We call the Good News, or we
call the Gospel the Good News. And it is the Good News. That
is what the Gospel is, the Good News. It's the Good News of how
notably guilty sinners go free because an innocent substitute
died in their place. That's good news. Christ died
in the place of the guilty and therefore the guilty must be
set free. That's the good news. When's
that going to be good news? I remember whenever I was younger
I know what it's... I can enter into what it is like
to think of these things, to hear these things that we declare
and say, that's just... I can't believe that. That's
just unbelievable to me. I can understand that because
there's times when I feel that way. There's times when it just...
Laurel, just take his hand off for a moment. And you think,
there's a man seated in glory. There's a man in glorified, my
glorified human nature, seated in glory in heaven. And he came,
and he lived, and he died, and he rose again. And just for a
moment, you begin to think, is this real? And then that leaves
with a piece of, this is real. But you can understand, a believer
can understand how it is that someone who's never experienced
this grace would say, I just can't believe all that. I just
can't even, it just seems like a tale, a fairy tale to me. And I can remember that when
I was a teenager, I could remember that the scriptures just, I'd
pick up the scriptures and read the scriptures. My parents, my
mom continually kept She would print out bulletins, or she would
print out tracks, or she would have some book always laying
around visible for me. If I sat down somewhere within
arm's reach, she would have something available for me. I always want
to sit down and, you know, you're bored, you want to pick up something
to read. She'd always have something there to where I had to pick,
if there was something I reached out to pick up, it was going
to be the gospel there, and I could pick it up and read it. And I
would pick up those things and read it and try to read it. And I can remember thinking,
I don't in my heart have an interest in these things. I can remember
going to the church service on Sunday morning, and I can remember
thinking before I went, I don't want to do this. I can remember
thinking, I don't want to get dressed up. That made me not
want to do it, though. I thought it was. But now most
people come to church services dressed like they're going to
playground, but they still don't want to come. That wasn't what
didn't make me want to go. I'd go, and I'd sit down, and
I'd hear the simple preaching of the gospel. And I thought,
that's just too mundane. That's just the same old thing
over and over each week. But that wasn't what made me
not want to go. I had friends that had a lot
livelier, appealing things that appealed to me, and I sometimes
went with them. And the appealing things I liked,
that which fed my flesh, I loved. But if they opened this book
and started talking about it, then that same old nagging feeling
of, I don't want to have anything to do with this, was always there. What is it that makes this good
news? What is it that makes a sinner
delight to come and hear the gospel preached? What is it that
makes us want to go home and take the Word and study it in
time when We could be doing thousands of other things that appeal to
the flesh and yet go home and have an earnest desire to sit
down in a quiet place and open God's Word and read it and really
look at these Scriptures, Scripture to Scripture. And what gives
us a heart to pick up some help that will help us to understand
the Scriptures and want to study those things and look into those
things and actually have a desire to do it? What is it that causes
that? When does the gospel become good
news? If we ever find ourself on God's death row. If the Spirit of God himself
opens the prison door of our heart and says, you're free to
go. Jesus Christ has died in your
place. If that ever happens, I can assure
you, we won't have questions about why the gospel is such
good news. The truth of the sin-cleansing,
justifying, accomplished, righteous Redeemer will be the most glorious good
news we have ever heard, and we'll want to hear We'll want
to hear Him. I want to give you this message
this morning. I've titled it just simply, Substitution. And I have three simple points.
The first one is a notable sinner. The second one is a just Savior. And the third one is substitution. If you can remember those three
things, a notable sinner, a just Savior. Thirdly, substitution. This is the gospel. This is the
good news that never gets old. You know, when we turn on the
television at night, we don't like hearing the same news, that
news that appeals to our flesh. We don't even like hearing that
same news over and over. You know when things get reported
on so long, at some point you get to the point where you're
like, hey, reporting on that again, I don't even want to hear
it. Give me something new. Give me some new news. Give me another shade of blue.
I'm tired of that shade. Give me something else. But this
news right here will never get old when God's made it new. Never
get old. Matthew 27, 15. Now at that feast,
the governor was wont to release into the people a prisoner whom
they would. This was the day of the Passover
and that Roman governor, they had a tradition. They would release
a guilty prisoner to the Jews. We know in times of re-election
or at the end of a president's term, sometimes he'll do something
like this. He'll pardon a prisoner or two
or something like that. Political, political move, or
maybe sometimes it's to justify all the... things that were done
under the table, trying to appease the conscience. I don't know,
but anyway. The Jews were delivered out of
the land of Egypt at this time when it was the Day of Atonement.
