliever and the redeemed saint. We're constantly under the bombardment
of sin, that sin that so appeals to our old man, our old flesh.
Peter told us this, For of whom a man is overcome of the same
as he brought into bondage. And so was our condition in our
natural and regenerate state. But God promises that sin shall
not have dominion over us. He tells us this in Romans 6,
14, it shall not have dominion over you for you're not under
the law. but under grace. Further, he
promises in Corinthians 15, 1 Corinthians 15, that death will not have
a victory over us. Now this verse goes on to say
that Barabbas lay bound with them that had made insurrection
with him. Everyone who had taken part of
this insurrection had been rounded up and cast into prison with
Barabbas. The same with us. In our Father
Adam, we all took part in a rebellion, in an insurrection against God
Almighty. We said this man shall not rule
over us. We will have our own way. We
will do our own thing. Yet lost men claim to have a
free will, but they can only do that which is evil. which
results in our being found in bondage. The last part of this
verse tells us that Barabbas had committed murder during the
insurrection. And as a result of that, he was
now under the sentence of death. The same as we, what does the
scripture say? The soul that sinneth, it shall die. And in our natural state, we
were born under the sentence of death, eternal death. We had
nothing to look forward to except retribution from God. The Scriptures
tell us that we were by nature the children of wrath. But there's
one more thing that I want you to see in this verse. It says,
Barabbas lay bound with them that had made insurrection with
him. Now, one can only assume that
there was a substantial number, because I can't imagine anybody
being crazy enough to stage an insurrection with a handful of
people. But out of that entire number who lay bound, Only one
was chosen to go free. Only one. And we can only surmise
that the rest of them were brought to trial and later executed for
what they took part in. And you think about this, I gave
this a lot of thought, of all the men and women that I used
to run with and take part with in the vilest of deeds, to my
knowledge, I am the only one that God has shown mercy. And you think of your own family,
our own families, mothers, dads, cousins, brothers, sisters. Sam and I were talking about
this last night, how few know the grace of God. And it's not
because we're smarter than they are. It's because God chose to
show us mercy. I find that amazing. It's no
wonder the songwriter wrote, how can our praises ever find
in God? The father chose us to be trophies
of his grace. And why would he do such a thing?
We're told why in Matthew 11, when Christ was praying to the
father and he said this in verse 26 about God having mercy and
leaving others to perish, he said, even so father, or so it
seemed good in thy sight. Now, it should be further noted
that Barabas did nothing to secure his pardon. One moment he was
in bondage, the next he was being let out a free man. Now, he didn't bang on the door
and say, hey, jailer, I need to talk to you. You need to let
the authorities know that I've decided to reform my life and
I'm going to do better. So the jailer went to the authorities,
and the authorities said, that sounds great. We'll release him. Not worried about his past sins.
If he's promised to do better, we're going to release him. Now,
that would be the height of absurdity, would it not? And yet, that is
exactly what religious men and women try to say, that they decide
that they're going to reform their life, and God Almighty,
it just tickled to death that they've decided to straighten
up and fly right. Rabbis did nothing to secure
his release. He was released because another
was condemned in his place. And likewise, it is with us.
We go free because another was condemned in our place. Someone
had to die. The law demanded it. And justice
cried out to be satisfied. And justice was completely satisfied
when the fierce wrath of God was poured out on his son. Nothing,
nothing enrages God as much as the sight of sin. We're told
that he is of purer eyes than to look upon sin. So it should
come as no surprise that when our sins were found on his blessed
son, he reacted the only way his nature and his law would
allow him to react. Justice was fierce, swift, and
sure. And we see in this story of Barabbas
how that the just suffered in the place of the unjust. Barabbas
was guilty of everything for which he was charged. He deserved
the punishment that was about to be inflicted upon him, which
was death. Christ, on the other hand, was
completely innocent of all charges that were brought against him.
Pilate even had to admit, I find no fault in him at all. Not a little bit of fault, none
at all. And this is the picture of the way that natural man always,
always chooses evil over the good. And it should also be noted
that our Lord Jesus and Barabbas were accused of the same crime,
sedition, insurrection, and treason. Remember what the Jews said? If you do not condemn this man,
I'm paraphrasing this, you're no friend of Caesar. Any man
that makes himself a king is the enemy of Caesar. And we were all as Barabbas before
our gracious Lord brought us out of bondage. We were robbers
seeking to steal the glory of God. We were insurrectionists
in rebelling against the authority that's due only to our God. But we were also akin to Barabbas
in another way. He being guilty was set free
because another was chosen to die in his place. Like Barabbas, we were guilty
of every sin imaginable, either by commission or omission. But because the Lord hath laid
on him the iniquity of us all, we, like Barabbas, go free. Now, we're not told in Scripture
what became of Barabbas after he was free, but I believe that
at some point in time, this man became curious about the one
who had died in his place. He began maybe to seek out the
disciples of our Lord and asked them about this one that John
the Baptist called the Lamb of God. the one who died in his
place as his substitute. But there is another reason that
I believe that Barabbas perhaps came to faith in Christ. Because
if you think about this, he would be the only person in the history
of the human race for whom Christ died, who later perished. But
he was certainly not so far gone that the grace of God could not
rescue him from ruin. None of us sitting here that
have been redeemed or ever so far gone, I'm going to speak
about this in this morning's message. There's no sheep of God who is
so far gone that the mercy and grace of God cannot redeem him
or her. So let us go on our way rejoicing
that we do indeed have much in common with this man Barabbas. And we know that there's no way
that we can ever repay our blessed Savior for all that he's done
on our behalf. But we'll spend eternity trying,
as we sing worthy is the lamb that was slain, to receive power
and riches, wisdom and strength, honor and glory and blessing.
And our praises will never find end because he's worthy to be
praised. forever and ever. Many of our
dear friends are already there, beholding his face and singing
his praises. And it won't be long before we
join them, just a few more days, maybe a few more days. I hope
the Lord will bless that to your heart. I think it's about time
to stop.