Keep us ever looking to our Redeemer. Now John 18, Pilate had found no fault in
the Lord Jesus and he thought he had a way to release Him.
He thought he had a way to release Him. He said in verse 39, he
said, But you have a custom that I should release unto you one
at the Passover. Will you therefore that I release
unto you the king of the Jews? Then cried they all again, saying,
Not this man, but Barabbas. That's our title, Not this man,
but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber. Then
Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged him. And the soldiers
plaited a crown of thorns and put it on his head. And they
put on him a purple robe and said, Hail, King of the Jews. And they smote him with their
hands. Pilate therefore went forth again and saith unto them,
Behold, I bring him forth to you that you may know that I
find no fault in him. Then came Jesus forth wearing
the crown of thorns and the purple robe and saith unto them, Behold
the man. When the chief priests, therefore,
and officers saw him, they cried out, saying..." Notice who that
was. That was the chief priests and
the officers. "...they cried out, saying, Crucify
him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Take
ye him and crucify him, for I find no fault in him. The Jews answered
him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die. because
he made himself the son of God. When Pilate therefore heard that
saying, he was the more afraid, and went again into the judgment
hall and said unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him
no answer. God is very different than most
people imagine. Most people have a concept in
their mind of who they think God is, and He's very different,
very different. Some worship a God that does
not even resemble the God of the Bible. This God is sovereign. The God of Scripture is sovereign.
He's the sovereign God. That means everything And this
world is under His sovereign control. Everything that was
taking place here, they were only doing what God had determined
before to be done. Everything was in God's hand. It was all coming to pass according
to His decree. God's not answerable to man.
He does as He will. And any who would object to that,
God says in His Word, Nay, O man, who art thou that replies against
God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, wise thou made me thus? Hath not the potter
power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto
honor and another unto dishonor? God is sovereign. He's sovereign. And God's holy. He's holy and
just. God's holy and just. God knows
every sin of every heart. He knows the sin of our nature.
He knows the sin of our heart. He knows we became guilty in
Adam. And God will not clear one sin in anybody until we have
received the full wages of sin, which is death. God's holy and
God is just. That's just going to be certain
with our God. God never forgives until He has
punished sin fully. Either upon a sinner or upon
a substitute. One of the two. But here's good
news. Gracious. The God of the Bible
is gracious. He's gracious. When you put all
this together, that He's sovereign and He's holy and just and gracious,
this is good news. If you're a real, true, bona
fide sinner. God is love. That's what the
scripture said. God is love. God is love. And by His grace, God chose a
people before this world was made. and determined He would
save them, purposed how He would save them. And that's what God will do.
That's why God was standing there that day in human flesh. It's because God is gracious.
It's because God delights to show mercy. That's why He was
there. That's why our Lord Jesus bore
what He bore. He bore it so his people won't
have to bear it. Because he's gracious. Because
he's holy. Because he's just. Because he's
sovereign. And the sovereign, holy, just,
and gracious God is the one that's standing there. Enduring all
this cruel mocking and scourging and being handed off back and
forth between the Jews and the Romans, as if all these men had
power to judge him and could judge or write. He's the sovereign,
holy, just, gracious God. Standing right there in human
flesh. Now, in our text, we have an illustration of how holy God
is and how just and gracious He is. And we see it's in and
by His Son, Christ Jesus. The purpose of everything that's
taking place here is to show us the Gospel. This is the most important message
you'll ever hear. This is the Gospel. This is what
our Lord Jesus is. That's who he is, and that's
what he's accomplishing here, and he's the message because
of what he's doing right here. The Romans had this custom to
release a prisoner on the day of Passover. It was just a custom,
that's all it was. And Pilate asked them in verse
39, will you therefore that I release unto you the king of the Jews?
And then cried they all again saying, not this man, but Barabbas. Not this man, but give us the
robber. Now this is a strange scene. It's a very strange scene. You
got a ruthless Roman governor, just a politician, wanting to
stay in power, and he's trying to save the prince of life from
the hands of an angry, hellish, religious mob. This is a strange
scene. Strange saying you got you got
civil government civil rule and religious rule meeting here together
And this is the best both of them can produce except a man
be born of the Spirit of God Crucify the Lord It wouldn't
surprise me one bit It wouldn't surprise me one bit if if they
didn't come a day when we will not be able to broadcast messages
over the internet But that'll be of God's hand
if it comes to pass, and I'll tell you what it'll do. It'll
cause God's people to unite together. It may be, because he said that
two witnesses will be falling in the street before they're
revived again, and that may happen again. The Internet's a good
thing for people that don't have a place they can attend and assemble,
and I have good friends that are in that place. Internet is not a substitute
for people that can assemble with God's people. It's just
not. Just not. And that'll come to
pass. If something like that happens,
it'll be because of the civil government and the religious
government, who know not God. Because the goal is, these are
the two dragons that are one. The two that are one in Revelation.
