All right, brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to John 18. John 18. Verse 28 says, And then led they
Jesus from Caiaphas unto the Hall of Judgment. This is the
Roman Gentile Hall of Judgment. They were taking him to Pilate,
to the governor of Rome, and it was early. And you remember,
I'll just give you some background, and John doesn't include any
of this in his account, but they had the Lord there all night,
and they brought him before the Sanhedrin. They had convened
quickly, and they brought him there, and they were condemning
him And that's whenever Caiaphas said, I adjure thee by the living
God, thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God.
Just imagine that, a man saying that to God in human flesh. I adjure thee by the living God.
He was the living God. He is the living God. And the
Lord said, you'll see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand
of power coming in the clouds of heaven. And they said He spoke
blasphemy. He spoke blasphemy. They said,
we don't need any more witnesses, he's guilty of death. They spit
in his face, they buffeted him, smote him with the palms of their
hands. They said, prophesy unto us thou Christ, who is he that
smote thee? And then the morning came and
all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against
the Lord to put him to death. And they bound him and they led
him away and delivered him to Pontius Pilate, the governor.
So here we are now, John 18, 28, they led him to this hall
of judgment and it was early. And they themselves went not
into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled, but that
they might eat the Passover. Pilate then went out unto them
and said, what accusation bring ye against this man? They answered
and said unto him, if he were not a male factor, if he were
not evil, not guilty, we would not have delivered him up unto
thee. Then said Pilate unto them, take ye him and judge him according
to your law. The Jews therefore said unto
him, it's not lawful for us to put any man to death, that the
saying of Jesus might be fulfilled which he spake, signifying what
death he should die. Now, it was night when they apprehended
the Lord, and they convened the Sanhedrin hurriedly, came together,
and had this mock religious trial, and they questioned him all night
long. All night they questioned the Lord. And there was many
that could have borne witness that He was innocent. They could
have called many witnesses to bear witness that He was innocent
and of all His good works and the miracles that He wrought.
But it said they sought false witness against Him. They wanted
to put Him to death. They wanted to put Him to death.
And now it's early in the morning and they bring Him here to Pilate.
They have to get They have to have the sentence of death passed
by Pilate in order for them to legally execute him. They've
already condemned him in the religious court. Now they want
Pilate to sentence him to death so it can be legal in a civil
court. Now they've been up all night.
They've probably been up all day the day before, and they've
been up all night. It's early in the morning. You know it would
be wonderful if men had as much zeal to promote the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ as men do to promote scandalous things
and things that don't profit. Pink said this, he said the disciples
could not watch with him one hour. The disciples could not
watch with him one hour. His enemies had acted against
him all through that night. All through that night. So here's
the Lord. He's enduring these accusations.
He's laying down His life in place of the sinful people. They're
sinners condemning the righteous. He's the righteous laying down
His life for sinners. That's what He's doing. For chosen
sinners who are by nature no different than these Pharisees.
Absolutely no different than these Pharisees. From the garden,
throughout the law, in the gospel, that He preached while He walked
this earth. The Lord declared He is the salvation of His people.
He's the righteousness we must have all through the scriptures. Now, the first thing I want us
to see is what we have to be saved from. Here's what we have
to be saved from. It says, verse 28, They led Him
to the hall of judgment, and it was early, and they themselves
went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled.
but that they might eat the Passover. See, this judgment hall was the
Gentile judgment hall. This was a Gentile court. And
if they went in there and touched their foot on that Gentile floor,
they'd be defiled. And so they didn't go. They didn't
go in there. They wanted to partake of the Passover, and if they
were defiled, they couldn't take of the Passover. They thought
the outward works of the law was their salvation. They thought
the outward works of the law was their salvation. They thought
that not touching an outward thing was their cleanness. They
thought that's what made them clean, not touching this outward
hall, this hall. They thought that act of partaking
of the Passover lamb was their righteousness. They came to this
Gentile governor because they need something from him. He got
something they need. They need him to pass the sentence
of death on the Lord Jesus. They need something from him.
But they wouldn't go into the judgment hall where he was. They're
standing, they're saying, we need something from you, but
do it over there and don't come near us because you might defile
us. We're older than you are. Do it over there, but don't come
near us. That's what they're saying. The sin nature that every
one of us got from our father Adam is enmity against God and
pride. And that's what we see here.
