I've preached from this the last
three weeks. And I've got some more things
to say about it, if the Lord would bless me. But I want to
get my subject here from verses 12 through 14. Our Lord had just said, talked about
the cup the Father had given. Then the band and the captain,
a band of men, a group of men, a lot of men. Then the band and
the captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus and bound him
and led him away to Annas first, for he was father-in-law to Caiaphas,
which was the high priest that same year. Now Caiaphas was he
which gave counsel to the Jews that it was expedient that one
man should die for the people. I want to talk about our Lord
Jesus Christ before his enemies. Before his enemies. You know
wherever we find our Savior, wherever we find our Lord Jesus
Christ, in whatever circumstances he's in, whatever situation he's
in, He shines as a brilliant light. His glories are put on
display. I don't care what situation he's
in, what his circumstances may be. Here he is, he's brought
before Annas. And as he's brought into the
presence of his enemies, they all came out against him and
they brought weapons. He just went forth and faced
them. Men that come out with weapons against the meekest man,
God's man, God's prophet, priest and king, God's savior, God's
son, never lifted his hand to anybody. And they came out with weapons
to get him. What did he say? I'm the one you're looking for.
Here I am. Take me. See what a glorious
See what perfections? Never argued with them, never
debated with them, never said you're doing the wrong thing,
never said anything to them in a derogatory, negative way. And oh my, here he's brought
before Annas. And again, his glorious perfections
are brought in view. His lowliness, his dignity, his
graciousness, His meekness, His humility. And as we view Him,
we see that He is immeasurably, immeasurably superior over everyone
that surrounds Him, whether it's His friends or His foes. Whether
it's disciples or whether it's His enemies. He is so immeasurably
superior to anybody that's ever around Him. Friend or foe, like
us. How superior is he to anyone
that's ever been in this world? Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. John the Baptist was the last
Old Testament prophet. Daniel was a man mightily used
of God. Joseph! But who are they compared
to the Lord Jesus Christ? And here he is before his enemies.
and you can see his complete absolute submission before those
who are in the seat of human authority because he as he sees
this he understands he understands that he's been delivered by the
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God to this situation but
here he seems submissive before those in the seat of human authority
as the Son of God As the Son of God, as the light of the world,
we see Him exposing the wickedness of all who come in contact with
Him. He said to them, which of you
convinces me of sin? You can see the wickedness as
He comes in contact with them as the Son of God. And then as
the Son of Man, as Mary's Son, As the Son of Man, He carried
Himself in such meekness before those who saw Him, and treated
Him, treated Him so cruelly, treated Him so vilely, treated
Him so viciously. And the Holy Spirit, you see
where I read about Simon Peter, where he went into the, and you
notice this, it said, went into the palace of the high priest.
Went into the palace. Here's the Lord Jesus Christ,
said, I don't even have a place to lay my head. And here and
there's this high priest that's supposed to be the servant of
the people. He lives in a palace. And our Lord Jesus said about
John, He said, Who do you think you're going to go see? A man
clothed in purple and fine linen? A reed shaken with the wind? No, no, no. That's not the way
you find the Lord's people. And oh, the Lord Holy Spirit
brings before Simon Peter's denial of his master. And he interrupts
them being brought into the presence of his enemies and to emphasize
what Simon Peter did when he denied the Lord Jesus Christ.
Why did he interrupt this before it's going on and being dealt
with beforehand? Well, I tell you, it's to emphasize. When you see Simon Peter and
John, that's who this disciple is, went in to the palace of
the high priest. When you see Simon Peter denying
the Lord Jesus Christ, you're warming yourself at the fire
of the Lord's enemies. It's to emphasize the need of
our Lord's atoning death by showing the character of those for whom
he died. You know, we get awful hard on
Simon Peter, but Simon Peter won't hold a light to how bad
I am. How many times have I denied the Lord Jesus Christ? How many
times have I warned? How many times have I not brought
glory to His name? How many times have I been somewhere
and never would I should have mentioned His name and didn't?
So Simon Peter, he denied the Lord, but I tell
you what, that shows us that the character, the type of people
Christ deniers ashamed to own him sometimes ashamed to bring
glory to him sometimes but that's the character of the
people he died for Oh, sin abounds by Simon Peter. Sin abounds in Simon Peter. Sin abounds in me. Sin abounds
in you. But where sin abounded, bless
His holy name. Grace did much more than that. Look what it says here now. Let's
look what it says about our Savior. Here in John chapter 18, 12.
This is the first thing I want to look at. Verse 12. Then the band and the captains
and officers of the Jews took Jesus. Now listen to this. Bound
Him. Bound Him. Why? And did you know if If I got
in trouble and the police or something had to stop me and
I tried to resist them or anything like that, they would bind me.