And so maybe they likened this to a prisoner obtaining his freedom. They likened it to that time.
Matthew 27, 16, and they had then a notable prisoner called
Barabbas. Now here's our first point, a
notable prisoner. A notable prisoner. Are you a
notable prisoner? That means Barabbas was known
by everybody. Now, there's not a person in
this world who is without sin. There's not a person in this
world who has not broken the law, just plainly speaking civil
law, the law of the land. Not a person here that hasn't
done it. More than that, there's not a
person that hasn't broken God's law. But isn't it something,
do you ever really think about this, that even amongst those
who have broken the law of the land, as many as have, all have,
but even amongst those, there are notable prisoners.
They're notable criminals. There are those that you can
hear their name and we just immediately associate their name with horrendous
crime. You just hear their name and
you note, yes, I know. I know them. I know what they
did. Well, that's what Barabbas was. He was known. If people
heard the name Barabbas, they knew. They knew sedition, rebellion,
murder. They knew him. They knew what
to associate with him. He was a notable prisoner. And he was in prison. That means
he had been caught, he had been convicted, he had been in prison. A notable prisoner. Now he was
bound there. He was unable to break the chains
that had him shackled there. He was unable to get loose from
the bars that had him held there. he was there and he couldn't
get out. Now there are some prisons, some
good prisons that we've built in this land. There are some
maximum security prisons where we send the worst of the worst
in the land and lock them up. But you know most every prison
that's ever been built has been able to be escaped from. With a prison that you and I
are born into is a prison that cannot be broken out of. We cannot, by our ingenuity,
break out of it. We cannot hide away in a laundry
basket somewhere and get snuck out of this prison. We can't
tunnel under. We can't tunnel out. We can't
launch ourselves over the walls. We can't get away from the searchlights. We can't get away from the guards
in the towers. We cannot We cannot bridge the
moat that goes around the prison. We can't get out of this prison.
This is a prison we can't get out of. So Barabbas, he's guilty. He's been condemned. He's been
put behind bars. Now, that's the sinner. That's what we are. Guilty of
rebelling against God. He was a rebel. He was a rebel. He acted out his heart's rebellion. This was what was in his heart.
But he acted out his heart's rebellion against authority. Against authority. Have you ever rebelled against
the authority? Say it's your father in your
house. Say it's your teacher at school.
Say it's a police officer. Say it's a governor or the president,
somebody who's in a position of authority. Have you ever rebelled
against them? Thought it in your heart, if
not acted it out. You ever wonder where that comes
from? Why is that? Why do you have that? Why is
that there in your heart? It's there because we're enmity
with God, against Him. God's the authority. We acted
out by being rebels against whoever's closest to us in authority. Authority. That one who represents God in
the land. Guilty of robbing God. Robbing
God. Guilty of robbing our fellow
man. The thing about rebellion and
the thing about robbery, our rebellion and our robbery is
not only do we do it against ourselves, not only is it in
our heart, but this is the thing is we lead others into it. We
lead others into that same rebellion. Well, I don't lead others into
rebellion. Whatever we do with each other that's turning somebody
else away from Christ and focusing their attention on something
that is absolute, thorough vanity, which is everything but our God,
everything but the riches of God and His glorious salvation. It's vanity. It's absolutely
vanity. And we lead people. We lead others. Not just our own self, but we
lead others in this rebellion. And it's murder. We rob God of
the worship that's due to him. When I sit here, and I sit and
I'm just gonna hear for, you know, all the weeks we have in
the, all the hours we have in the week. And we come in here,
we're gonna sit down and have two messages, one that's, you
know, they're each about, average about 40 minutes long, out of
all the hours we have in the week. And I can't even, in that
amount of time, just give my attention to listen. I'm robbing
God of attention that's due to Him. Not to mention all the other
hours that I rob Him. And that's just one example.
Rob God of the honor that's due to Him. Rob God of the by refusing
to bow to His Word and hear His Word and submit to His Word.
We're stealing from God. We steal from Him the glory that
belongs to Him. And we steal it from Him for
our own selves. Because we want it. We want it.
