Good morning. Let's all stand
together and sing the hymn of the day in the bulletin. Sing the hymn of the day in the
bulletin. To him that chose us first before
the world began, to him that bore the curse, to save rebellious
man. To him that formed our hearts
anew is endless praise and glory due, is endless praise and glory
due. The Father's love shall run Through
our immortal songs We bring to God the Son Hosanna's on our
tongues Our lips address the Spirit's name With equal praise
and zeal the same with equal praise and zeal, the same. Let every saint above and angel
round the throne forever bless and love the sacred three in
one. Thus heaven shall rise its honors
high, when earth and time grow old and die. When earth and time
grow old and die. Be seated. We'll sing hymn number
511. 511. Face to face with Christ my Savior,
face to face what will it be? When with rapture I behold Him,
Jesus Christ who died for me. Face to face I shall behold him,
far beyond the starry sky. Face to face in all his glory,
I shall see him by and by Only faintly now I see him With the
darkling veil between But a blessed day is coming, when His glory
shall be seen. Face to face I shall behold Him,
Far beyond the starry sky. Face to face in all his glory,
I shall see him by and by. but rejoicing in His presence. When our banished grief and pain,
when the crooked ways are straightened, and the dark things shall be
plain. Face to face I shall behold him,
far beyond the starry sky. Face to face in all his glory,
I shall see him by and by. Face to face, oh blissful moment,
Face to face to see and know, face to face with my Redeemer,
Jesus Christ who loves me so. Face to face I shall behold him
far beyond the starry sky. Face to face in all his glory
I shall see Him by and by. Mark chapter 15. Mark chapter 15. I read the first
15 verses. Straightway in the morning, the
chief priest held a consultation with the elders and scribes and
the whole council and bound Jesus and carried him away and delivered
him to Pilate. Pilate asked him, art thou the
king of the Jews? And he answered and said unto
him, thou sayest it. And the chief priest accused
him of many things, but he answered nothing. Pilate asked him again,
answerest thou nothing? Behold, how many things they
witness against thee? But Jesus yet answered nothing,
so that Pilate marveled. Now at that feast he released
unto them one prisoner, whomsoever they desired. There was one named
Barabbas, which lay bound with him, that 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. 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 he should rather release
Barabbas unto them. And Pilate answered and said
again unto them, What will you then that I shall do unto him
whom you called the king of the Jews? They cried out again, Crucify
him. Then Pilate said unto them, Why,
what evil hath he done? And they cried out the more,
Exceedingly crucify him. And so Pilate, willing to content
the people, released Barabbas unto them, delivered Jesus, whom
he scourged, at to be crucified. Our blessed triune God, God our
Father, God our Lord Jesus Christ, God
the Holy Spirit, O Lord, we come to you through that blessed mediator
between God and man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we need a
mediator between us and you. You're infinitely, eternally,
gloriously holy. We bless you for that, that you
could stay holy and just and righteous, keep true to your
nature and your character, and yet save worms of the earth Save
grasshoppers and do it in a way that you get all the glory and
we get all the blessings and all the benefits of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Father, meet with us today. Oh,
I pray you'd be pleased to meet with us. Come down among us.
Come and cause the gospel to run well here today. May our
Lord Jesus Christ be exalted, be honored, be magnified. Oh,
Lord, please speak to our hearts, speak to our souls. And I pray
for those among us whose bodies are frail, whose bodies are weak,
who are going through trials, going through dark times. We
ask, Lord, that you'd bless them, strengthen them, encourage them.
For those that are sick, Lord, we have people that are sick.