Pride and enmity was the root cause of all of this. They wouldn't
come into the judgment hall. So Pilate then, he went out to
them. And he said, what accusation bring you against this man? And
they answered and said unto him, if he were not a male factor,
we would not have delivered him up unto thee. They were offended
that he asked them this. Asked him, what accusation do
you bring? I said, if he wasn't guilty,
we wouldn't have brought him to you. Don't you know who we are? We're the elders. We're the Sanhedrin. We're the high priest. Don't
you know who we are? These men were blind to the truth
that it's not what you touch. And it's not what goes into the
body that defiles, it's the heart. We're born defiled. We're conceived
in sin. We come from our mother's womb
defiled. It's not what you put in your
mouth that defiles you. It's what's already in a man. Now, if God had revealed Christ
in them, if he had revealed Christ in them and gave them a new heart
and made them truly holy, then they would have used judgment
They would have judged themselves sinners. They would have taken
sides with God against their own self and saw they were sinners
and that they needed Christ. That's what they would have seen.
They would have beheld their own need of mercy. And they would
have fallen down at Christ's feet and begged Him for mercy.
They would have been merciful to others. They would have been
merciful to come there to Pilate and preach Christ to him rather
than bring Christ there and try to get Pilate to join them in
condemning him. They would have had faith and love in their heart
and they would have believed the Lord and they would have
tried to be pitiful and compassionate to Pilate, this Gentile. The
Pharisees knew Christ healed lepers. They had heard about
this. They knew that he healed that lame man at the Pool of
Bethesda. They had heard about his miracles.
They had seen some of his miracles. He sent that leper to the high
priest just so he could show him he healed him. Never man
been healed of leprosy. They knew this. And Christ had
declared to them in person that he is the righteousness sinners
must have or we can't be accepted of God. They heard him declare
this. They heard him declare that except you eat my flesh,
except you believe on me, you have no life in you. But they
wouldn't confess they were sinners. They wouldn't confess there was
absolutely nothing they could do and believe on Christ. Religion and irreligion was only
something outward to them. Just something outward to them.
These men, to these men, salvation had to do with the body, not
the soul, not the heart. As far as wicked hands go, as
far as the wicked hands that put Christ on the cross, you
know the cross of Christ is the greatest act of self-righteousness
there was. As far as the men that put him
there goes and why they wanted him put there. You think about
it, rejecting God's own righteousness that he provided for his people.
That's who he is. That's who he is. They cried,
we have a law. They said, away with him. Crucify
him. We'll take Barabbas. We'll take
the robber, but crucify him. Now, brethren, before we pat
ourselves on the back and say, well, Lord, I thank you. I'm
not like these Pharisees are. We have to remember we're just
like these Pharisees by nature. We're exactly like these Pharisees
by nature. You know, when Peter said, when
the Lord said, Peter, you're going to deny me. And Peter said,
these others might, but I won't. That's the same coming from the
same sinful, fleshly heart to make that boast as what was in
these Pharisees right here. It was saying, I won't do that.
I won't do that. They will. I won't do that. What was the difference in Peter
and these Pharisees? What's the difference? We saw
there was no difference in Peter's sin and Judas. What was the difference
in Peter and these Pharisees? The grace of God. The grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ. God chose him and put him in
Christ. Christ was laying down his life for him. And the difference
was the Lord Jesus told Peter, I prayed for you that your faith
failed not. That was the difference. He alone
is our salvation. He alone is our acceptance with
God. Now secondly, I want you to behold
Christ, our righteousness. I want you to behold Christ,
our true Passover. That verse there in verse 28,
it says, They themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest
they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover.
The Pharisees thought the Lord Jesus was destroying their law.
They thought the Lord Jesus was destroying the law and taking
away everything they had their hope in. But he wasn't destroying
the law, he was fulfilling the law. Everything that was written
in the law, the temple, the ceremonies, everything was given to declare
us guilty, show us our need of Christ, and to show Christ is
the only one who can save his people from our sin. That was
the whole purpose. He was fulfilling the law for
his people. And true righteousness and true
holiness, that's what he was doing. The only sinless man ever
walked this earth, the only fit man that could lay down his life
and take the place of his people. The only one who's eternal God
in human flesh that could satisfy God's justice and save His people
from our sins. They're desiring to keep the
ceremonial Passover while they're condemning Christ Jesus who is
the true Passover. He's the true Passover. Christ
is the true Lamb. He's the Lamb that that ceremonial
Passover typified. He is the Lamb etymified. Christ
being the Passover of His people is the same as saying He is the
righteousness of His people. Because do you remember why it
was that God said, I will pass over you? Remember why He told
the children of Israel, I will pass over you? He said, when
I see the blood. When I see the blood. God smote
all the first born in Egypt. All of them. Jew and Gentile. All of them. All sinners have
to die. All sinners have to be smitten
before the law of God because we've earned it. Adam sinned
and plunged us into death and we have to be crucified, every
one of us. And the Lord was slaying every
firstborn in Egypt, including those in the houses of Israel.
