All right, brethren, let's look
at John 19. I'm going to reference 1 Samuel 8 if you want to mark
that as well. John 19 and 1 Samuel 8. Now the worst thing that can
happen to a sinner in this world if he's irreligious, has nothing
to do with religion, or if he is religious. The worst thing
that can happen to a sinner in this world is to go through this
life rejecting Christ and perish forever. We have a soul that's
gonna live somewhere. We're gonna live somewhere either
in eternity in glory with our Lord or eternity in hell separated The worst thing that can happen
to a sinner is to pass through this life without believing on
Christ. And the best thing that can happen
to a sinner, whether he's irreligious or religious, is for our Lord
to give us grace and make us able and willing to receive the
Lord Jesus, to believe on Him and really follow Him. That's
gonna be our subject tonight, rejectors and receivers. And we'll just see an irreligious
man reject Christ, then we'll see some religious men reject
Christ, and then we'll see what Christ is to those who receive
him. All right, first of all, we have
an irreligious man who rejects Christ. This man was not religious.
He's a Gentile, he's a Roman, he has He cares nothing for the
Jews' religion. He knows nothing about it. And
it says in verse 12, From thenceforth Pilate sought to release the
Lord Jesus. But the Jews cried out, saying,
If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend. Whosoever
maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar. When Pilate therefore
heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth. and sat down in
the judgment seat on a place that's called the pavement, but
in the Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now verse 12 tells us, from thenceforth
Pilate sought to release him. Now he'd been trying this. He'd
been trying to find some point of compromise with the religious
rulers to get them to release the Lord Jesus. He had some kind
of conviction in him that Christ, the Lord Jesus was no ordinary
man, and he had heard him say that they said he said he was
the son of God. That got his attention. Several
times he tried to sought to release him. But what does that really
mean? Pilate sought to release him. Remember what Pilate just boasted
of to our Lord Jesus? Look back at verse 10. Then saith
Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not
that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release
thee? He had the power to release him. He had the power to release him.
But he wanted the Jews' consent. That's what he was seeking. He
was seeking to please them in the way he released him. That's
what he sought. And these religious rulers had
emphasis over the crowd, the multitude. They had worked them
up to get them to call out, crucify him, crucify him. Pilate wants
to please the rulers and the people. That's what he wants.
Well, Pilate tried again to get them to release the Lord. He
went out, he said something to them to try to get them to release
the Lord, and it says there in verse 12, the Jews cried out,
said, if thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend.
Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar. Our Lord
Jesus was not in competition with Caesar. He's Caesar's king. He's the king of kings. That's who he is. And these Jewish
rulers were not friends of Caesar's. They hated Caesar. They hated
being under Roman rule. What they were looking for was
they wanted to be free from him. They were looking for the Christ
to come and set up an earthly kingdom and set them free from
Rome. They just wanted carnal things. But they didn't like
Caesar. They were pretending here to
be zealous for the law. And they're pretending here that
they have a zeal for Caesar as their king. But they don't. This
is a cover. This is a cover for something
malicious, a motive they have in their heart. And that is to
crucify the Lord Jesus. They're rejecting him. Well,
Pilate hears this. He hears this. They say, if you
let this man go, you're not Caesar's friend. Anybody who makes himself
a king speaks against Caesar, and Pilate hears this, and he
knows, if I set this man free, if I release this one, they're
going to Caesar, and they're going to tell Caesar I did this,
and they're going to tell Caesar that he, the Lord Jesus, was
in competition with Caesar, setting himself up as a king, and Pilate
knew Caesar had the power to take his head off. Pilate would
kill him. Caesar would kill it. They said, Thou art not Caesar's
friend, and whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against
Caesar. But listen to this now. Look
at that statement. Thou art not Caesar's friend.
Whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar. If you
let this man go, you're not Caesar's friend. But it's high treason
for a man to make himself a king rather than bow to Christ our
king. The same token that it's treason for a man to make himself
king over Caesar, it's far more treasonous for a man to try to
reject Christ the king and make himself a king. And he's not
being a friend to the Lord Jesus. Abraham was the friend of God.