They seem like they're against each other, but they're really
one. Now, first of all, let's see
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's innocent. He is totally
innocent. Pilate knew he was without fault.
Pilate knew that. He just told him he's without
fault. And Pilate's wife had even said
it. She called him a just man. The scribes and the Pharisees
knew he was sinless. They knew it. They crucified
him because of envy. Because of envy. He was everything
they were not. God the Father spoke from heaven
and he declared He is innocent. Matthew 3.17, Lord, a voice from
heaven saying, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased,
in whom I am satisfied, in whom my law is honored and my righteousness
upheld and my grace and mercy and sovereignty and longsuffering
and goodness is manifest. This is He who I am well pleased
with. There was no sin in His nature,
only perfect holiness. That's the only kind there is,
perfect holiness. The Lord Jesus is the only one
in this whole scene who knows no sin. And in fact, he's the
only man in the whole world who's ever known no sin since the fall
of Adam. This man, Jesus of Nazareth,
is God. He himself is God. He is the
Son of God in human flesh. The fullness of the Godhead in
a body standing right here. Innocent. Completely innocent. The spotless Lamb of God. That's
who He is. And then secondly, this man Barabbas
is a known criminal. Verse 40, Now Barabbas was a
robber. He was a robber. He's an example
of every elect child of God. He's an example of every chosen
child who God shall save. He's a guilty sinner. He's locked
up. There's no way he can free himself.
And as far as he knows, the only thing he has to look forward
to is death. That's every one of God's people
as we come into this world. Barabbas is guilty of robbery.
And every son of Adam is guilty of robbery, including those God
saves. Guilty of robbing God of His
glory. We robbed God of the glory and
honor due unto Him in the garden, in the very beginning, when we
disobeyed Him. And every one of us disobeyed
God. We were in that garden, in Adam,
and we disobeyed God. We robbed God of the honor due
unto Him, the obedience due unto Him. We robbed Him of it. We
rob God of the praise that He's worthy of. We rob God of His
glory in that we try to take the things of God, the law of
God, and the oracles, old and new, and try to come to God in our own
righteousness, by our own works, and we rob God of the glory due
to His Son. We've robbed our fellow man.
It's not just one table of the law we've broken against God,
we've broken the whole law against man. There ain't no one of them
we've ever kept. Never. Never. I like to read
sermons, and I was reading some sermons this week, You get in
this thought, you hear things, and I think, I need to preach something, something
else. And I started reading, and Spurgeon
was saying the exact same thing I'm saying. Exactly. Exactly. The very nature we receive from
Adam is sin. Whether these sins are acted
out or not, they're all in the heart. They're all in the nature.
And that's what defiles us. That's what Christ said. Out
of the heart proceed evil thoughts. That's where they are. That's
the den of all our defilement. It's in our nature. We can't
eradicate that. We can't improve that. We never
will be. Never will be able to. It's got
to go back to the dust. Out of the heart Precede evil
thoughts and murders and adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness,
blasphemies. These are the things which defile
a man. Things we do outwardly. It's
not where our defilement is. It's what we've done in our heart. Like Barabbas was locked in that
jail cell, we could do nothing to change our state. That's the
state we're in. We could do nothing to change
our state whatsoever. But Barabbas, Bar, Abba, you
know Bar means son and Abba means father, son of the father. And every one of those God chose
before the foundation of the world are children of our everlasting
Father. Even when we didn't know Him.
Even when all we were were enmity against Him. Sons of our everlasting
Father. Children of our everlasting Father.
We come forth in this world no less guilty than any other sinner. In no less bondage than any other
sinner. Born in a pit where there is
no water. Don't you know those pits where
they used as prisons, and even probably where Barabbas was,
was just a horrible condition. There was no bathroom. It was
standing in water. It was usually open, and if it
rained, it filled up with water. It stunk. It was full of disease. It was awful. It was a pit, and
they just threw them in there. That's where we were. That's
what Scripture says. That's where we were. And knowing that, when
God pulls you out of the pit, we don't turn around and look
at people in the pit and say, well, why don't you just get out of
that pit? We know what it is to be in that pit. But we come into this world,
criminals, deserving punishment, and God will not spare the guilty.