But the difference is God provided a lamb for those in the houses
of Israel. that died in their place, that
died in their room instead. And the head of the house slew
that lamb, and the head of the house took the blood and applied
it to the doorpost. And God said, when I see the
blood, He said, the blood shall be to you for a token upon the
houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will
pass over you. And the plague shall not be upon
you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt. God provided
His own Son, the Lamb. He provided His own Son, Christ
Jesus, for all His elect to lay down His life in place of His
people. He's the head of the house who laid down His life
for all the members of the house. He didn't come and slay another
lamb. He's the head of the house who
is the lamb who laid down His own life. And He by His Spirit
comes and applies the blood to the doorpost of our heart and
gives us faith to believe on Him. And God in mercy says, when
I see His blood, when I see His blood, I'll pass over you. I'll
pass over you. Ephesians 1.7 says, In Christ
we have redemption through His blood. Through His blood, through
Him laying down His life, through His blood, we have the forgiveness
of sins according to the riches of His grace. Colossians 1.20
said, He made peace through the blood of His cross. Reconciling all things unto Himself. Reconciling all His people to
Himself. Peter said, as much as you know,
you were not redeemed with corruptible things. As silver and gold received
from your vain tradition of your fathers, you were redeemed with
the precious blood of Christ. The blood. That's why God said,
I've blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions and as a cloud
thy sins. Return to me, I've redeemed thee.
The blood blotted out the sins of his people. That's why God
said, when I see the blood I'll pass over you. Somebody died,
an innocent one died in place of the guilty. That's what happened
on Calvary's cross. Now you see why it was such a,
they were the ones committing blasphemy who were saying, I
adjure thee by the living God, tell us if you're the son of
God. The Pharisees were condemning
the true Passover lamb for the ceremony that typified him. They
were saying, we want the law, the law he gave. He's the righteousness
of God. He's the righteousness of his
people, and he gave the law. And they said, we'll take the
law, and we'll try to come to you by our deeds to this law,
but we don't want you. That's depravity, isn't it? That's blindness, isn't it? Wasn't
we doing the same thing? Aren't we doing the same thing?
Aren't we still guilty of the same thing very often? Looking
to ourselves. It's Christ in the heart that
makes Jew and Gentile one. They wouldn't come near this
Gentile pilot. They considered him a dog. That
was the enmity between them and the Jews. And you know what God
was declaring by giving that law and separating them from
the Gentiles? He was declaring He's the sanctifier.
He's the one that does the sanctifying. He's the one that separates His
people. He's the one that makes His elect people, Jew and Gentile,
one. And He does it in one body, by
one Spirit, in the Lord Jesus Christ. He takes away everything
we could use to exalt ourselves over one another and shows us
there's no difference in any of us. But the grace of God,
it's Christ alone that made the difference. And He shows you
that and you don't have anything anymore to exalt yourself over
another with. That's what Ephesians 2 tells
us. He's our peace. He made both one. His elect Jew
and His elect Gentile. He broke down that middle wall
of partition between us. You see this middle wall of partition.
They wouldn't go in that Gentile judgment hall. This one is a
Gentile. He's going to defile us if we
go in there. Remember what the Lord told Peter when he sent
him to the Gentile's house? He said, what I've cleansed,
what I've made holy, don't you call it common. It takes Christ laying down His
life. He abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments
contained in ordinances, to make in Himself of two one new man,
so make in peace. And that He might reconcile both
unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.
And then He came and preached peace to us, and was born of
that one Spirit, so that now in that new man that He's created,
where He abides, there's neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither
bond nor free, there's neither male nor female, there's nothing
we can use to exalt ourselves over one another, but Christ
is all and in all. That's the difference between
what makes you brokenhearted and contrite and merciful and
what made the Pharisees want to condemn a righteous man. You know your brethren in Christ
are righteous, just like he's made you righteous. And you know
you're the sinner saved by his constant, continual mercy, and
you know that's how your brethren are saved. Oh, let's pray God give us grace
to see our need of Christ alone and our need to see Him and worship
Him in the new heart to know we're complete in Him. Bodily
exercise prophets a little. We come to a church house, but
Christ is our temple. We follow our Lord in baptism,
but it's Christ's death, burial, and resurrection that is our
salvation. It's not our baptism. We observe the Lord's table,
but it's the broken body and shed blood of our Lord Jesus
Christ that redeemed us. That's what we're remembering.