Why? He bowed to the Lord Jesus as
his king and his savior. Pilate wavered here, he's between
Christ and he's between these men. He knows this is truth,
he knows that he has a pretty good idea this is so, and his
conscience is telling him, but then these men are pressuring
him. And he chose to be his own judge.
rather than bow and believe Christ. Look at verse 13. When Pilate
therefore heard that saying, when he heard them say this about
Caesar, he brought Jesus forth and sat down in the judgment
seat. That's so important. He sat down,
Pilate sat down in the judgment seat. In a place that's called
the pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha. And he makes one more
half-hearted attempt. He says, behold your king, and
then in verse 16, they cry out, crucify him. In verse 16, then
delivered he him, therefore unto them to be crucified. And they
took Jesus and led him away. Now, because of this word pavement,
Arthur Pink linked this, he linked Pilate and what he did with Ahaz
and what he did. Pink says this is a Hebrew version
of Hebrew word for pavement is only used once in the Old Testament
Actually it's used quite a number of times, but he points out this
about Ahaz and it is an illustration of Pilate Ahaz, they had this
giant ornate laver I've preached on this before. It was a big
labor. The priests had to wash in this
labor. We have to wash before we can
come into God's presence, and Christ is pictured in that labor. It was very ornamental, very
valuable laver. And it sat on these oxen. They were sculpted out, looked
like oxen. Big base around the bottom of
this big laver, and a big base around the bottom of it. It looked
like oxen facing out, and they were covered over in brass. Those
things were valuable. And Ahaz took that base and cut
it away, took that laver up, and tore that base away and some
other things in the temple for the king of Assyria to try to
show his allegiance to the king of Assyria because he needed
to be delivered right that moment. and he wasn't looking to Christ
the King, who that picture, that's a picture of a man rejecting
Christ who washes his people from our sins and uses the things
of Christ and makes himself a king and gives everything that belongs
to Christ to that king to try to save himself. Do you see how
that typifies Pilate? Pilate sat down here What Ahaz
did was a symbol of apostasy. That is what he did. He apostatized.
He had been told numerous times the gospel Isaiah had preached
to him, but he would not hear it. He would not hear it. Isaiah told him, there's coming
up a man. He's going to be born of a virgin.
He's God with us. And Ahaz would not hear it. And
he did this, made this allegiance with the king of Assyria. That
was apostasy. Well, Pilate here, He hears of
Christ, he hears of Christ, and he wavers back and forth until
finally he sits down in the judgment seat and he makes a judgment.
And he judged himself when he did this. He sat down and he
made a judgment. He rejected Christ. And by doing
this, he judged himself unworthy of eternal life. He judged himself
unworthy of eternal life. That's what the scripture says.
Now you see in Pilate, now listen, when you look at Pilate, see
what our sinful nature is. That's what our sinful nature
is. It still is with us. And every man that hasn't been
born of God, that's all he has is this nature, back and forth. back and forth. A double-minded
man back and forth between Christ and the world is unstable in
all his ways. The preeminent God-pleaser is
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one standing there in
the midst of these two factions, these religious and irreligious
folks, and he's standing there pleasing God and always pleased
God. He's silent. He's silent. But he pleased God for sinners
just like Pilate. Sinners that were no different
than Pilate, who were irreligious. And the Lord Jesus came and laid
down His life for some sinners just like them, just like Him.
And He saved sinners who come confessing, we're sinners. We're
not trying to act like we're not sinners. We're sinners. We
know we're sinners. We don't want to sin, we hate
sin, but we come to Him confessing we're sinners, and the Lord Jesus
Christ receives you, and just like Ben just read, He cleanseth
His people from all sin. He's the fountain open for sin
and uncleanness. God pleases, fall at his feet,
begging mercy. They fall at his feet, broken
hearted, contrite, repentant, believing, begging for mercy. And we never stop begging him. We need mercy. Beginning to end,
we need mercy. And he keeps giving his child
mercy. We never stop repenting. We never
stop believing. We never stop asking for mercy.