And we rob ourselves in doing so. We rob anybody else we can
get to go along with us in our thoughts. about the utter foolishness
that it is to hear God. We rob others and we rob our
children. We rob our children without even
realizing we rob our children. We rob our children because we
passed this prison, this death, this bondage onto them. We rob
them. And we rob them of this privilege
God has given. to hear Him, to hear Him, and
we murder. We might not have committed the
actual act, but God says envy, hatred, anger, wrath, malice
in the eyes of God are all equal to murder. They're all equal
to murder. We murder. Out of the heart proceeds
evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses,
and blasphemies. Now, We can break out of some
prisons, like I said, prisons in this earth. Men can break
out of those prisons. This is a prison that no sinner
can break out of. It's called the flesh. It's called
what we are if we're born into this world. Can't break the bars. Can't break free. A man will
say, well I have a, my will is free, I'm a free agent. I can,
I'm constantly doing whatever I want to. Don't tell me I can't
believe God when I get good and ready. Okay, do it then. Believe Him. Just believe Him. Believe Him. But we can't believe
the true and living God. We can't bring ourselves to say,
that's the true and living God. I believe Him. I trust Him. That's
God. God saves. I don't save. We can't
bring ourselves. Why? Because we're in bondage
to our nature. We're in prison to our nature.
And our nature is, I will not have this man reign over me.
I will not have God have the glory. I will not have anybody
but myself to glory in the salvation of my soul. I will be a co-worker
in this thing, or I won't be involved in it. That's our nature.
That's our nature. And we can't break free from
this prison. Are you a notable sinner? Are you a notable prisoner? Can the Ethiopian change his
skin? Can the leopard change his spots?
The Lord said, then can you who are accustomed to evil change?
Can't change. We're bound. This is what the
scripture says. Kept under the law. Kept under
the law. Under the curse. Kept there. Kept there. I read this week
just a very good, well-written article. It was obviously a scholarly
writer who wrote it. It was obviously something that
had been given very much thought, very much attention. It was well-written,
everything about it. And it was about why young people
are disconnecting with church. And this was one of the things
that they came up with that they were recommending that churches
need to tone down a little bit. Don't make people feel guilty. Don't make them feel guilty. Satan wrote that article. The
devil himself wrote that article. He might have used a man's hand
to do it, but he wrote that article. The worst thing in the world
for anybody is to not be guilty. Listen to this, no sinner ever
knows God, ever believes God, ever knows the love of God in
Christ, the justice of God satisfied, the joy of salvation until we
know this, I am the notable prisoner. When you hear my name, just associate
it with sinner. a notable, a notable prisoner,
a notable sinner. Those set free justly by God,
those that rejoice in the finished worship of Christ do so because
we've been made to see the horrible pit from which God saved us. And we delight to hear, it's
the amazing thing about this gospel that God's people delight
to hear about that horrible pit. When I see the depths of sin
that I am, I see the heights of grace that saved me from me.
Don't you? And I don't get tired of hearing
that. I read a story of a man who was
going through a prison and he was going to pardon somebody.
He was going to set somebody free. And he went through the prison
and he went from person to person, prisoner to prisoner. And he
said, tell me, do you deserve to be here? Are you where you
deserve to be? And every one of them began to
say why they were innocent. You know the old saying, there's
no guilty people in prison. And they all began to say why
they shouldn't be there, and how the charges were false, and
how they were falsely accused, and what was done wrong about
them. And he just passed on to the
next one, passed on to the next one. Same story, same story,
same story. And he comes to one man, and
he asks this man, and this man says, I'm exactly where I should
be justly. I did everything they charged
me with, and I ought to get worse. And he said, I'm setting that
one free. I'm setting that man free. I'm setting him free. We've got to
know something about the crime, the crime we are, the crime we've
committed, the crime of our heart, the crime of this prison that
we're in. Justly, we've got to know something
about it if we're going to know something about justice setting
us free, and grace by justice that set us free. Mercy. Are
you the notable sinner? Are you the notable prisoner?
That's the question. Am I the notable sinner? Am I
the sinner? The sinner? The notable sinner? At the top of the most wanted
list. Here's the second thing, a just
Savior. A just Savior. Look at verse
15. Now at the feast, the governor
was wont to release unto the people a prisoner whom they would.