We're remembering Him. We preach and we pray and we
sing, but it's Christ Jesus, our salvation, that we preach,
pray, and sing. God's people do good works, and
we strive against sin, but Christ is our sanctifier, and He's our
sanctification, and He makes that abundantly clear in our
heart. He's our righteousness, and it's His love for us that's
our motivation, not law. By the very same grace that's
given us this understanding, this new heart, and given us
this understanding to see that that we need Christ. By the same
grace, we don't want to sin. We don't want to sin. We strive
against sin, but when we do sin, you know what we do? We don't
run to a ceremonial fountain. We don't run to an earthly priest.
We don't clean up the outside of the cup and think that's made
us accepted of God. We run to Christ. We flee to
Christ, that fountain open for sin and uncleanness. We come
to Him. We plunge into Him. And Christ
is our advocate. He's our mercy seat. He's the
one that presents us to God. He's the one that's already redeemed
His people so that He's faithful to continue to save us and continue
to keep us and to wash our feet and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
And by the Spirit cleansing our conscience with the blood of
Christ, we worship Him in spirit. We worship Him in heart, with
a new heart. We believe on Christ alone. We
rejoice in Christ alone. It's through faith in Christ
in the new heart that God has imputed righteousness to us,
declaring to us, accounting to us that we have fulfilled the
law of God in perfection when Christ fulfilled it for us and
put away all our sin. You don't get better than that. God's counted us to have fulfilled
the law in perfection. And it's His love in doing that
for us that constrains us to live for Him. And we do. We try to live for Him. We want to love one another freely.
We want to forgive as God's forgiven us. We can become puffed up. We can become puffed up. But
by His mercies, you know what He keeps showing us? He keeps
showing us we're saved by His mercies. He keeps showing us
what we are and He turns us again to Christ crucified so that we
know we don't deserve the least of His mercies. We don't deserve
anything from Him. And He won't let us go. He won't
let us go on thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to
think. We know we're saved by His mercy alone. That's the only
way we're brought down to be merciful to one another. The
only way. And that's why we remind one
another when we see one another has fallen, we remind one another
what Christ has done for us. We exhort one another to go to
Christ for grace to help in time of need. That's not what the Pharisees
were doing. They were saying, we're going to condemn the righteous.
And we need something from you, but you stand over there and
don't come near us. We put no confidence in this
flesh. We confess that in our flesh dwells no good thing. Here's
what we confess. Listen to this now. Think about
this. Paul said, when I would do good,
evil is present with me. When I would do good, evil is
present with me. Now, this is so, you know this
is so, we have a lot of hypocrisy, a lot of it. There's not a one
of us that confesses all that we do. We put our best foot forward. We certainly don't confess the
things we think, the sins we think, and we ought not to. We
ought not to. But by God's grace, by the revelation
of Christ, He keeps you humble in your heart and He keeps you
confessing to one another that we are sinners. We are sinners. God's people aren't trying to
act like we're righteous in ourselves. We're not trying to act like
we're not sinners. I know what you are because I
know what I am and you know what I am because you know what you
are. We confess Christ as our only righteousness. And from
our new heart, we're worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ. We worship
the Lord Jesus Christ. We want to serve Him and honor
Him. It pains us to our heart when anybody can blame us for
anything, because we didn't want that to be the case. But we do worship Him in singleness
of heart. And God looks on the heart He's
created. Do you know what a good thing
that is for you, believer? You see, if God would have looked
at the outward, you don't want God to just look at the outward.
Because if He just looked at the outward in these Pharisees,
they didn't even do what was outward without sin. And we don't
either. But the heart that he looks on
is not the heart that's in you by nature. It's the heart that
he's put in you. It's the spirit he's put in you.
It's that new spirit that's created of God in which is no God. In which you really and truly
believe God and you really and truly worship God. And he knows
the motive he's put in the heart. He keeps that motive there. And
it's a good motive because he put it there. It's a motive to
honor him and to love him because you believe him and you're grateful
to him and you're thankful for what he's done for you. That's
the heart that's in his people. I'm not going to condemn you
and say that's not the heart in you. That's the heart that's
in his people if you're born of him. And I trust that so in
you that believe him. God doesn't look on the outward
appearance. He looks on the heart. And here's the good thing about
that. When you're where Peter is, where Peter was when he denied
him that very night, God's still going to make faith, keep faith
in your heart. He's going to still come to you
and save you. You remember when Eve sinned
in the garden, what happened? Nothing. Nothing. When Adam sins, when they saw
their nakedness, because he was dead, And long as you have your
head in heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's your righteousness,
though you sin, and here's the thing I don't think we realize,
it's not when you sin, we sin when we do good. We're sinning
right now. Sin's what we are in our old
man. That's how we need him. I know we think it is bad when
we sin outwardly, But what keeps you from saying stand over there
when somebody sins outwardly? It's because you know that you
have the same sin in your own heart. And you have it outwardly
too. But here's the good news. God
looks on the heart that He's made. And you know what He sees?