So if you're irreligious, don't reject Christ. Don't let peer
pressure and the pressures of this world make you reject Christ
like Pilate did. Bow to the king and keep bowing
to him and keep asking mercy from him. When men try to turn
you from Christ, believe on Christ and trust him to save you. Even
trust him to save you from men. God pleases stand with Christ
and his people stand with Christ and declare this gospel. That's
why we're together. We are all declaring this gospel
in this world. Paul said, we were allowed of
God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak not
as pleasing men, but God who tries the hearts. He said, do
I persuade men or God? Do I seek to please men? If I
yet pleased men, I wouldn't be the servant of Christ. And God
pleasers, by God's grace, by Him giving us a new heart, we
are doing all things. Whatever, if we're moving for
a job, if we're doing a job, if we're in the Lord's house,
outside of the Lord's house, we're doing all things at work,
serving, whatever we're doing, we're doing it not with our service
as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God
from the heart. So we see an irreligious man
who rejected Christ. Don't be like him. Believe on
the Lord Jesus. Now secondly, we see religious
men who reject Christ. Verse 14, John 12, 14, I mean,
John 19, 14. Pilate said to the Jews, Behold
your king, but they cried out, Away with him, away with him,
crucifying. Pilate said to them, Shall I
crucify your king? And the chief priests answered,
We have no king but Caesar. Now the scribes and Pharisees
rejecting the Lord Jesus was typified in the elders who rejected
Christ, and that's who they rejected when they rejected Samuel. Let's
go over there, 1 Samuel 8, hold your place here
in John 19. Samuel was a type of Christ.
He was born of a miraculous birth, just like Christ. He pictured
Christ. He was God's prophet, God's judge,
and really, For that time, for that period, he was the king
of Israel. As Christ didn't set up, the
Lord didn't set up kings in the beginning. He used his prophet
to judge and preach his gospel and they ruled by the word of
God. They were higher than a king before God. So Israel had no
earthly king because Christ was their king. He was their king
even then. Listen to this now. You just
hold your place there, I'll get to it. But you remember when
a Hebrew writer was using Melchizedek as an illustration, he called
him King of Salem, King of Righteousness, and he said, that's Christ. He's
King of Salem, he's King of Righteousness, means King of Peace, King of
Righteousness. And this is what he said of Melchizedek.
Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither
beginning of days nor end of life. but made like unto the
Son of God, who abideth a priest continually." It doesn't say
that God made his son a king priest like Melchizedek. It says
God made Melchizedek to be a king priest like the son of God. Christ
was already the king. He hadn't come in human flesh,
but he's the one who's without father, without mother, without
descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life. The
children of Israel at the time of Samuel had a king, and it
was Christ. He's always been the king, always
been the mediator, the savior of his people. But not having
faith, the elders in Israel saw only Samuel. That's all they
saw. They only heard Samuel's word.
And while this is going on, and they just have Samuel's word,
they just have the ceremonies and things, the other nations
around them, the heathen nations, have kings. And these kings look
good. They're impressive. They have
a lot of pomp, and they put on a big show. And the children
of Israel were impressed by that. They were impressed by that.
But Samuel here, there's nothing about Samuel to attract them.
And they rejected Samuel, and they chose for themselves a king. Now listen, so they came to Samuel
in verse 5, 1 Samuel 8, 5. And they said to him, Behold,
thou art old, He was old at this time. This is what they're basing
this on. Thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways. He
had made his two sons judges, and they went after Lucre, and
they were not faithful like Samuel was. So they come, the elders
come, and they said, you're old, and your sons walk not in your
ways. Now make us a king to judge us
like all the nations have. And Samuel was displeased, and
he prayed, and this is what the Lord said, verse 7. And the Lord
said to Samuel, hearken unto the voice of the people and all
that they say unto thee. That's a frightening thing. They
said, we want a king. And the Lord said, Samuel, I'm
giving them a king. You never want God to give you
what you want. You don't want God giving you
what you want. Giving you what you need, but not what you want.