Lord, we know that according to your will and according to
your word that your grace is sufficient. Your strength is
made perfect through our weakness. Lord Jesus, we especially pray
for the salvation of our loved ones, all of our loved ones. We all got sons, daughters, and
Lord, they have no thoughts of you, no interest in you. But
oh Lord, we pray that you would send the Holy Spirit and convince
them of sin, convince them of their lack of righteousness,
Convince them of the judgment they'll have to face without
you. Do it, please, oh God, for Christ's
sake. Amen. Amen. Let's stand together
and sing hymn number 442. 442. Praise Him, praise... Let's try that again, sorry. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus,
our blessed Redeemer. Sing, O earth, this wonderful
love proclaim. Hail him, hail him, highest archangels
in glory. Strength and honor give to his
holy name. Like a shepherd, Jesus will guard
his children. In His arms He carries them all
day long. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. For our sins He suffered and
bled and died. Be our rock, our hope of eternal
salvation. Hail Him, hail Him, Jesus the
crucified. Sound His praises, Jesus, who
bore our sorrows. Love unbounded, wonderful, deep,
and strong. Praise Him, praise Him. tell of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus,
our blessed Redeemer. Heavenly portals, loud with hosannas
ring. Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever
and ever. Crown Him, crown Him, prophet
and priest and king. Christ is coming over the world
victorious. Power and glory unto the Lord
belong. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Be seated. I hope you're still in Mark 15.
The subject this morning is Christ
before Pilate. Christ before Pilate. You know, remember I told you
last week how our Lord Jesus Christ, how calm He was. How
majestic our Lord was before His enemies. His enemies never
bothered him, never troubled him, never frightened him, never
made his soul to get upset. The only time his soul was bothered
when he was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he knew that
his father was going to leave him and leave him to drink that
cup by himself, that cup of sin, that cup of wrath, that cup of
justice, And that's the time that he was troubled, so troubled. But these people, the enemies
of our Lord Jesus Christ, they're always in an uproar. They was
always in an uproar over what our Lord was. They accused him
of so many things, mistreated him so many ways. And they was
always upset, always in an uproar, trying to get him to talk. trying
to get him to talk to them, answer them, to say something that would
make them to be justly accuse him, but they couldn't. And if
they couldn't get him to say what they wanted him to say,
they treated him so, so very, very cruelly. When I was lost, I was no different. I cruelly
treated the Lord Jesus Christ, the things I said about Him,
the way I took His name in vain, the way I questioned His authority. I thought I was so proud and self-righteous
I didn't need Him. But I'm so thankful, oh, how
thankful I am He didn't or doesn't treat me The way I treated him. I am so thankful for that. But
look what it said here in verse one. The straightway in the morning.
Now you remembered they tried him. Here in Caiaphas Judge's
Palace, you know, they've been up all night. They brought the
Lord Jesus Christ in there. And they. Been up during the
night. Straightway in the morning, first
thing in the morning, the chief priest held a consultation with
the elders and scribes and the whole council. They got together
and said, we got to make some decisions. They had a consultation. You ever been somewhere where
you had to have a consultation? People have a consultation. Doctors
have consultations. Let's decide what we're going
to do with this fella. But that's what they held a consultation.
They assembled together for one purpose, to cruelly, cruelly
pronounce the guilt and condemn Christ to death. They held this
great consultation. What do you think we ought to
do? What do you think we ought to do? I'll tell you what I think
we ought to do. I'm going to tell you what I
want us to do. And so they had this consultation. And then they
made their decision. And it's the same people, the
chiefs, the elders, and then the scribes. And look what it
says here, and they bound Jesus. You know, they'd already found
Him guilty. They'd already tried Him and
said, what need we any further witnesses? We found Him guilty.
All of them did, condemned Him to death. And oh, they bound
Him. Why would they bind the Lord
Jesus Christ? When they come to get him out
of the garden, he willingly gave himself up. And the scriptures
I told you the other day, they laid hands on him. They laid
hands on him to take him and lead him. And they led him. He never resisted. So why are
they binding him now? Why does He need to be bound?
