It's just absolutely wonderful
to think that Almighty Vengeance fell upon the Great Substitute
in our place. My. Turn to Luke chapter 23. The
name of the message is a picture of substitution. Today we'll look at a picture
of substitution. Now the doctrine of substitution
is clearly taught all through the scripture. And it's a doctrine
of vital importance. I remember hearing Brother Henry
Mahan say several times in several messages that I listened to,
that his hope was that you would come away from hearing his messages
with two words, substitution and satisfaction. The fact that
Christ is a substitute of his people, dying in their place,
and satisfaction that God is satisfied with the sacrifice
of Christ. You can't say it much better
than that. Substitution and satisfaction. Today we'll be looking at substitution.
And again, it's clearly taught all through the scriptures. We
look at Barabbas today, and with Barabbas we see a clear picture
of substitution. We see a clear picture of how
the Lord Jesus Christ is a sinner substitute. Of all the doctrines
taught in the Word of God, none is so vitally important as the
doctrine of substitution, and very few people understand what
the Bible teaches about substitution. You hear things said like Christ
died for everyone. Well, no, he didn't. He died
for his sheep. He was a substitute for his sheep,
for his people. And so for us to understand the
biblical view of substitution, the Lord must reveal it to us.
And he reveals this precious truth to his people. And he shows
us He shows us how his death was a substitutionary sacrifice
before God on our behalf, in our behalf. Justice must be satisfied, right?
It must be. And as I've often said, it will
be either in the Savior or in the sinner. In the death of Christ, The innocent
one, he's the perfect, sinless, spotless Lamb of God. In the
death of Christ, he died in the place of the guilty. Of the guilty. And we who are his people are
sinners by nature, by birth, and by choice. And this is who the Lord Jesus
Christ died for. All those who were given to him
by the Father in eternity. He died in our place that we
might be free. That we might be free from the
condemnation and the law and justice of God. Now think of
this. At our birth, And at our conception, we're
conceived in sin, we're born dead in trespasses and sins.
The law of God has a claim on us. Right away. Right away. The justice of God
has a claim on us. Right away. With that in mind, let's read
verses 6 to 25. where we will see Jesus before
Herod in verses 6 to 17. Then we'll see Pilate delivering
Jesus to be crucified in verses 18 to 25. First, let's read verses
6 to 17. When Pilate heard of Galilee,
he asked whether the man were Galilean. And as soon as he knew
that he belonged under Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to
Herod, who himself also was at Jerusalem at that time. And when
Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad, for he was desirous to
see him of a long season, because he had heard many things of him,
and he hoped to have some miracle done by him. He hoped to see
some sign or wonder. Then he questioned with him in
many words, but he answered him nothing. And the chief priests
and scribes stood and vehemently accused him. and Herod, with
his men of war set at nought, and mocked him, and arrayed him
in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again to Pilate. Now look
at this. Look how enemies can become friends
when they're against Christ. Look at verse 12. In the same
day, Pilate and Herod were made friends together, for before
they were at enmity between themselves. I've heard a whole message on
that one time about how God's enemies come together against
Christ. Against Christ. And Pilate, when
he had called together the chief priests and the rulers and the
people, said unto them, ye have bought this man unto me, as one
that perverteth the people. And behold, I have examined him
before you and have found no fault in him. No fault in this
man touching the things wherever ye accuse him. He found no fault
in him because he's the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. He's without
sin. He's without sin. So Potter even
says that these accusations are all false. Are all false. But we know that Christ died
on the cross according to the determinant counsel and foreknowledge
of God, didn't we? Don't we? We know that from Scripture.
So we know that Christ had to die on Calvary's cross. We know
that. Because the whole reason He came
here is what? To redeem His people from their sins. And remember
as we're reading this, that the scripture says that Christ's
face was set like a flint. And the Old Testament says his
face was set like a flint to Jerusalem, which means he was
set like a rock. Flint there means a rock. He
was set to what he had come here to do. He was fully obedient to the
father's will. And what did the father send
him here for? To die in the place of his people, to redeem them
with his own precious blood. No, nor yet heard, for I sent
you to him, and lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him. I
will therefore chastise him and release him. So they were going
to scourge him and just release him. For of necessity he must
release one unto them at the feast. Now during the days of
Israel's subjection to Rome, and remember Israel was under
total subjection to Rome. The Roman Empire had expanded
and Israel was part of that empire. And they were under total subjection,
total subjection to the Roman government. But a custom was
regular practice in which on the day of the Passover, the
Roman governor released a guilty prisoner. No doubt this was intended
to be an act of benevolence on the part of the Romans to probably
appease the Jews and probably to put down any questions of insurrection,
because we know people who are under the thumb of another government
are not very happy, especially if they were once a sovereign
nation. And so they probably did this
to appease them and a part of benevolence on the Roman authorities
toward the Jews, and the Jews accepted it. They accepted it
because they were in subjection to Rome. And since it was their
Passover celebration, and remember what was being celebrated, they
themselves being delivered from Egypt, they may have thought
it the most fitting thing for some prisoner to obtain his freedom. Now think of this. Think of this.