You want them to give you what you need, but not what you want.
That's what he's doing for them. But look at this. And he said,
for they have not rejected thee, Samuel, but they've rejected
me, that I should not reign over them. Christ is the king. He's
speaking. And their rejection of Samuel
typified the Jews' rejection of Christ. These religious Jews
were saying, we do not want this man, Christ Jesus, to reign over
us. That's why they were trying to get Pilate to pass this sentence
of death on him. He was unimpressive to the carnal
eye. His gospel was offensive. He
didn't promise them anything carnal. He didn't say he was
setting up an earthly kingdom. He didn't come and flatter them
about their religious exercises and say anything good about what
they were doing in their religion. Our Lord came to them and told
them, except you believe on Me, you'll perish in your sins. That
was telling them they're sinners. That was telling them all these
religious works had not profited them any. That was telling them
that was not their salvation. Christ is the salvation of His
people. And that offended them. It offended them. And they wanted
to make Him a king at one time, and He wouldn't let them make
Him a king. You're not going to make Christ Lord of your life.
He's already Lord. He's already King. He might make
Himself Lord of our life, King of our life, but we're not doing
it. He's doing it. Alright, look here now, back
in 1 Samuel 8. 1 Samuel 8. The Lord gave Samuel
a word to speak to the elders. Now listen, verse 9. In the middle
part, 1 Samuel 8, verse 9. He said, Now therefore hearken
unto their voice, howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them and
show them the manner of the king that shall reign over them. And
Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that
asked of him a king. And you can read that at your
leisure. I'm trying to save a little time. But what the Lord said
and what Samuel told them was, this king is going to take you
for slaves He's going to make you slaves, and He's going to
take from you, take from you, take from you, and take from
you. That's the king of your choosing, and that's what He's
going to do, the Lord said. Verse 19, here was their answer.
Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, nay, no, but we
will have a king over us. that we also may be like all
the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before
us and fight our battles." They wanted to make a king for themselves. Now, go back to John 19. Just
like those elders, the Lord Jesus had declared the gospel to the
rulers in Judah. And they're rejecting him for
Caesar. And he told them, if you do this, if you reject me,
it's the same as the devil ruling over you. And he's going to keep
you in slavery, and he's going to take from you, take from you,
take from you. That's all he's gonna do, take
from you, take from you, take from you. Verse 14, and Pilate
saith unto the Jews, behold your king. And here was their answer. Listen to it, look how much it
resembles the elders. But they cried out, away with
him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, shall I
crucify your king? And the chief priests answered,
we have no king but Caesar. That's just like what the elders
did with Samuel. Samuel is such a good picture
of Christ. Now, in Samuel's day, the Lord's word came to pass.
Within two years, their earthly king usurped authority over the
high priest, rejected God's way of atonement, wouldn't go through
the high priest. He did it himself and tried to
make a sacrifice himself to God. That's the same as totally rejecting
Christ, And he did just what the Lord said he would do. He
took them and made them unwilling. He made them be servants. And
he took from them and took from them and took from them and took
from them. And the Lord's word came to pass concerning these
rulers in Israel. Those that were rejecting him
face to face. They rejected Christ for Caesar.
They said, we'll have a king. We're going to make our king.
We're going to choose Caesar, not you. And Caesar kept them as slaves. And he took from them, and he
took from them, and he took from them. And 70 years later, another
Caesar wiped Israel completely off the map in war. And just
like the Lord's Word had said, he didn't leave one stone upon
another in Jerusalem and tore it all down. But there's a very important
lesson I want you to get. In Samuel's day, go back with
me over there one more time. I want you to see this. In Samuel's
day, this is a description of the king the people chose. This is the people's king right
here. The Lord gave them this king because they wanted one
that looked like the heathen kings. That's what they wanted.
So He gave them that. Look at 1 Samuel 9. This is a
description of him. Verse 9. Look at that, his name was Saul.