He never raised a hand against them. He never raised a hand
against anybody. Our Lord never laid hands on
anybody except to heal them, to bless them. They brought children
to Him and said, Would you please put your hands on my babies and
bless my babies? Bless my children? They bound
Him. Why? He never resisted them. He never pulled away. He never
wrote back a hand. They come to him with clubs,
with swords. And he said, here I am, take
me. It's me, go ahead. And oh, look what he said. And
they delivered him to Pilate, to Pilate. Pilate was the Roman
governor. He was the Roman governor. You
know, there's another time that the Lord says he delivered him
up. God delivered him up. God the
Father delivered him up. Who delivered him up for? For
us all. And how shall he not also with
him freely, freely give us all things? And oh, they brought
him to Pilate. They're bringing a king to a
governor. They're bringing the Lord of
glory to a mere man. And oh my, and our Lord had already
predicted this. You keep Matthew, Mark 4, 15,
and look over here in Mark chapter 10 with me. Our Lord predicted
this. He predicted this. Look here in Mark chapter 10,
verse 32 and 33. Our Lord told them exactly what
was going to happen. It already said all these things
were going to take place. And they were in Jerusalem. They
were in their way going up to Jerusalem. And Jesus went before
them, and they were amazed. As they followed, they were afraid.
And he took again the twelve and began to tell them what things
should happen unto him. Behold, we go up to Jerusalem,
and the Son of Man shall be delivered unto the chief priests and unto
the scribes. That's exactly the first place
they took him. They sent, go get him. First
place they brought him, the chief priests, scribes, and look what
he said, and they shall condemn him to death. And that's exactly
what they do. What need we anybody they all? Condemned him found him guilty
and condemned him to death and look what else he says and shall
be delivered to the Gentiles and You know Rome. It's all Gentiles
Here it was all of them all the Gentiles delivered to the Roman
government and look what he said and they shall mock him Shall
scourge him Spit upon him And listen to this, and shall kill
him, and he shall rise the third day. He told him exactly what
was gonna happen when he got to Jerusalem. Told him exactly
what was gonna happen. And you know, if anybody, if
I know that's gonna do that way, I'd have went, when the law gets
after somebody, the first thing they do is try to go hide. But
he never hid. He said, I'm going up to Jerusalem,
this is what they're gonna do to me. And he's just as calmly, and
as powerfully, and as gloriously, and as mightily, and as majestically
as he could possibly be, he walked right up there. Went right on, knowing exactly
what was gonna happen to him. Huh? Oh, knowing exactly what
was gonna happen to him. And then the old pilot, listen
to this now. They delivered him to Pilate,
brought him up there. Pilate began to question him,
asked him some questions. Here's a governor now. I want
you to understand this. This is a governor. He's there because the Roman
government wanted him to be there. He wasn't elected by the people
the way we elected governor. He was appointed to this position
And this pilot he's talking to the king of kings and the lord
of glory asking him questions And pilot asked him Aren't thou
the king of the jews? Are you the king of the jews?
Look what our lord said to him You say it You're you're the
one saying it You're the one saying it. Now, you keep that,
you keep Mark 15, and go with me to John chapter 18. Go with
me to John chapter... This story's in every one of
the Gospels, every single one of them, what they did to the
Lord Jesus Christ. And I want you to look with me
here at verse, John 18, 33. Then Pilate entered into the
judgment hall again and called Jesus. He'd already sent him
to Herod, and he'd come back. And he entered into the judgment
hall again and called Jesus and said unto him, Art thou the king
of the Jews? Now, this is how he answered
this time. Our Lord answered him, say, Sayest
thou this thing of thyself? Do you know that I'm the king?
Is this some conclusion you've come to? Do you know yourself
that I'm the king? Do you understand that I'm the
king? Is this what you know? Did you understand who I am?