This was all done by divine arrangement. It wasn't by chance that the
Romans decided to do this. No. This was all done by divine
arrangement, beloved. All done by divine arrangement
of our sovereign God that on the day of atonement, they would
release one who was guilty. All done by divine appointment. Pilate may have thought that
now he had the opportunity to allow the Savior to go free,
knowing that these charges against Him were false. And Pilate probably
thought, well, this is the opportunity I have, I can release Him. Because
I can release one, one that they say is guilty. But we know our
Lord was not guilty at all. At all. And he could do this,
Pilate could do this without compromising himself in the eyes
of his superiors at Rome. Because then he could say, well,
since we do this, I decided to release this Jesus. So he asked the people which
of the two they preferred, a notorious criminal or the Holy Savior. And look at how the crowd reacted
without hesitation. My, how the depravity of man
comes forth here. And as Brother Tim said, and
I've heard this often mentioned by grace preachers, and it's
true, we know ourselves, if we'd been there, dead in trespasses
and sins, we'd have said the same thing. We'd have said the same thing. Oh my. Look at verses 24 and 25. Oh
my. Actually, I'm sorry. Look at verses 18 to 25. And they cried out all at once,
saying, Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas. They
cried out all at once. Who for a certain sedition made
in the city, and for murder was cast into prison. Pilate, therefore,
willing to release Jesus, spake again to them. He wanted to release
Christ because He knew He was innocent. But they cried, saying,
Crucify Him! Crucify Him! They screamed it
out. And He said unto them a third
time, Why, what evil hath He done? I have found no cause of death
in Him. Remember, the soul that sinneth,
it shall die. Christ is the sinless one. The one who was guilty should
be the one who's dying, eh? But Christ says, no, he's perfect,
he's spotless. I will therefore chastise him
and let him go. And they were instant with loud
voices requiring that he might be crucified. And the voices of them and of
the chief priests prevailed, mob rules. And Pardot gave sentence that
it should be as they required. And he released unto them him
that for sedition and murder was cast into prison, whom they
had desired. But he delivered Jesus to their
will. Note in verses 22, verse 22 we
see Pilate's last effort to release Christ had failed and therefore
the sentence comes down. Look at verses 24 and 25, and
Pilate gave sentence that it should be as required. And he
released unto him that for sedition and murder was cast in prison
whom they had desired. And he delivered Jesus to their
will. Now take note in verses 18 and
19 that this man Barabbas was guilty. He was guilty. He was guilty under the law. He was guilty under the law.
He was guilty of the crime of robbery and murder and sedition. Sedition there means that he
had caused an insurrection. He caused an insurrection. Turn
if you would to Mark chapter 15. Mark chapter 15. And we know
that from Scripture, during that insurrection, he'd murdered someone.
Which often happens, when there's an insurrection, people are killed. Mark, chapter 15, verse 7. 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 then over in
John 1840, the scriptures say this, then cried, they all again
saying, not this man Brabus, but now Brabus was a rap robber.
So he was a murderer. He was a robber and he had caused
sedition and insurrection. He was guilty. He's guilty three
times over. Three times over. So the law,
the law had a rightful claim on this man, didn't it? The law
had a rightful claim on this man. He's a murderer, he's a robber,
and he's guilty of insurrection. So he's guilty before the law. And look at verse 18, And they
cried out all at once, saying, Away with this man, and release
unto us Barabbas. Release unto us Barabbas. Look
at verse 19, who for a certain sedition made in the city and
for murder was cast into prison. Guilty, guilty, guilty. Oh, how we are all guilty by
our natural birth before the law of God. Guilty. We are all rebels at heart in
our natural state. We are all like Brabus found
guilty by God's law, just like Brabus was here found guilty
of man's law and God's law. And we were held captive, beloved.