And they had then a notable prisoner called Barabbas. Therefore, when
they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will
ye that I release unto you? Barabbas or Jesus, which is called
Christ? For he knew that for envy they
had delivered Christ. When he was set down on the judgment
seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to
do with that just man? For I have suffered many things
this day in a dream because of him. She sent to him and said,
This man, Jesus, is just. And Pilate here says he knew
that it was for envy that the Jews had delivered him. It wasn't
because of any crimes he had done. And Pilate said he knew
that. And his wife sends to him and says, This is a just man.
Jesus is the Christ. He's Jesus. He's God in human
flesh, likened to His brethren. He's Jesus, Savior, for He shall
save His people from His sin. And this one is the Christ, the
Messiah, the anointed of God, come into this earth to honor
the law, to satisfy justice, to set the captives free. Now,
He is the just man. Now we saw in Moravius what I
am and what you are. We see in Jesus Christ what no
other man is. He's the just man. He's the holy
man. Born of a virgin, the holy thing.
Not with the nature we're born with and conceived in. He's just.
He's holy. He is the one who God himself
bear record from heaven of his son and it said, this is my beloved
son in whom I'm well pleased, hear ye him. He's the just one. Now here I am and here we all
are over here on this side with all the notable prisoners. like
Barabbas. They were cell after cell after
cell and there they all were and there's where we are. That's
us. But here's this one who's nothing
like us. He's a just man. Just man. Holy man. A man who never said
a word wrong, a man who never thought a word wrong, a man who
never did any evil deed, a man who's absolutely thoroughly just. He is the Lamb without spot and
without blemish. This one, this one, his work,
everything he did has eternal merit. He's God in human flesh. And he came in human flesh because
a man sinned and a man had to bring in righteousness. A man
sinned and a man had to justify. A man sinned and a man had to
honor God. A man rebelled against God. A
man had to honor God. The first man was Adam. He's
the last one. He came to undo for his people
what Adam did for his people. And this One came and He had
to be spotless in order to take the sin of His people upon Himself,
in order to willingly go to the cross and bear the chastisement
of our peace and heal us by His stripes. He's the just man. That's why Pilate said, Whom
will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, this notable sinner,
or Jesus, which is called Christ? the anointed, the Messiah, the
one God has sent to accomplish salvation for his people, to
satisfy himself, to honor God. Whom will you that I release?
But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude, verse
20, that they should ask Barabbas and destroy Jesus. Now you get
this picture, do you see this picture? Pilate says, who do
you want me to release? And there's some time that goes
by here. And you picture all the, I picture all the people
sitting there before the judgment seat and I hear them start talking
amongst themselves. And these chief priests and these
elders going among them and saying,
Oh no, no, no, we don't want to release Barabbas. Huh? No, no. They're saying, we're
thinking about releasing Barabbas. And he said, no, no, we don't
want to. They're saying, no, no, we don't want to release Barabbas.
or keep Barabbas. We want to release Jesus. He's
the one we want to let go. And they're saying, or the one
we want to crucify. And they're saying, but Barabbas
is such a notable criminal. We don't want to let Barabbas
go. And they're saying, no, no, no. Yes, we do. We want to let
Barabbas go. We want to keep Jesus Christ and crucify him. And they persuaded the people.
They persuaded the people. You know what religion's doing?
It's persuading the people to let guilty sinners go and crucify
Christ. These are the folks who had the
Oracle's God. Why? Because they envied the
Lord Jesus Christ. Jealous of Christ. Jealous of
Him. Jealous of Him accomplishing
the work Himself. Jealous of Him doing that which
only God can do. Jealous of Him saving through
His Word. Jealous of Him quickening whom
He will and passing by whom He will. Jealous of Him calling
out His own, making them righteous, the righteousness of God Himself.
Jealous of Him. Will they release? Guilty sinners. Let them go free. Let the sinner
go. Let the sinners go free. But
crucify this one. And they persuaded the people
to do so. You know what I'm trying to persuade
you of? I'm trying to persuade you and me that we are the guilty
sinner. We cannot be set free unless
justice be satisfied, unless righteousness be accomplished.