He was a choice young man and a goodly man. He was a good looking
fellow. And there was not among the children
of Israel a goodlier person than he. From his shoulders and upward,
he was higher than any of the people. Head and shoulders above
all the people. Handsome, looked like a king.
Don't you know they said, oh, is he gonna be a good king? And
then, when God replaced him with his king, David, the picture
Christ, he passed by all of Jesse's sons that looked like Saul. And
the one that nobody thought looked like a king, David, that's the
one God said, that's my king, right there. The one that nobody
would look to and would see anything that would draw them to him,
nothing that they would esteem and like about him, carnally
speaking. And God said, that's my king.
Why'd he do that? Here's what he said, 1 Samuel
16, 7. The Lord said to Samuel, look not on his countenance or
on the height of his stature, because I have refused him. He had refused one that looked
just like that. Refused these elders. For the
Lord seeth not as man seeth. For man looketh on the outward
appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. Now listen to me. See, Samuel looked foolish to
them. Just like to these rulers in Israel, Christ looked foolish
to them. There's nothing about Him, just like Isaiah 53 said,
nothing to attract them, that make them esteem Him as anything
great. Now, if you're sitting here and
this gospel is foolish to you, does it appear that way? Is there
no form nor comeliness in these servants? No form nor comeliness
in the Christ we preach? Our gospel is of Christ and Him
crucified. Is that foolishness? Don't reject
Christ and our gospel like these men rejected Christ. The Lord's
not looking, and if some sat here, you and me who are religious
like these rulers were, the Lord's not looking on the outward appearance.
He's not looking on the outward appearance. He looks on the heart. He gives His people a new heart,
spiritual understanding within, so we can see things the natural
eye can't see. We find Christ then altogether
lovely. We find His gospel to be life
to us. We find His people to be those
we need, the other sheep of His pasture that we need, and we're
willing to give up everything else for Him and for them so
we can have the gospel. That's more important than having
all the things the world's going after. Because Christ is everything. All the things the Scriptures
are telling us, Christ is the fulfillment of the Law and the
Prophets. He's the Lamb. He's everything to His people.
Do you find Him beautiful? Or are you like these men that
despise Him and reject Him? Is the gospel good news or do
you despise coming to hear the gospel? I'm telling you this
Word right here is the Word by which God saves His people. And
this is the Word. This Word is called a treasure
in Scripture. It's irresistible, I mean unsearchable. This is the Word of God. Think
about that. People are always saying, I just
wish I knew, I wish I had some proof that God is or whatever.
God has given us His Word. He's given us his word. God never
tries to prove himself in his word. He just starts out saying,
in the beginning, God. Why? Because he don't have to
prove himself. He gives you faith, and that's
the proof. Faith in the heart. And then
he's altogether lovely. But then you stop looking to
your religious deeds and to any pretended goodness in you, and
you find Christ the king to be altogether lovely. You don't
want an earthly king then. You don't want to be that king
then. You want Christ to be your king. All right, now lastly. So we've seen an irreligious
man that rejected Christ. We've seen religious men that
rejected Christ. And both of them essentially
were choosing to save themselves, making themselves the king and
rejecting Christ. That's what everybody does that
rejects Christ. They're saying, I won't have Christ reign over
me. I don't need him to be my savior. I'll be the ruler of
my own life and I'll save myself. But listen to me, we're gonna
meet Christ one day. We're gonna stand face-to-face
with the one I'm preaching. Every one of us are. We're gonna
stand face-to-face. And every one of us is gonna
bow. And every one of us is gonna confess Him to be everything
we ever heard and more. King of kings and Lord of lords.