Or did others tell you of me? That's what they said. He accused
him of being king of the Jews. So you ask them, and that's the
same thing that you have to ask anybody when you're preaching
to them. Did you say this thing of yourself? Did you come to
this conclusion yourself? Or does somebody have to tell
you? And I'm grateful that we don't have to rush. You know,
our Lord Jesus Christ made himself to be, no, our king. We know him as our king, our
ruler, our savior. And now look what all my, now
back over in Mark 15 with me. Look what happens now. The chief
priest and them, they're still there. And the scribes and the
elders, they're still there. The council's still there. And
look what it says. And the chief priest accused
him of many things, and he answered nothing. Now, what many things
did they accuse him of? Well, you keep Mark and look
again with me over in Luke 23. Look in Luke 23. That's why I
say this is in all the Gospels. And the best interpretation of
the scriptures is interpreted as themselves. And the chief
priest accused him of many things. And here's some of the things
they accused him of. You remember they accused him
of being a winebibber. They accused him of being a gluttonous
man. They accused him one time of having Beezlebub, being a
Satan, the prince of the devil. And look what it says in verse,
Luke 23, 2. And they began to accuse him,
saying, We found this fella. That's all they call him now,
a fella. That's what we call another. He's a good fella. And
look what they, we found this fella perverting the nation.
That's one accusation. And forbidding to give tribute
or pay taxes to Caesar. And listen to this, saying that
he himself is Christ the King. That's an accusation that he
himself is Christ the King. And Pilate asked him, art thou
king of the Jews? And he answered him, said, thou
sayest it. And oh, look what he said. And Pilate said in verse
four, I find no fault in this man. And they were more fierce. I mean, these fellows are upset. They were fierce, fierce, saying, He stirreth up the people,
teaching throughout all Jewry, beginning from Galilee to this
place. All the things that they accused
Him of. He's perverting the whole nation.
He's calling this whole nation to believe in Him. Oh, my. And you know what perverting
means? There's a lot of perversions.
We all know about perversion, but I'll tell you what, it means
to distort. It means to twist. Did our Lord
distort? Did our Lord twist? Did He twist
or distort any truth of God? Did He distort or truth any scriptures? Did He distort or pervert the
people in any way? Oh, my. And I forget him to give
tribute to Caesar. Remember when he says, you know,
said, you gonna give tribute to Caesar? He told Simon Peter,
go down there and cast out a net. And he come down there and caught
one fish. And he said, what? Open that fish mouth, there was
money in it. He said, now take that and give that to Caesar. And they're saying he is Christ
the King. And what they mean by, they say
he says he's Christ the King. And that means that you're your
serpent Caesar. In one place they said, we have
no king but Caesar. When they was going to crucify
him, we have no king but Caesar. And oh my, I said, he's your
serpent authority. If he's the king, that means
that Caesar's not king. And then he stirreth up the people.
Oh, everywhere he went, I mean, there's crowds followed our Lord,
and he preached to them and talked to them, said he teaches and
preaches the people, stirring up the people. Stirring up the
people. And then look what he says here,
back over in Mark now. Then Pilate asked him again,
saying, answerest thou nothing? You're not going to say nothing?
You're not going to defend? Behold how many things they witness
against you. Huh? Answers thou nothing? All these things, and now, if
I got in trouble, the first thing I would want to do is get me
a lawyer and have somebody defend me. And most people If they was
before Pilate, and people got before Pilate all the time, it
was a common thing to crucify people in those days, or to put
them in prison. But most people, when they're
standing before the law, standing before a judgment seat, they
start to defend themselves. And all our Lord had to go back
and say, listen, remember those fellows that told lies on me?
He could answer to every one of those accusations. He could
have defended himself and answered every one of those accusations.
He said, I could call 12 legions of angels to come here right
now. He said, if my kingdom was of this world, you know what
I'd do? My people would fight. Put you fellas plum out of business.
Most people would defend themselves and justify themselves and try
their best to get out of being crucified, spend as little time
in jail as they possibly could. But our Lord did not say a word. He had nothing to say. You get stopped by the police,
the first thing you start doing is defending yourself. Oh my, but our Lord, they accused
him of all the things they accused him of. All the false accusations
they made against him. What are you going to say about
that? They accuse you. You've got all these witnesses against
you. Ain't you going to say something?
Ain't you going to say something? Oh my. And he opens not his mouth. And you know what it says there? In verse five, but our Lord answered
nothing, so that people Pilate was absolutely amazed. He'd never
had anybody before him that did not say nothing to defend himself.