Now, where was Brabus? He was in prison. Where were
we when the Lord redeemed us, or when the Lord took us out
of darkness and brought us into the marvelous light of his son,
the Lord Jesus Christ? We were in the prison house of
sin, bound up and guilty under the law of God. That's where we were. We were held captive by our own
sin. Bound up, guilty, guilty, guilty before God. Now let us consider the wonderful
picture of substitution. Let's read verses 19 to 25. Who
for a certain sedition made in the city and for murder was cast
into prison. Guilty again before God. Pilate
therefore willing to release Jesus spake again to them. But
they cried crucify him, crucify him. And he said unto them the
third time, Why, what evil hath he done? I have found no cause
of death in him. I will therefore chastise him
and let him go. But they were instant with loud
voices requiring that he might be crucified. And the voices
of them and of the chief priests prevailed. And Pilate gave sentence
that it should be required. And he released unto them him
that for sedition and murder was cast into prison, whom they
had desired. But he delivered Jesus to their
will. Oh, beloved, here before us,
we see the guilty one going free and the innocent one going to
death. What a picture of substitution.
The guilty is set free. And the innocent is put to death
in his place. Barabbas is spared. And Christ
is crucified. And Christ is crucified. Now, there was a lot of prisoners
in the prison that day, wasn't there? But they all weren't set free,
were they? No. Christ died for His people,
beloved. He died for His people, and we
are set free in Him. We are set free in Christ, in
Christ alone. The guilty is set free here,
and the innocent is put to death in this place. What a picture
we have before us of the manner in which God pardons and justifies
the ungodly. And He does it. He does it because
Christ has suffered and died in their place. the just one
for the unjust, dying in the place of his people. It's we who deserve the almighty
wrath spoken of, which Sister Kathy spoke or sang in that song,
that fell upon Christ rather than us. It's we who deserve
that. It's we who deserve that. But the mighty Savior, The great
substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, died in our place. Died in the
place of who? Sinners. The question is, are
you a sinner? Has God shown you you're a sinner? Death was our due. The payment
of our sins is what? Death. That was our due. But glory, glory. The Lord Jesus
Christ has died in the place of his people. We were all in the position of
brabus by nature. Guilty, wicked, condemned, and
shut up by the law in the prison house of sin. But when we were without hope,
and when we were without strength, In due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. And now God, for Christ's sake,
can be just and justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
Turn, if you would, to the book of Leviticus in the Old Testament. Chapter 14, verses 1 to 6. What a picture we have here.
Two birds were used in the rite of cleansing lepers. One was
killed and its blood was poured into a basin, and then the other
bird was dipped into the blood. And then with its wings covered
with crimson, it was set free to fly in the open air." What
a picture. What a picture, beloved. Leviticus
chapter 14, verses 1 to 7. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his
cleansing. He shall be brought unto the priest. And the priest
shall go forth out of the camp, and the priest shall look, and
behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper, then
shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed
two birds alive and clean, in cedarwood and scarlet and hyssop. And they're alive and clean there.
That represents the perfection of Christ. Perfect, sinless,
spotless. And the priest shall command
that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running
water. As for the living bird, he shall take it in the cedar
wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and
the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over
the running water. Oh my, what a picture. And then
look what happens. And he shall sprinkle upon him
that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times and to pronounce
him clean and shall let the living bird loose into the open field. Oh my. The slain bird, beloved,
typified our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, whose blood was
shed on Calvary's cross. And every soul that by faith
is plunged in the fountain of Christ's blood is set free. Set
free. owing its life and its liberty,
its freedom to the Savior, who was once for sinners slain. That's substitution, beloved.