He's not even saving you because of your new heart He's put in
you. He's saving you because of Christ. Because of Christ,
he just keeps you knowing him in that new heart and knowing
he's all your hope and all your salvation. And we do endeavor
to keep ourselves unspotted from the world outwardly. And when
we are spotted, when you're spotted, you know what only thing keeps
your brethren from condemning you and condemning you and trying
to malign you? You know what the one thing that'll
keep them from doing that? They may do it. But you know
what'll bring them down from doing it if they ever do it?
God making us see that we have no reason to condemn another.
We are sinners, vile sinners. We don't see how bad our sin
is. That's the problem. He gonna keep us knowing we're
vile sinners. When he does that and he shows you, he's still
been merciful to you in spite of you. That's how he breaks
our heart. That's how he keeps our heart
humble. That's how he keeps us at his feet and keeps us from
acting like we're something we're not. And that's what, that's what,
that's what, how many times he done this to you? How many times
have you been the one condemning somebody else and the Lord showed
you you're guilty of the very same thing you're condemning
him of? And just break your heart before it's over with. And you
end up thinking you need more mercy than the one you's condemning.
That's what He does. That's what He does. He's not
going to let us look to ourselves. He's not going to let us put
confidence in anything we do. And He's going to keep us looking
only to Christ. And He's going to keep us pointing each other
to Christ by that very same means that He keeps us looking to Christ. We want to be found blameless
when He comes. Because He's done this work in
your heart and He's shown you the truth of it, you know this. Just like I know this, there's
only one way we're going to be found blameless in that day.
That's to be found in Christ. That's the only way. Paul said,
I press toward the mark. I'm pressing for the prize. That's
what he said. He told us what the prize is.
That I might win Christ and be found in Him, not having mine
own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through
the faith of Christ, by His fidelity, by His faithfulness, by His obedience,
that righteousness which is of God, that He's provided by faith. That's what I want to be found
in, robed in Him alone. See, that's our heart need. That's the need of our heart,
to have a new heart. in which we really worship God
in spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in our flesh. That's what a true Jew does.
That's what the circumcision do. I pray God to help us, help
us to do so. Let's go to him. Our Lord, we
thank you for this day. We thank you for your mercy.
Thank you, Lord, that you have not left us to ourselves. Thank
you for continually showing us that we're Pharisees in need
of mercy. So sinful, so wretched. Lord, keep us following after
you because of what great things you've done for us in Christ.
Don't let us look to ourselves. Don't let us put any confidence in ourselves.
Keep us trusting Christ only. Lord, we thank you for this place.
We thank you for all that you've done in bringing us here. And
we thank you that you've given us a place where we can hear
the gospel preached. Lord, don't let us ever think
this is our righteousness. Don't let us think that anything
we do here is what's making us accepted of God. Don't let us
take this form and then go out and just sin and not think of
you and not see you and know you. Keep us humble. Keep us seeing our need constantly. And Lord, if there's anybody
that doesn't know you, that is yours, we ask you to please reveal
yourself in them. We ask you to bless this word,
make them know you. Don't let us take for granted
we know you. Whether it's the one speaking or whether it's
anybody else here, Lord, keep us knowing you're our only hope. And Lord, if there's any that
are fallen and they think that they're not yours because of
their sin, or any that thinks others are not theirs because
of their sin, let, Lord, turn us at all to Christ. Keep us
looking to him only. This is how our flesh is mortified.
This is how you keep us treating ourselves like we're really dead
and hating what we are by nature. Lord, please, we ask you to keep
doing it. Lord, deliver us from the trial. We can't bear up under
it. We don't have any sufficiency
in ourselves. The only sufficiency we have
is you and your grace. Thank you, Lord, that you've
giving us hearts to believe you. Thank you, Lord, that you count
us righteous by the obedience of your dear son. Lord, we thank
you that we have an advocate with you, a high priest, and
we can even come to you now just like we're doing. What a mercy that you've given
us to enter into your holy place. Help us now, Lord, to worship
You. Truly, truly, truly worship You. Make us more tender. Make us more compassionate. We confess our sin. We confess our need. We ask for Your mercy. We don't
come to You based on any merit whatsoever. We just ask Your
mercy, Lord. Purge our conscience and keep
us looking to Christ. It's in His precious name we
ask it. Amen.