But some are gonna do that willingly in praise and adoration, while
others are gonna do that in desperation. knowing they've rejected him
all their life. Now, let me show you something
that God, that our Lord Jesus is to those who receive him. God give us grace to receive
him and we believe him and trust him. This is what Christ is to
those that receive him. All right, look with me now in
John 19 verse 14. John 19 and verse 14. I'll be
brief here, but I want you to see this. And it was the preparation of
the Passover and about the sixth hour. And He saith unto the Jews,
Behold your King. Now, the night before this, the
Lord had eaten the Passover with His disciples. Remember? He had instituted the Lord's
table at that point. That's not what he's talking
about here when it says preparation of the Passover. This is the
preparation for the feast of Passover. There was a feast that
went on for several days after that, after they initially partook
of the Passover. This is the Friday before the
Sabbath. So they're making preparation
for this feast, they're having to do everything on Friday because
they can't work on Saturday. That's the Sabbath, that's the
Sabbath day, they're supposed to rest. So they're making all
this preparation for the feast and making preparation for the
next Saturday. And that's what he's talking
about here when he says it was the sixth hour. It was the sixth
hour from when they started. They've been working for six
hours trying to prepare for the Sabbath day so they could pretend
like they're resting, when they never really were. The Lord Jesus hung in darkness
on a cross for three hours and finished the work for His people.
He completely finished the work in righteousness. He made His
people the righteousness of God in Him, put away our sin. justified
us before God, made us completely accepted of God. All that was
left was Him to come and reveal it to us through the Spirit,
through the preaching of the Gospel and give us faith to believe
Him. But the self-righteous, self-sanctifying religious men
worked for six hours preparing for a day of rest so they could
pretend they're resting on that day. But on that same day, That
same day, while they're working, getting ready for that, that
same day, and in less time, the Lord Jesus, our King, accomplished
our redemption. And He is the Sabbath to all
who trust Him. You know what that means? That
means we don't have to work for anything with God. We don't have
to work for righteousness. Christ is our righteousness,
freely given to us. We don't have to go to the law
and feverishly work and try to prepare to have acceptance with
God. Christ is our rest. He's our
righteousness. We're not working, feverishly
working and working and working, trying to please God in holiness. Christ is our sanctification.
That's not, men preach that like it's work. It's not work. It's
of the Lord, and He becomes your sanctifier. He's everything to
His people so that we have rest in Him. He's our King, ruling,
reigning, moving everything in our lives, providing for us,
supporting us, doing everything for us, so that we rest and have
peace knowing He's already accomplished our salvation. He will accomplish
saving us from men, saving us in this world, leading us through
this world, and He'll bring us to Himself. And that's rest for
a believer. Let's rest. We're not trying
to earn God's favor. We have it. We have it. Everything we do now, we do it
because we want to do it. in honor of him. Behold, a king
shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment.
Christ is the king priest who has reigned in righteousness,
and he's now reigning from glory as our prophet, priest, and king.
He's our mediator. He's our intercessor. He's our
advocate with the Father by whom we keep receiving mercy, mercy,
mercy, and grace, grace, grace to help in every time of need.
He makes his people princes, and we're reigning on this earth.
And we're going to reign with Him forever, and that is sweet
rest in Christ our Sabbath. Run to Christ the King, and bow
down before Him, and beg Him to have mercy on you. Go to Him
in your heart, go to Him, and ask Him to have mercy on you.
Confess all your sin to Him. Or as much of it as you know,
just confess to Him that you are sin. Confess to Him that
everything you've ever done is sin. That's what true repentance
is. Nothing good in me. And do it even if you've never
believed on Him. And do it if you have believed
on Him. If you've never believed on Him, or if you have believed
on Him. Keep going to Him and begging mercy. And give thanks
to the Lord of Lords for His mercy endureth forever. That's
what the scripture said. The Lord is our judge. The Lord
is our lawgiver. The Lord is our King. He will
save us. That's where we find our rest.
That's why He's our Sabbath. He's our King. That's why they
go together. He's our Savior. They go together. These shall make war with the
Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for He's Lord of lords
and King of kings, and they that are with Him are called. That's
what I pray He does tonight. I pray He calls you. If He calls
you tonight, He's going to reveal to you that He called you from
eternity. And they're chosen. That's what
He's going to show you. I chose you. and they're faithful, and that's
what he makes us. That's what he makes us, faithful.
All right, God bless his word. Brother Greg. Our closing hymn will be number
337, teach me the.