He'd never had anybody before him that didn't try to defend
themselves. They had portrayed our Lord Jesus
Christ as a troublesome man. He causes trouble everywhere
he goes. He stirs up the people. Huh? He's a boisterous man. He brags about being king. He
brags about miracles. He brags about how close he is
to God, that he is one with God. He's an aggressive man. He's
aggressive. He goes around causing trouble
everywhere he goes. That's what they presented our
Lord Jesus Christ as somebody that was absolutely worthy of
death. But how's our Lord standing?
Pilate sees before him a man as calm as he can be, as quiet
as he can be, as gentle as he can be. He sees this man that's not resistant, a calmness about him. I've never
had anybody before me that heard all these accusations, all these
lies that didn't try to defend him. But he said, this amazes
me. This has amazed me. These people
accused him and was angry, fierce against him. Fierce against him.
Oh, I tell you, he's acting so different than the way they portrayed
him. He's acting altogether different.
Now, this is the way they portrayed him, but Pilate sees him as a
different All together, a different person. Why did our Lord remain silent?
Why did he remain silent? There's several Old Testament
scriptures that tells us, as a sheep led to his shears,
he opened not his mouth. Isaiah 42 says this, that he
shall not cry, He shall not cry nor lift up his voice. That's
what they said about him. He'll not cry. He'll not lift
up his voice. And when they brought him before
him, he as a lamb led to the slaughter, and he answered nothing. He answered nothing. And there's
nothing, there's nothing that upsets somebody worse than somebody
admitting that they're wrong. But our Lord said nothing, absolutely
nothing. And oh, and I'll tell you something
else. This governor, this governor and these Jews and these Pharisees
and all these people that was against Christ, they did not
deserve an answer. Pilate didn't deserve an answer.
You know why he didn't deserve an answer? He knew, he knew that
they had delivered Christ to him. He knew that the Lord Jesus
Christ was innocent. He knew that they had accused
him falsely. He knew that. So why would Christ
answer him anything? Why would Christ say anything
to him? He didn't deserve an answer. That's why he said, answer
not a fool according to his folly. Well, here our Lord Jesus Christ
is not answering any of these fools. In fact, Pilate said,
I find no fault in this man. I find no fault in him. And the Jewish people, the Jewish
leaders, the chief priest, the priest, the high priest, and
all the chief priest, And the elders and the scribes, they
knew they were lying. They knew they were lying. They
were so envious of him. They so despised him, because
they couldn't get enough people in their synagogue, so he got
great crowds for them, so they was envious of him. And on four
separate occasions, and our Lord's last few hours on this earth
before they crucified him. He opened not his mouth four
different times. Before Caiaphas, he opened not
his mouth. Before Pilate, he opened not
his mouth. Pilate sent him to Herod. He opened not his mouth, never said
a word before Herod. brought him back again before
Pilate, and he never said a word. And you know, our Lord's silence,
our Lord's silence speaks louder than any words He could have
ever said. Our Lord's silence speaks volumes,
and their hatred and despised and their Cruelty that they treated
us speaks volumes to this speaks volumes of what the human race
is capable of You ever believe you is capable of treating somebody
like this like they did our Lord You believe you're capable of
telling lies on somebody You believe you're capable of taking
an innocent man and falsely accusing him and then condemning him to
death. I Do you believe you're capable
of that? Every soul that's ever been born
on the top side of God's earth is capable of doing everything
they did. And the only reason we didn't
do it is because God kept us from it. The first two men, the
first two men on earth, after Adam and Eve, the first son they
had was Abel. The second one was Cain. And
you know what those brothers did? One of them come before
God with blood, with the lamb. He was a, he come before God
with a lamb and God respected Abel's offering. The second one,
Cain, came before the Lord with the works of his hands, with
the efforts of his hands, with what he brought out of a cursed
ground. And God rejected him. And it
made him so angry, the first murder that was ever committed
was one brother killing his brother. And now, and that's been happening
since the beginning of time. Men's been murdering men, men's
lying on men, men's cruel, treat men's cruelly. It's unbelievable
how cruel the human race can be. Yet, you say, I wouldn't do that.