They should. But why would they bind the Lord
Jesus Christ? Why would they bind his hands?
Why would they bind his arms? Did they ever see him do anything
to hurt anybody? Did they ever see him lift a
hand? Did they ever see him slap anybody or hit anybody or act
in a harsh, negative, mean, cruel way? Huh? But they bound him. Oh, this shows us the hardness,
the hardness of unconverted men. This band was made up of Jews
and Gentiles and soldiers, servants of the high priest, heathens,
and even those who belong to God's covenant people. All men's heart, they say, all
people, I believe they got a good heart. If they're not saved by
the grace of God, they don't. They don't. Our Lord Jesus said after the
hardness is impenitence of your heart. He marveled at their unbelief
and hardness of heart. We can preach the Lord Jesus
Christ over and over and over. Why don't people's hearts be
touched and moved by His blessed name? By what He suffered and
how gloriously holy He is. And all these people are so different
in so many ways. There's a soldier, there's just
a man. There's a prophecy, and over
here's a Gentile. Oh, so many different people
in so many different ways. But all of them alike is in this
one way. Their blindness to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Their blindness to His glories. Their blindness to His power. This band of people just saw
Him. Just saw Him put them all on
the ground by just saying, I am. They all fell backwards. Just
by saying, I am. And then they saw him when Simon
Peter cut off his ear. Malchus here. They saw our Lord
Jesus Christ healing immediately like that. They saw these two
things. And yet they bound him. And yet
they bound him. But all not only see the hardness
of unconverted men and the blindness of men to Christ, but see the
amazing glorious condescension of our Lord Jesus Christ. Look
what it says, and the Jews took Jesus and bound Him. They took Him and bound Him.
Now could they have took Him? Could they have actually took
Him had He not willed to be taken? Could they have laid hands on
him if he had not willing to have done that? Here he is. They took him. Took the Lord
Jesus Christ, bound him. The Son of God. Here's this picture. The Son of God. God's Son of
His love. God who says, this is my beloved
Son. The Son of God taken prisoner. taken to be a prisoner led away
led away like one of the meanest cruelest meanest men at all and
it took almost 500 people to do this to make him a prisoner
and then not only that did they take him prisoner but they bring
him bring him before wicked and unjust judges Not to good judges, not honest
judges. Not judges that's going to judge
fairly and rightly and correctly. But they brought him before wicked
and unjust judges. Insulted him and treated him
with contempt. We get upset when somebody shows
us a little meanness, you know, shows us a little unkindness.
But oh my, we deserve to be treated that way. We deserve somebody
to tell us off every once in a while. We deserve for folks
to say thanks to us. But our Son of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ, He had only to will His deliverance. He had only to will it and it
would have happened. And he had only to will it and
it's done. He could have destroyed his enemies with a word or just
a look. That's all it would have took.
He just looked at them and they just willed for him to stop and
it could have happened. But here, listen to me now. But
he knew that all these, all these who now judged him, All those
who took him prisoner, all those who bound him, all of those who
are going to judge him, would one day stand before him to be
judged. Every single eye there was going
to look at the Lord Jesus Christ. They are all going to face him
in judgment one of these days. That fellow that bound him is
going to face him in judgment. And Aedas is going to face him
in judgment. Caiaphas is going to face him
in judgment. Every man, the scripture says
that every eye shall be holy. And I tell you what, did you
see that little article in the bulletin about John Kent that
I put in there, his dying words? He said, oh, when I think about
standing before the judgment seat of Christ, terrifies me. But then I remember that he saved me and I'm not
going to face a judge I'm going to face one who died for me and
saved me in a covenant of grace and I'll die saying God be merciful
to me a sinner oh listen I'm not afraid to face
him as a judge I've already faced him as a judge have you faced
him as a judge? And what does the judge have
to say now? Not guilty. Acquitted. I don't see no sin. I don't see
no iniquity. I don't see no condemnation. I don't see no guilt. I don't
see no shame. Why not? Take me and let these
go away. Take me and let these go away. You know, if you ever had to
go to court and be a witness or be brought to have to pay
a fine or get in some kind of trouble or anything like that,
I tell you what, that judge has got power. He's got power. I remember I got stopped one
time policeman, I said, Would you have mercy on me? He said,
No, no, no, no, you, you, you know, I'm not gonna show you
no mercy. It's not what I do. But oh, thank God. The mercy of the Lord endures
forever. God be merciful to me, the sinner. Man may not show you any mercy.