That's substitution. Let's go back to our text then
and consider that Barabbas must die, right? He's sentenced to
death, or Christ must die. You, the sinner, must perish,
or Christ. The immaculate Lamb of God must
be slain. And behold, the incarnate God,
God incarnate in the flesh, dies, that we might be delivered, the
God-man. What a picture we have before
us. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered in the place of sinners, just
like He took Barabbas' place. Christ alone satisfied the wrath
and justice of God in the place of His people. And those who
He has made satisfaction for before God, remember? Substitution
and satisfaction. Those whom He was the substitute
for and those for whom He's made satisfaction to God for must
go free. Must go free. They must. The law doesn't have any claim
on them. Because Christ died in the place of His people. Now again, this picture Picture
this, Barabbas is a prisoner. He's under the sentence of the
law. Barabbas is being found guilty. And he's in prison. He's in prison. The sentence
is passed. He must die. He's in prison awaiting
that day when he would be executed. And he was held under the sentence
of the law. Again, this is the condition
of every person in the world by nature. The Scriptures declare
this. In John 3.36 it says, He that
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not
the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Romans 3.19 says, Now we know
that whatsoever things the law saith, it saith to them who are
under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world
may become guilty before God. The person says, well, I'm a
good person. No, you're guilty before God. That's a natural state of all
men. Guilty, guilty, guilty before God. Galatians 3.10 says, For
as many as are the works of the law are under the curse, for
it is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things
which are written in the book of the law to do them. People
want to live by the law of God, they've got to fulfill the law.
We can't fulfill one law. But praise God, Christ fulfilled
the law for his people in their place. Galatians 3, 22 and 23 says,
the scripture hath concluded, all under sin, guilty. That the promise by faith of
Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe, but before
faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up under the faith,
which should afterwards be revealed. And then Ephesians 2, 3 says,
we were all by nature the children of wrath, even as others. That's
the natural state of man, guilty. So man's bondage is cruel, terrible. Even in our day of modern technology
and modern things, men like to boast of their independence and
freedom. People like to say, I'm going to do my own thing. Beloved, they're only doing exactly
the same thing that all men have done throughout history. There's
nothing new under the sun. Man's not free, he's in bondage
to sin. He's in bondage to sin, or in
bondage to religious tradition, or social custom, or peer pressure. Man by nature is in bondage to
sin. In bondage to sin. Man by nature is prone to every
kind of evil. And it's only the restraining
grace of God that keeps us from the wicked things we abhor in
others. Listen to me, you who are without
Christ, you are bound to the chains of darkness and your will
is held captive by the fetters of iniquity, by your sin. You may have resolved to change
your situation. You may have even succeeded in
reforming your outward behavior, but your character, your nature,
your will is still in bondage, still in bondage. You're a slave
to sin and you cannot set yourself free. The sentence is fixed. The soul
that sinneth, it must die. God's law says you must die.
God's holiness says you must die. God's justice says you must
die. And all men by nature are under the sentence and curse
of God's holy law. Why? And the law of God demands
your death. Man's not on probation. No, they're
on death's row. The God of heaven judges you
guilty. Your sentence is passed. The only thing lacking is the
appointed day of execution. And we see that pictured right
here in our text. Where Abbas is guilty. He's in
prison. He's awaiting his day of execution. And we who are redeemed were
such as sit in darkness in the shadow of death, being bound
in affliction and iron. Our sins were like chains upon
us. That's how we were in our natural
states. Turn, if you would, to Psalm 107. Psalm 107. Then we cried unto the Lord.
In what? He saved us, didn't He? We who
are His people. He saved us out of our distress. He bought us out of darkness
and the shadow of death and break our bands and sunder, didn't
He? We're free. We who are His people are free. Look at Psalm 107. Verses 10-14,
such as sit in darkness in the shadow of death, being bound
in affliction and iron. Just like Barabbas was sitting
in that prison, chained up, awaiting the execution date. Because they rebelled against
the words of God and contemned the counsel of the Most High.
Therefore He bought down their heart with labor. They fell down
and there was none to help. What does God do? What does God
do to us? Before He saves us, He brings
us to see our desperate need of Him. We see an end of ourselves. We see we cannot save ourselves.
My! That's what He does. And then
He shows us Christ. He reveals Christ to us. Look it, there was none to help,
and then look it, then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble.
Oh Lord, please save me. What did the publican, or the,
God be merciful to me, the sinner. Oh, just be merciful to me. They cried unto the Lord in trouble.
Why? And He saved them out of their distress. Oh my. He brought them out of darkness,
in the shadow of death, and break their bands in sunder. We're
set free, beloved. We're set free. Is there therefore no hope for
the sinner like Brabus? Must all the guilty forever perish?