And I'm trying to persuade you, Jesus Christ is that righteousness. Just the opposite of what these men were persuading. And
they, look at this word, this is just, uh, persuaded the multitude
that they should ask Barabbas and destroy Jesus. Destroy Him. Get Him out of our
midst. Get Him out. Take Him out completely. But this rebellion, this God
who is right there in the midst of the people, who's given the
breath to breathe, who's upholding their every move and everything
that they do by the word of His power. This very God who says,
the wrath of man will praise me and the remainder thereof
I will restrain. He said, now is your time, now
is the power of darkness. And He, allowing them to do that,
not just striking everybody dead in their tracks right there,
accomplished His very purpose in allowing them to walk around
and persuade, let's let Barabbas go and crucify Him. He accomplished
His very will, His very purpose. He is the Lord. He did no violence,
neither was any deceit in His mouth, yet it pleased the Lord
to bruise Him. He hath put Him to grief. He
made His soul an offering for sin. That's who's in our midst. That's who this is. He's the just one. Now, you have
Barabbas, a guilty, convicted criminal. a notable prisoner. Is there a Barabbas here? Is
there a Barabbas here? Are you the notable prisoner? So notable that when your name is spoken, all
the other criminals fall not into existence. There's some
so bad, when we hear their name, we don't even remember some of
the others. They make the others look like saints. Are we that bad? And then here
we have the just one. Here we have the just man. Harmless,
holy, undefiled, separate from sinners. Well, here we have Him.
Now, when's this good news going to become good news to me? When's
this news going to become good news to me? When we find ourselves on death
row. Verse 21. The governor answered and said
unto them, this is the third point I want you to see, substitution.
This is when it's gonna be good news to me. 21, the governor
answered and said unto them, whether of the two will ye that
I release unto you? They said, Barabbas. Pilate said
unto them, what shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ?
They all say unto him, let him be crucified. And the governor
said, why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the
more saying, let him be crucified. And when Pilate saw that he would
prevail nothing because they were in a riot over this thing.
They were just worked up into a frenzy over this thing. He
took water and he washed his hands before the multitude and
he said, I'm innocent of the blood of this just person. See
ye to it. Then answered all the people
and said, his blood be on us and on our children. Now I've
painted this picture for you before. There's some pictures
in this world that we never get tired of looking at. We go to
some art galleries and sit and look at pictures we've seen a
thousand times before and we look at them again and we just
like looking at them. Let me paint this picture for
you again and let's just look at this picture. When is this
going to be good news? When is the gospel going to be
good news? When is it going to be good news for me personally?
When is it going to be good news for you personally? There you are. You're in that
cell. You're in that cell. It's obvious. You're locked up.
It's obvious the sentence has been passed. It's obvious you're
right where you're supposed to be. You're locked up. And you
know today they're gonna, they're gonna, the governor's coming to the
judgment seat. And you're sitting there and
you're thinking, wouldn't it be amazing? Wouldn't it be amazing
if I'm the one he sets free? This is the judgment against
whom, the governor against whom you've committed sedition. This is the judge against whom
you've led people Captive or rebelled against this is the
one who's in charge who whom you've Committed against whom
you committed murder and robbed and all these things there you
are and you're sitting there thinking I just oh I wish they'd
call my name today. I wish they'd call my name today
And all of a sudden you hear them cry out your name You hear
your name being called you hear Not another your name being called.
Barabbas, Barabbas, Barabbas. You hear your name particularly
being called. They're calling my name. And
you stand up and you listen at the edge of that jail cell. They're
calling my name. And then you hear them cry out,
Crucify Him, Crucify Him, Crucify Him. And again you hear them
cry out, Crucify Him, and it just keeps getting louder and
louder, and it just keeps getting more of a riotous yell, Crucify
Him, Crucify Him. That's not what we wanted to
hear, was it? We wanted to hear our name, but
we didn't want to hear that associated with our name. That'll disconnect the young
people from church if they hear their name associated with a
crime. We need to hear it. But what he didn't hear was they
were saying, set Moravius free. And what he didn't hear was when
he said, what will I do with Jesus the Christ? And they said, crucify him. And so he's sitting there, and
all he's heard is, Barabbas, Barabbas, Barabbas. All he's
heard is, Crucify Him, Crucify Him, Crucify Him. And the jailer
starts coming to his cell, and the jailer's coming down the
way to him. Have you heard that? Have you
heard God speak into your heart and say, You are the notable
prisoner. Crucify Him. You think he was standing there
at that edge of that door, and he was looking down that jail
cell, and he just couldn't wait for that jailer to get to him. I picture him back in the back
corner of that jail cell, trying to hug up in there, as unnoticed
as he possibly could, just hoping that jailer would pass by his
door and go on down the aisle to another one. That's where
we need to be brought to. We need to be brought to where
we're We just know this is it. I'm done for. This is the end
for me. It's over. And that jailer came and he did
what the Spirit of God does. He does what the Spirit of God
does. He does what only God does by His Spirit. He comes. And He has the key. And He opens
the door. And He opens the door to our
heart, opens the door to this prison that has us locked, opens
the door. And He comes and He throws open
that door. And we're trembling before God.