Man may not show you any kindness. Man may not look on you with
any kind of favor at times. But there's never a time that
our God don't look on us with favor and with mercy and grace. Because Christ says, you got
me, let these go their way. Let these go their way. And oh
my, and our Lord Jesus know that every one of these people, they
going to stand before Him one of these days. Then what are
they going to say? Then what are they going to say?
He knew all this and yet condescended to be bound and not, not resist
being treated this way. Not resist. Oh, one thing should
be so clear to us, so obvious to us is the love of our Lord Jesus
Christ for sinners. For sinners. It passes knowledge. It passes understanding. To suffer
so like he did here to be bound
to be bound to suffer so for one so absolutely unworthy amazing
love how can it be that thou my God shouldst die for me can
my God his wrath forbear and me me the chief of sinners spare
look over here look at you keep John 18 look at Psalm 22 Look
in Psalm 22. Oh my! Was it for crimes that I have
done, He groaned upon the tree? Amazing pity, grace unknown,
and love beyond degree. Look here in Psalm 22 in verse
12. Look what our Lord said about Him here. He said, many bulls have come
past me. They gathered around me, got
around me. The bulls of Basham have beset me round about. He said, these people are like
a bunch of bulls, like a bunch of animals. And then he says, they ganked
upon me. And the margin means they opened their mouths. They
ganked upon me with their mouths. As a ravening, as a starving
and roaring lion. They just can't get enough of
mistreating me. Then look what he says down in
verse 16. Then he says, dogs, dogs have
gathered around me. The assembly of the wicked, they've
enclosed me. They've got me enclosed. And they pierced my hands and
my feet. That's what he says, like a bunch
of bulls, like a bunch of animals, like a bunch of dogs. He said,
that's what these people are, that's what they're doing to
me. Bunch of dogs got around me, a bunch of bulls got around
me, animals, beasts. Has no sense of what they're
doing. No, they're doing what's natural to them. Their hearts
are so wicked. So wicked. And he said over in
Psalm 105, he says, they bound him with iron. But why did they
bind him? Why did they bind our Lord Jesus
Christ? Because Judas had told them,
hold him fast! Hold him fast! They had tried
to take him before and couldn't. This is not the first time they
tried to take the Lord Jesus Christ. But now was the time
for him to be taken. Look over here in Luke 4. Let's look together at this Luke
4. Look what happened here with our Lord Jesus Christ. Luke 4. And you know, in John 8.59 it says there they
took up stones to stone him. Why did they take up stones to
stone him? Because he says that he was older than Abraham was.
He was I Am. They took up stones to stone
him. But not one rock hit him. You know why? He just walked
away. And they didn't even see him
walk away. He's a bunch of people standing there with rocks and
he just walks away. And they don't see him go. They got all these rocks
in their hands to start throwing at him. And he's gone. They ain't
got nobody to throw no rocks at. Scripture says that he just
walked through the mist of it and was gone. Look here in John,
and this is where he was preaching and the first message that he
preached in the synagogue, his ministry started. And oh, he
preached a free election, sovereign election of God and verse 28,
and all they in the synagogue when they heard these things
were filled with wrath and rose up and thrust him out of the
city led him under the brow of the hill, the edge of the hill,
and where their city was built, that they might cast him down
headlong. They're going to kill him here. But he passed him through the
midst of them, went away, went his way. How in the world did
that happen? They got him out there, and they
got him right there ready to throw him away, and he just turns
and walks right through the midst of them, and they don't see him.
How did that happen? How come they didn't see Him
walk away? How come they didn't walk right through the midst
of it? And they fixed to throw Him headlong. Oh, what a Savior! What a Savior! And you know they
sent the Pharisees sent some people to take Him one time.