Will God not have mercy? Is there any way whereby God
can be faithful to His holy law and yet pardon sin? Is there
any means whereby God can both satisfy His justice and let the
sinner live? God will not show mercy at the
expense of His justice, we know that, right? But He will show
mercy if justice can be satisfied in a substitute. And praise be to God. There is
hope for sinners. God has provided a substitute
for his people. The Lord Jesus Christ. And Christ
alone can set the prisoner free. Christ alone can do this. If
the Son therefore shall make you free, what? You shall be
free indeed. Let's go back to our text in
Luke chapter 23. Let's read verses 21 to 25 again. But they cried, saying, Crucify
him, crucify him. Oh, they wanted the Lord to be
crucified. And he said unto them the third
time, Why, what evil hath he done? I found no cause of death
in him. I will therefore chastise him, and let him go. And they
were instant with loud voices, requiring that he might be crucified.
And the voices of them and of the chief priests prevailed.
And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required.
And he released unto them that for sedition and murder was cast
into prison whom they had desired, but he delivered Jesus to their
will. Note in our text, and rejoice
you who are the people of God, a substitute was found to die
in Barabbas's place. Can we ever Even imagine what
Brabus thought if he had heard that crowd, if he could hear
in prison that crowd crying out, crucify him, crucify him. Could
you imagine what he thought? He'd think they were screaming
about him. And think of this, in comes the
Roman soldier. He could hear him coming. In comes the Roman soldier. And
these are men of war. And there'd probably be a couple
of them there coming in because he's thinking, well, they're
going to take me out and they're going to escort me to my execution. And he hears them coming down
that hallway. And then he sees them. He hears
the sound of that key going in the door. And the release of that lock. And the Roman soldiers come over
and they unshackle him. And they say, Barabbas, you're
free to go. He probably thought, what would
most of us think? These guys are playing a sick
joke on me. He probably thought, what? And they say, Brabus, you're
free to grow. Jesus of Nazareth is going to die in your place. That's substitution. That's substitution. Over in the book of Job, if you
want to turn there with this one verse where we read Job 33
verse 24. Over in the book of Job, the
scriptures declare that God's people have been delivered from
going down to the pit. Why? Because they found a ransom.
They found a ransom. And who's our ransom, beloved?
The Lord Jesus Christ. Scripture says, then he is gracious
unto him and saith, deliver him from going down to the pit. I
have found a ransom. A ransom. That One who suffered and died
in the place of Brabus, His name is the Lord Jesus Christ. And He's God incarnate in the flesh.
He's the perfect, sinless, spotless Lamb of God who came to die in
the place of His people. And he is the only substitute
God will accept in the sinner's place. He is the only one. Listen to what the scriptures
declare. being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood. His blood was shed for the remission
of the sins of His people, the perfect spotless Lamb of God
dying in their place. To declare his righteousness
for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God. To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness,
that he might be just in the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. Romans 3, verses 24 and 26. And
then it says, for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
All the sins of God's people were put upon Christ and he bore
them. The sinless, spotless Lamb of
God dying as the substitute of sinners. substitution and satisfaction. Why? That we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. That we might be clothed in his
perfect, spotless righteousness, the guilty one, the guilty ones,
which is us. We're not dying on there. The
sinless one dies in our place, the just one for the unjust. My. who his own self bear our sins
in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin should
live unto righteousness, by whom stripes ye were healed. The sinner's substitute must
be a suitable person, able and willing to redeem, and whoever
undertakes to reconcile a holy God and sinful man must himself
be both God and man. He must be God, for only God
is able to make infinite satisfaction. He must be man, for man must
be punished. And the God-man, our Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ, He being God, is able to redeem His people.
And He being a man, He's able to suffer and pay for the sins
of His people. How? By the shedding of His own
precious blood. Being the God-man, He's an all-sufficient
Redeemer. He's both willing and able to
save. Remember, He came here willingly. He came here willingly. Now, no one can measure that
love. No one can measure that love.
God Himself became a man that He might redeem us, that He might
purchase us with His precious blood. No earthly love even comes close
to this. In order to be our substitute,
the Redeemer must be perfect, sinless. The Scriptures proclaim
of Christ, He knew no sin. He was sinless in His life, and
He was sinless in His death, beloved. Perfect, spotless. The Lamb of God. The Lamb of
God. And the Lord Jesus Christ, the
perfect sinless lamb of God, suffered the just punishment
due for our sins, due for the sins of his people. Oh, what wondrous love is this?