But then you don't know yourself very well. And that's why we
say, thank God for grace. Thank God for the blood of Christ.
Thank God for his mercy given us in Christ. Thank God that
God don't treat us the way we treated him. Oh, my, if I'd have been there,
if I'd have been there, I'd have been right in that crowd. I know
I would have. I know I would have. I know I
would have. Oh, my. And at the feast, look
what it says now here in verse six. And at that feast, I don't know
if this is a Passover or another feast, it's probably still going
through the Passover because they had seven days of it. Now,
at that feast, he released unto them one prisoner whomsoever
they desired. And you know, that was every
year, every year at the Passover, you know, they were strangers
coming up out of Egypt. They were in bondage. So there's
somebody that's in bondage that has to be released. And it was
always a prisoner of somebody's held in prison. And so here he
comes. They take, they said, Oh, I've
got to release one prisoner at that feast. And it had to be
whatever the people desire. They get to choose who gets to
go free. They get to choose who gets to set free. They get to
choose who gets to come out of jail, out of the prison. And listen to this, and they
name him. And there was one named Barabbas. He was bound with them
that had made insurrection. And oh my, there was a whole
people that made an insurrection. And you made an insurrection,
you know, They talk about insurrection in this country. Insurrection
is when you actually go against the government itself, and they
went against Caesar. They went against the Roman government.
They tried to shake off the yoke. And I tell you what, they didn't
put up with it. They put all them people in jail,
and look what it says with him, with a whole bunch of them done
this with Barabbas, who had committed murder when they had that insurrection. kill somebody, murder somebody. In one place, they called him
a robber. A murderer and a robber. So he's a pretty, pretty bad
guy. He's a pretty sorry man. Pretty
sorry man. Committed murder. If man commits
murder, don't you reckon he ought to go to jail? Don't you reckon
he ought to be in prison? Take a man's life? Oh, my. And look what it says. Oh, they're looking at a resurrectionist,
a murderer, a robber, a thief. Had a whole bunch of people following
him. Oh, what happened here? And the
multitude, in verse eight, the multitude crying aloud. There's
a crowd now, followed them over there. One place, it said over
in Luke, said a multitude brought him. And the multitude, great
crowd, crying aloud, making great noise, crying. Listen, listen
to us, Pilate. I want you to hear us, Pilate. I want you to do what you've
always done for us. At this time of year, I want
you to do it. I want you always to do what
you've done. Oh my. Oh my, they wanted to be heard. They're going to make sure that
they get their way. They're going to make sure. Boy,
I'll tell you what, you're talking about a crowd. When a crowd gets together, people
just start going along with it. They don't know where they're
going. They don't know what they're doing. They just get involved in it.
And they started crying out. They wanted to be heard. I want you to do what you've
done every time this year in this feast." Pilate answered
him. Pilate answered him. He's got something to say. The
governor walks outside and listens to these people. Pilate answered
him, "'Will ye that I release unto you the king of the Jews?'
He's a prisoner. You brought him to be a prisoner.
You brought him to be a prisoner to me. He's a prisoner. You brought
him here. You delivered him to me. You
want something done with him. You want me to release this prisoner?
You want me to release him? I'd love to release him. I'd
love to let this man go. I really would. Oh my. Would you let me, I'll release
this king of the Jews to you. He's a prisoner. And you've always
wanted me to do that, so let's release him. Let's turn him loose. Look what he said in verse 10.