God will not spare the guilty. Now, here's an excellent picture
of substitution, verse 39. And substitution is, it is our
gospel. Substitution is all the hope
of the believer. Substitution. Verse 39, He said,
Were you therefore that I were listening to you, the king of
the Jews? Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man but
Barabbas. And after they scourged him and
mocked him, When he came forth, it says, the chief priest, therefore,
and officers saw him and they cried out saying, crucify him,
crucify him. And they stirred up the people
and later on a whole multitude is going to cry, crucify him,
crucify him. And here's what's remarkable
about this, that mob that's crying crucify him, crucify him, five
days before we're laying palm branches before his feet and
crying, Hosanna, save us, Lord. What changed? What happened? He wouldn't meet them on their
terms. He wouldn't put the least work
of salvation in their hands. He would not justify them by
their works. He wouldn't let them make him
a king. He declared them sinners in need of God to save them. Now, I want you to picture Barabbas.
He's out there somewhere in a cell, a jail cell. I heard this in the late 80s,
I think. And it so blessed my heart. If
I could preach it just like I heard it, I would. But that's not what
matters. It's God bless us to hear it
in our heart. But you picture Barabbas, he's
in that jail cell and he can't see what's going on. All he hears
is this mob of people crying, Barabbas, Barabbas, Barabbas. Don't you reckon he got up and
walked over and stuck his ear to those bars and tried to peer
around the corner and he won't hear what comes next? And they scourged our Lord and
mocked Him and did all those things to Him and brought Him
forth. And Pilate says, here is the
King of the Jews. And they began to cry, crucify
Him, crucify Him, crucify Him. And that is how Barabbas heard.
Barabbas, Barabbas, Barabbas, crucify Him, crucify Him, crucify
Him. Oh, how Barabbas' heart must
have sank. How he must have just saw things
are absolutely, totally hopeless for me. I'm guilty and they're
about to kill me. There's no way I can be saved. When God makes his child hear
the law, He makes it reach to our new heart when the commandment
comes. It's far more powerful than what
a natural man like Barabbas would have encountered that day. God makes us hear the law and
makes us really know that we are only sin. Remember what he
said in Noah's day when he said he was going to destroy the earth?
He saw the wickedness of man and it was great, and that every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And we began to cry to God for
mercy. When he sends that commandment,
when he sends that commandment, He shows you something of what
the Lord Jesus Christ has done. He shows you something of what
God our Father has done and what His Son has done, and we begin
to cry out just like David. You begin to cry, have mercy
upon me, O God, according to Thy loving kindness. According
to the multitude of Thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. It wasn't what he was saying
when he heard that parable of the rich man who stole the poor
man's land. He wanted nothing but justice.
But when he found out he's the sinner, he's crying out, Lord,
please have mercy on me. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. He's
not worried about other people's sin. Mine. For I acknowledge
my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against thee,
and thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight,
that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear
when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity. In sin did my mother conceive
me. I was nothing but sin in my mother's womb. Behold, thou
desirest truth in the inward parts, in the new man, in the
heart, and in the hidden part. Thou
shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop and I shall
be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter
than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness
that the bones which shall be broken may rejoice. Hide thy
face from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O
God, and renew a right spirit within me. That's where the Lord
brings you. You've heard the law. Call your
name. You're the guilty one. You've
heard the justice of God cry out, crucify Him, crucify Him,
crucify Him. God's brought you to cry out
and beg Him, beg Him for mercy. Justify God and declare you don't
deserve one thing from God. You beg God that He would hide
His face from your sins and blot out all your iniquities. Now
you pitch Barabbas. He hears the jailer coming, probably
hears the keys rattling. And that jailer unlocks that
cell door and opens it up and he says, Barabbas, you're free to go. The Lord Jesus
Christ is taking your place. That's the gospel. That's what
God makes His people see. God provided his only begotten
son to take the place of his people. Would you and me give
our only son for people that absolutely hated us? If you're
going to keep the law of God, that's the love it takes. That's
the righteousness God is. The perfect love God is. He gave
His only begotten Son, not that we love God, but that He loved
us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sin. And
our Lord Jesus Christ voluntarily, purely voluntarily, willingly
agreed to do so because the Father and the Son are one. That's that
perfect righteousness. That's that perfect love the
law declares to us. That's how it shuts our mouth.