Oh, my soul. Oh, my soul. Lastly, let us consider that
Barabbas is set free. Note verse 25. Luke 23, 25, and
he released unto him, unto them, him that for sedition and murder
was cast into prison, whom they had desired, but he delivered
Jesus to their world. Remember that bird? The second
bird was just set free after it being dipped in blood. After
it being dipped in blood. Oh my, Christ died in Barabbas'
place. Barabbas was set free. But what
a picture we have here of Christ dying in the place of his people. And what are we? We're set free,
aren't we? We're set free. The law of God
has no more claim on us. The wrath of God has been satisfied.
The justice of God is appeased. And we are set free. Set free. My, all those for whom the Son
of God died at Calvary 4 must be set free. It's not possible
for the law to punish my substitute and punish me also. It's not
possible. Not one soul for whom Christ
died shall be found in hell. Not one. He, God, shall see the
travail of his soul which is Christ died in the place of his
people and shall be satisfied. There's the other word. Substitution
and satisfaction. And that's real substitution. Any doctrine or teaching that
teaches that God will both punish Christ and punish those for whom
Christ died, that's not substitution. It's not the gospel. Let us consider this in closing.
The sin and atoning death of Christ was a satisfactory substitution. It satisfied the designs of the
Father. This great substitution was planned
and purposed and executed by the Father, at His command. Why? be the means of the salvation
of His people. This great substitutionary death
of Christ satisfied the demands of God's holy law on the place
of His people. It satisfied the debts of His
people. All their sin debt is paid. Oh my, can we even enter
into that? Can we even enter into that?
The truth of that? That doesn't give us a license
to go sin, does it? No, it doesn't do that. But can we even enter
into the fact that all our sin debt is paid? All of it. Paid in full. How? By the complete
atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is good news for
sinners, isn't it? This is wonderful. You wonder
why I said earlier today, we should be the happiest people
in the world. We who are God's people. Why? Now, I know we go through things. I know I'm not saying that I'm
not I'm not I'm not the mountaintop all the time Christianity, but
we should be happy. This should this should fill
our hearts with joy. Beloved, it really should. It really should.
These these precious truths. Oh, my gosh. Every guilty sinner for whom
the Lord Jesus Christ died will be set free. And each of us who
are objects of His grace and mercy can say Amen. Because He
set us free, hasn't He? Oh my! Oh my! Whom did Christ
die for? Oh, He died for the ungodly.
He died for men who were without strength, men and women who were
without strength. He died for men and women who were His enemies.
He died for His people who were sinners by birth, nature, and
choice. He died for all those whom the
Father gave Him in eternity. My. And how does the Son of God set
the prisoners free? He gives His life for them. He
gives His life for them. They're born again by the Holy
Spirit of God. And He breaks the power of sin,
having cleansed them from all their sins and by the shedding
of His blood. And He subdues our wills, doesn't
He? And think of this, beloved. How does He set us free? He silences
the law of God against us. Satisfying it in our place. And
then He gives us faith and promises of the resurrection, that one
day we will be with Him. And we will be, beloved. We will
be one day with Him. We'll die physically, but the
grave cannot hold Christ's free man. No, we'll rise from the
grave and we'll be in His presence forever. Again, all because of
the great work of our Savior. Our substitute. What did the
Lord tell that thief whom he saved? Today thou shalt be with
me in paradise. Oh my, what wonderful words. And what does Christ give to
those who come to Him? Life. freedom, righteousness,
peace, joy, cleansing from all our sin, a full pardon of all
our sins based upon the work and merit of Christ alone. My,
what a great substitute, beloved. And always remember you who are
the children of God, you who are born again by the Holy Spirit
of God, that it is Christ who has made you free. It is Christ
dying in your place on Calvary's cross as the substitute that
has made you free. You're bought with a price. You're
bought with a price. And the price is the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, let us glorify God
in our bodies and in spirit. Heavenly Father, we thank you
for your goodness and mercy and grace. We thank you for the clear
picture of substitution, which we saw today. And we see ourselves
as guilty before thy law, guilty before thy justice, just as Brabus
was guilty. And yet, Lord, we know you died
in our place. You set us free, the great substitute. And we are free, O Lord. We're
just like that bird. We've been dipped and cleansed
by your precious blood, O Lord. Wash clean from all our sins
and we are set free. Glory to your name, O Lord. Honor
and praise and blessing. May you be glorified through
the preaching of your word. And may we think upon these precious
truths today and through the week in Jesus' name. Amen.