And they stood there and our Lord Jesus began to preach. And
they went back and the Pharisees and the leaders and rulers said,
Why did you not bring Him? Well, we got to hear him. We
got to listen to him. And I ain't never heard nobody
speak like that before. And I ain't never either of you. I've never heard nobody speak
like him. And oh, why did they bind him? It was time for him
to be bound. Because they wanted to shame
him. treating him like a lawless criminal. They wanted him so
many times. They wanted to treat him like
a lawless criminal. They believed he was worthy of
death. That's one reason. Here's another reason why they
bound him. There were typical reasons. All
that came upon our Lord Jesus Christ was the fulfilling of
prophecies and types of our Lord Jesus. You go through the Old
Testament, you find it over and over again. One instance is that
when Abraham took Isaac up on the mountain to offer him, to
offer him. And the Scriptures tells us there
in Genesis 22 that he got his son Isaac up on the mountain
and bound him to the altar. And so since Isaac was bound,
our Lord Jesus Christ was bound. But as Isaac, Abraham found a
ram to put in his stead and let his son go free. That's the way
the Lord Jesus Christ is. He's bound and he's not going
to be let go. Because he's going to actually
die in our place. And then it says, bind the sacrifice
with cords upon the horns of the altar. So they bound our
Lord Jesus Christ like you'd bind a sacrifice. And our sins, oh, our sins, our
sins. Look with me at Psalm 40, verse
12. This is an astonishing statement
here. An astonishing verse of scripture. Psalm 40, verse 12. This is just an astonishing verse
of scripture. Our sins was also the cause of His binding. Our sins was the cause of his
binding. Look what he said here in verse 12. For innumerable
evils have come past me. How many times have we seen this
word come past? Surround me. Mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me so that I'm not able to look up. They are more than
the hairs of my head, therefore my heart faileth me. He so identified with us that
he says their iniquities are mine, their sins are mine, and
they're more than the hairs of my head. One of y'all one of these days
you want to find out, Augustus Toplady sat down one day and
tried to figure How many times a man would sin in his life if
he sinned every moment? And he figured out the day, the
hours, the days, the months, and the lifespan of a person. Astronomical. Astronomical. He so identified with our sins,
so became one with us, He was bound. He was bound. So we could go free. If He took my sins, what does
that mean? That I don't have any. If He
took my iniquities, that means that I don't have any. My sins can't be in two places
at the same time. Can they? If they're on Him,
how could they be on me? If He died for them, how can
I die for them? If He was judged for them, how
can I be judged for them? That's what makes the gospel
so blessed. If Christ bore my sin, and this is what's so awful
about preachers telling people that Christ died for them indiscriminately, But I do know this, that everyone
that Christ died for and bore their sins, you mark it down,
their sins are gone. And God said that he cast them
as far as the east is from the west, cast them behind his back,
blot them out as a thick cloud, sent them as far as the east
is from the west. And then on top of that He said,
I will not remember them ever again. That's the thing about it. They
can't be on two places at the same time. That's why we preach
Christ the way we do. That's why we preach Him as holy
and glorious and righteous, the only Savior. Huh? Either He bears your sins or
you bear them. oh my and then let's look back
over here in our text back over here in John 18 and then it says
in verse 13 and led him away to Annas first now you notice
what it says there they led him our Savior wasn't driven and
our Savior wasn't dragged They just got him and walked along
with him. He didn't try to pull back. He
didn't say, now wait a minute. He didn't say, this is not right.
You're getting an innocent man. You're getting a just man. You're
getting a sinless man. You're getting a son of God.
No, he didn't say that. They just got him and led him. Didn't have to drag him. Didn't
have to push him. I just led him away. He offered
no resistance. Why? Because the scripture said
he was led as a lamb to the slaughter. Led as a lamb to the slaughter.
Here he also fulfilled the type. Every animal that was offered
in sacrifice for sin was first led to the high priest, first
led to the priest Only the priest can offer a sacrifice. If you had a sacrifice to offer,
you brought it to the priest. And then the priest is the one
that offered it. And our Lord Jesus Christ was led to Annas
because he had to be led as a sacrifice to the priest. And here's something
else about this. You know, they have so many gates
going into Jerusalem. So many different gates going
in. And there was one called the Sheep Gate. And the Sheep
Gate is where they brought in all the sacrifices to bring them
in to offer them. They had a certain area that
they held them, and then they'd bring them in, and they'd offer
them. Well, when they brought our Lord Jesus Christ from the
garden, and took Him into the city, took Him into Jerusalem,
Guess what gate they went through? They went through the sheep gate.
Went through the gate where they brought the lambs. Went through
the gate where they brought the sacrifices. Oh, I tell you what,
our Lord fulfilled the scriptures to the T. It's amazing, amazing
the things that our Lord. And I tell you, and then it says
here in verse 13, is to lead him away to Annas
first for he was father-in-law to Caiaphas and his daughter
was married to Caiaphas which was the high priest that same
year now the Romans elected a high priest and the Jews had a high
priest that's why they had two high priests, Annas is one and
Caiaphas is the other the Romans elected Annas that's who they
and the Jews acknowledged Annas he was the one who dealt in religious
matters he's the one who dealt in religious
matters for the Romans and then Caiaphas was the one set apart
by the Jews and you know in Acts chapter 4 they've got Simon Peter
and them before him. And you know what it says? There's
four high priests right there in Acts chapter 4. Four of them. There's Annas, Caiaphas, John,
and Alexander, and then a whole bunch of elders. I tell you what,
they had religion up to here. I don't mean they had it up to
their eyeballs. Everybody was a high priest.