For he knew that the chief priest had delivered him for envy. They envied the Lord Jesus Christ. They envied his popularity. They
envied His power. They envied His nature. They
envied His message. They envied everything there
was about Him. They envied. One time, one time
they, they came and they was going to stone Him. Two times
they was going to stone Him. And our Lord Jesus Christ, when
they was picking up rocks to stone Him, He said, for what
good work you going to stone me? We're not going to stone
you because you do good works. We're not going to do that, but
because you being a man make yourself to be God. And one thing
we cannot believe on this earth, that God would be in a man. Although all the Old Testament
says that Christ was going to become a man, there would be
a prophet. There'd be a child born of a
virgin. That Emmanuel would come into
this earth. That Christ would be a light
to the Gentiles over and over and over. It talked about Christ
coming into this world as a man. And they said, I'll tell you
one thing, there's no way in the world a man can be, will
not have this man to reign over us. There's a multitude today, I'll
tell you what, there's a multitude today that will not have Christ
to reign over them. There's people that preach, and
I don't want to get sidetracked here, but there's men, very,
very powerful men, popular men, so-called famous preachers that
preaching the lordship of Christ and what
they mean by that, that you can be saved, that salvation is yours,
it's by grace. But yet, if Christ doesn't take
lordship over you, then you are still saved, but yet you've not
bowed to the Lordship of Christ yet. But how in the world can
you come to God? How can you come to Christ and
Him, you not know who it is you're coming to? Why would you bow
to somebody that's not God? Why would you bow to somebody
that's not King? Why would you bow to somebody
that's not Lord? Why would you come to somebody
that don't have the power to save you? Oh, my. Oh, listen to what he said. He
knew they delivered him up for envy. Oh, but look what it says. We
got a but there. A but. Always have a but when
you got a bunch of goats, when you got a bunch of folks against
Christ. But the chief priest moved the people. They went among
the people and said, start crying out, start hollering. That's
just what we want you to do. And the chief priest moved the
people that he should rather release Barabbas unto them. Oh
my. Oh, and these people are called.
These people, these people had to be anointed to this office. This people had to be set apart
for this office. And this office of a priest only
lasted from the day you was 30 years old to you was 50 years
old. And if you had any blemish, you couldn't be in the priest's
office anyway, no shape or form. But they began to stir up the
people. Go, listen, tell them that we want Barabbas, we want
Barabbas, we want Barabbas. And they start crying out, we
want Barabbas. We want Barabbas. Oh my, we want Barabbas. My they were they do that. He
know he was guilty of insurrection. They cross accused Christ a bit
of guilt of insurrection and Then look while I said to him
Pilate answered said unto them again What will you then that I shall
do To him called you whom you call the king of the Jews what
you want me to do with him. I He's a prisoner. What do you want me to do? What
in the world do you want me to do with this man? What do you
want me to do with him? Now, I'm not going to ask you
that question. I know exactly what men that's not saved by
the grace of God do with him. I know what they do with him.
They ignore him. They got no use for him. He has
no authority, he has no power, he has no glory, he has no majesty
about himself. What will you that I shall do
unto him whose call you call the King of the Jews? Most preachers
say, what are you going to do with him? Are you going to reject
him or accept him? Are you going to let him into
your heart? Are you going to come to the front
and accept him? Are you going to accept Jesus?
Oh my, look what happens now. Oh my. Now listen to what they
said. And they cried out again, crucify
him, crucify him, crucify him. They cried out again, crucify
him, crucify him. They'd already cried it before
and they cried out again, crucify him. And look what happens. Oh
my. And look what Pilate asked, what
a question. Why? Why? What evil hath he done? What
a question. What evil has he done? What has
he done? What evil has he done? Oh my,
what evil has he done? What a question. But when he
asked that question, what evil hath he done? They cried out
the more exceedingly. They got louder and louder and
louder and just kept saying it over and over and over again,
crucify him, crucify him. And this is what free will does. This is what free will does to
a man. In verse 15, so Pilate, willing
to content the people, well, Got to content these folks. I
mean, this is what they want. I got to give them what they
want. I got to give them what they want. I got to give them, I got
to content them. I've got to give them what, keep
them quiet. And so Pilate, willing to content
the people, willing, that's what free will does for a man, released
unto Barabbas, unto them, delivered Jesus whom he had scourged. Oh my, released Barabbas. Now
when it says that they delivered Jesus when he had scourged to
be crucified. Now let me tell you, I know I'm
taking a little too long. When they scourged somebody,
I didn't know this till just this week preparing this message.