We're trembling before Him. We're on our face before Him,
begging. Oh, have mercy on me. Have mercy
on me. Please have mercy on me. All
I need now is mercy, mercy, mercy. That's what I need now. I need
mercy now. That's all I beg. Mercy, mercy. He says, stand up on your feet. Jesus Christ, that just one. is dying in your place. He has died in your place. This is what God speaks to the
heart personally. He has died in your place. The just for the unjust and you
are free to go. Oh, please Barabbas, please Barabbas,
Don't let the governor do something for you. Please let Jesus do
something for you, Barabbas. Please, Barabbas, just come out.
I'm knocking if you'll just come out of the jail cell, Barabbas.
Oh, wait a minute. Maybe I could dance in front
of the jail cell for you and put on a good show and appeal
to your flesh and maybe that'll interest you and get you to come
out of the jail cell. Maybe I could put on a big program
and something that would entertain your flesh, Barabbas, and that'll
get you connected with me and you'll come right out of that
jail cell. What's gonna do it? You're the notable prisoner,
but the just one has taken your place as your substitute, and
you're free to go. and nothing else. No arm twistings
needed. No whippings needed. No dragons needed. No bitten
bridles needed. You're free. come out. I can picture where
I was. You know who I'd want to see
first? You know who the first one would be I want to see when
I got out of that jail cell? You know the first one I'd want
to lay my eyes on? Where is this Jesus? Where is
this man named Jesus? I want to see Him. Show me Him. Show me this one who's dying
in my place. Show me Him. That's what happens
when God opens our heart. That's what happens when He breaks
down the door and releases the captive and says, show yourself. And He draws us out into the
light and He says, I have laid down my life for you. You're
righteous. I was talking to somebody this
week and they said, I was reading that, they were just struggling
with this thing, and they were saying, you know, this was a
believer I was talking to, and they were struggling, and they
were saying, well, I understand what the word says to me when
God says, I read this scripture, the Lord says, thus saith the
Lord, fear not, I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy
name, thou art mine. And he said, well, I hear that,
but I don't want to presume. I've heard all these sermons
in the past about not presuming and about not being presumptuous,
and I don't want to presume. Oh, let's stop trying to filter the
Gospel through our flesh. Let's stop trying to filter the
Gospel through a system of theology. Let's stop trying to filter the
doctrine through all the right words and all the right sayings
and all the right things that we've heard and we've just made
ourselves try to walk so narrow that we can't walk. Make ourselves
try to be so strict that we can't dance? Oh, hear God's word. If he says, fear not, I have
redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name. Thou art mine. Presume upon it. Presume upon it. Because he said
it. Thus said the Lord. I have done
the work. Oh, if he's done it. Presume
upon it. He's done it. Do you see substitution? There
is a notable sinner. Are you the notable sinner? There
is a just one and there is just one. And substitution is the
just one has taken the place of the notable sinner. And the
notable sinner has been made free. You know what happens? This is the amazing thing about
the gospel. You know what happens when he makes his people free?
When he says that with my stripes you've been healed because I
have borne all that you owed and now there's nothing left
for you to pay. And he says you're free to go. You're free to leave. You know what they do? They can't be run away. They
can't be run off. They can't. He turns to us and
says, will you go away? And we say, Lord, to whom shall
we go? You have the words. You have
the words of eternal life. And we're sure you are that Christ. You're the one who set us free.
And they follow Him. And they don't go forth anymore
desiring now to go on in their life of crime and go back now
and say, well, I want to go back now and rob and murder and lead
people into rebellion more and more and more. When he's given that new heart
and made this gospel all, made Christ all in our heart, now
we want to follow after him. We want to honor him because
he's done so much for us. I hope today, I hope today God
will make you a notable, the notable prisoner And I hope God
will make you see the just one. And I hope that God will make
you see that He will come in and speak into your heart and
say, I have died the death you owe. You're free. When I heard that, That's when
the news became the good news. The good news. Amen.