We see we've not even come remotely close to that. Would you lay down your life
and endure what our Lord Jesus endured for people who hated
you and wanted nothing to do with you? That's what it takes to be the
righteousness of God. That's the love of the law. That's
what Christ did. That's who Christ is. And it was a perfect lawful substitution
because sovereign God did what only sovereign God can do. He hath made Him sin for us,
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. He stood there. The word was,
Behold the man. There He is. What about you? If you're chosen of God, there
you stood. Just like you were in Adam. But He is the man. He
is the one man God has looked to. The one man God has ever
looked to, to save His people, to be the righteousness and holiness
of His people. Behold the man! Don't be like these religious
rulers who said, not that man, but Barabbas. Don't choose yourself. In your
works, in your will, you the robber over that man. And now, because Christ has redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, the
perfect love of God is manifest right there in His obedience,
that righteousness His people must have. And this is the righteousness
that God imputes to everyone that believes on His Son. To everyone that believes on His
Son, God, Holy God, who knows all, says, that's what you have
done. Never deviated from perfect love,
perfect righteousness. Not in your mother's womb you
were perfect. When you came out, you were perfect. When you walked this earth, you
were perfect. You laid down your life for God and His people. You did everything for God and
His people. You are the perfect righteous
one. All your sins have been put away. You've been justified.
Your sins have been blotted out of God's record books. How can
all that be? Because we were in the Lord Jesus
Christ, the substitute. Brethren, God's child. never
goes weary of hearing how God is perfectly just to show us
mercy and set us free. God's child never grows old of
hearing how we're given eternal life freely by God's grace in
perfect harmony with his justice. This is how we were saved. This
is how we are made righteous. This is how we are made holy.
This is how we are accepted of God. This is the Word that rebuked
us in the first hour and chastened us sore. And it is the Word that
continues to rebuke and chasten. This is the Word that strengthens
the weak. This is the Word that humbles
the proud. This is the good news God's children
want to hear. And here's the amazing thing
about this. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the one who God uses to send
this good news to us. He said, I will give thee for
a covenant of the people that thou mayest say to the prisoners,
go forth. To them that are in darkness,
show thyself. How was it that the commandment
came to you? Christ came to you. How was it
that you had your mouth shut in guilt and cried out, Lord
have mercy on me the sinner against thee and thee only have I sinned.
Christ came to you. How is it you heard this good
news that you are free to go? Christ took your place because
Christ came to you. And he said to you, prisoner,
go forth. I've roped you in my perfect
righteousness. You're mine. You're mine. And you know when he did that,
the first step you took out of that jail cell, you sinned. First step. And he said, I delight
in mercy. You're mine. You're mine. There is therefore now no condemnation
of them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. For the law of the spirit of
life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and
death. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It's God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died. Yea, rather, that's risen again,
who's even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us. That's the good news. The good
news that he makes real in the heart is, I chose you freely
by my grace. I redeemed you from the curse
freely by my grace. I sent the gospel and regenerated
you and gave you life freely by my grace. I'm keeping you
now, sparing you now, showing you constant, continual mercy
now, because my grace is free. That's how Christ makes us willing
in a day of his power from the first hour to the last hour. Father, we thank you for this
word. We pray that you'd bless us and keep this word fresh in
our heart, keep it new in our heart, keep our Lord Jesus to
be preeminent. Lord, how we do thank you for
substitution. What amazing love, what amazing
grace that you would send your only begotten son for sinners
like us. Lord, today, as your word goes
forth this first day of the new year, we pray, Lord, you would
cause every one of your ministers to exalt Christ high as you enable
them to do it and humble sinners in the dust as low as you enable
them to do it. And make your people rejoice
that we're seated there at your right hand, perfect and complete
in you. And keep us, Lord, zealous of
honoring you in every good work. And Lord, when you're chasing
us, please, we ask you, remember our Lord Jesus. We deserve far, far worse. But
Lord, keep us partaking of his holiness. Keep us running this
race, looking to him alone. And Lord, we ask you today as
the word goes forth, you bless it to the hearts of each one
here. We thank you for this year past and Lord, we pray you bless
us in the year ahead. Lord, you've made Christ and
him crucified, our message in 2022. Make him our hope and our
gospel and our salvation in 2023. Thank you, Lord, for free grace.
Thank you that you're holy and just. Thank you, Lord, that you're
sovereign. Thank you for Christ. In his
name we ask it. Amen.