When they scourged, they had two men doing it. They had little
handles on these leather thongs, and they had bones in them, they
had glass in them, they had stones on the ends of them. There'd
be a man on both sides of him, and they'd make him bend over,
and one on both sides would start whipping him, scourging him. When they'd do that, they would
scourge till the bones were showing. They would scourge till sometimes
you could actually see their organs on the inside. They would
lay that back bare and get on the side, one on this side and
one on that side, one on both sides. And they scourged him. You know, I thought about this,
I thought about this. I know that when we get to heaven,
when we get to glory, when we be with our Lord Jesus Christ,
we're gonna know him by the nail prints in his hand and his feet.
But I wonder if he'll still have the scars on his back. I wonder if he took off his clothes
and we saw him, would he still have the scars on his back? Oh, my. And, oh, they scorched
him. They scorched him. And then it
says, to content the people, in verse
15, release Barabbas unto them. I want to close, and I want you
to go with your imagination to me to this. Imagine now Pilate's
in prison. Barabbas is in prison. Pilate
sends somebody down there. He hears somebody walking, he
hears steps coming down the hall where he's at, down in that dungeon,
in that prison. And he comes up there and he
hears somebody, when he listens to them coming, he hears somebody
stick a key into it. He said, well, today's the day
I die. Today they're gonna come and get me and crucify me today.
He unlocked that door and opened it up, He said, well, they opened that door and said,
Rabbis, Pilate says you're free to go
today. The Jews wanted you released
today. You're free to go. You're a free man. You're a murderer. You're a free man. You committed
insurrection. You're a free man. Why? Why? What happened? He said, there was a man that
they put in your place. Who is he? Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, the Lord of glory. And that's exactly the way God
done us. You get to go free. Why? Because somebody else took your
sin, took your punishment, took your death, and the prison doors
was opened. He looses the prisoners. Now
you're free. And all whom the Son sets free,
he is free indeed. Oh, bless his name. Our Lord, our Lord Jesus, thank
you. Oh, blessed be your name. Lord, though you said nothing
before them, you said all that needed to be said before your
Father, before the law, before justice, before our sin, before
death, you said everything that needed to be said. You delivered
yourself up for us, oh Lord. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Oh, I thank you and bless you.
Blessed be your holy name. God, bless it to this people's
hearts. Save sinners and displays. For Christ's sake, amen, amen. Turn to number 67. Number 67, I believe that's what
I want. Yes, let's stand together saying
this and you'll be at liberty to go. O Savior, as my eyes behold the
wonders of thy might untold, the heavens in glorious light
arrayed, the vast creation thou hast made. And yet to think thou
lovest me, my heart cries out, how can it be? How can it be? How can it be? That God should love a soul like
me? Oh, how can it be? As at the cross I humbly bow
and gaze upon thy thorn-crowned brow, and view the precious bleeding
form by cruel nails so bruised and torn. Knowing thy suffering
was for me, in grief I cry, how can it be? How can it be? How can it be that God should
love a soul like me? Oh, how can it be? How can it be? How can it be? How can it be?
How can it be? How can it be? How can it be? How can it be? How can it be? How
can it be? How can it be? How can it be?
How can it be? How can it be? How can it be? How can it be? How can it be? How can
it be? How can it be? How can it be? How can it be? How can it be? How
can it be? How can it be? How can it be? How can it be?
How can it be? How can it be? How can it be? How can it be?
How can it be? How can it be? How can it be? How can it be? How can it be? How can it be? How can it be? How can it be?
How can it be? How can it be? How can it be? How
can it be So full and free. From heights of bliss to depths
of woe, in lovingkindness thou didst go. From sin and shame
to rescue me, O love divine, how can it be? How can it be? How can it be that God should love
a soul like me? Oh, how can it be? See, tonight, 6 o'clock, God
willing,