That's like everybody being a preacher. There's a couple of congregations
I know of. If there's ten men in it, eight
of them are preachers. But then, you know, they'd show
up on Sunday morning or Wednesday night or whatever. One of you
brethren got anything to say tonight? Got anything to say
this morning? Well, if you do, stand up and
one of them will get up and he'll go to start and if that don't
work, well, maybe one of the rest of them. But you know they
got seven or eight to choose from. And with whichever one
of them gets to hack in the first and the fastest, that's the one
that's going to let them go. Sad, ain't it? Sad, ain't it? Oh my. Now Caiaphas, it says
this about him, down in verse 14. Now Caiaphas, he which gave
counsel to the Jews, that it was expedient that one man should
die for the people. And let's look at that over here
in John chapter 11. Let's look at what he said. Verse
47. Now Caiaphas was he which gave
counsel. And it was Caiaphas that was
sitting on the judgment seat when they brought Christ in there.
He starts speaking there in John 18-19. But look what it says
here. Caiaphas was the first to mention
and motion that the Lord Jesus Christ should be put to death.
Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees And the counselor
said, what do we? What are we going to do? For
this man doth many miracles. They just saw him blaze righteous
from the dead. If we let him thus alone, if
we don't do something with this man, everybody is going to believe
on him and then the Romans are going to come and take away both
our positions we won't be high priests anymore we won't have
our religion anymore we won't be anybody anymore we won't have
our thrones anymore and our palaces anymore we won't have our authority
anymore and not only that but they'll take our nation away
from us won't even let us be a Jewish people and one of them
come up with a solution named Caiaphas being the high priest
that same year said unto them you fellas don't know nothing
you just never thought this thing through you don't know how to
deal with this situation and listen to what he said nor consider
that it's expedient it's profitable for us that one man should die
for the people and that the whole nation perish not and this he
talked he spake not of himself but being high priest that year
he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation and listen
to this now but not for that nation only
but that also he should gather together gather together gather
together In one, the children of God scattered all over. This fellow, he prophesied. We've got to have somebody. We're
not going to lose our nation. We're not going to lose our positions.
We're not going to lose our palaces. We're not going to lose our authority.
You know why? We're going to kill a man. We're going to crucify
a man. We're going to destroy a man.
We're going to cause a man to die. and the best person to do
that for us. It causes us so much trouble
and so much shame and we're scared to death that everybody is going
to follow him. So I tell you what we do, I know
exactly how we'll do it. We'll kill him. We'll kill him. That's what we'll
do. It'll be profitable for us. It'll save our nation. Not only
save our nation, but save all the other people. And here's
what I want to say. They had decided before they
ever bound our Lord Jesus Christ that he should die. Innocence
or guilt didn't enter into it. That never even entered into
the equation. Before the trial ever came, the
sentence had already been decided. Death by crucifixion. Oh, here's
a travesty, a travesty of man's justice. Oh, what a travesty
to treat a man so holy and glorious in such a way. What a travesty
of man's justice, but a glorious, glorious, glorious display of
God's justice and grace. Not only is he going to die for
that nation, but for all the people of God. Ain't that what
it says? All the people of God scattered
abroad. The children scattered abroad.
You know who he's dying for? He's dying for people. People. I am so thankful that our Lord
Jesus Christ was bound for me. I'm so glad that He went through
the sheep gate for me. I'm so glad that they took Him and led Him away. And it was God leading Him, really.
It was God. And by Him doing that, you know where God's going to
lead me? He led me to His Son. He's going to lead me all the
way to glory. It started back before the foundation of the
world. I started back there and He's going to lead me. Oh, we
sing that song all the way He leads me. Where's He going to
lead us to? He's been leading us all these
years. Where are we going to end up at with Him leading us?
We're going to end up With Him. With Him. Our blessed, blessed Savior,
our gracious, eternal God, thank you for allowing us this privilege
to preach the gospel this morning, to talk about our Lord Jesus
Christ. Talk about who He is and what
He did. And oh Lord, I was in that crowd. I was those people
that mistreated him. I was so hard-hearted. I treated
him cruelly. Thought evilly about him. But
oh God, you had mercy. You had pity. You had forgiveness. You had the blood to wash away
our sins. Thank you for breaking in on
us. Taking out that stony heart,
putting in a heart of flesh that can be touched, that can be moved
by the Word of God, the Spirit of God in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Thank you, Lord. Blessed be your name. Bring glory
to yourself through this congregation. Save your people in this place.
Cause the gospel to find a lodging in the heart. For Christ's sake,
we pray. Amen. Amen. This is saying that
song.