I started this, Eric. OK, I started
that. All right, buddy boy. Have a seat. It's getting messed up. Oh, okay. Good morning. Good morning. I thought you were getting it. I mean As a whole, you're very able
to move on time. So you're doing that. Okay. Morning. Alright, we're gonna
be in Mark chapter 15. We'll be looking at verses 1
through 15 this morning. Now the glory of the Gospel reveals to
us who are sinners, who don't know the true and living God,
but the glory of the Gospel is to make known to us and to reveal
to us Jesus Christ and that He came to save sinners. That's what is being revealed
to us in the Gospel. Christ came to save sinners. He came to save sinners and to
put away their sin. He's called the Lamb of God. He's called the Lamb of God,
and the reason why He is the Lamb of God is because He, as
our High Priest, sacrificed Himself. He Himself is the Sacrifice.
unto Holy God, unto the Father, to make satisfaction for our
sin, that we in Him would be righteous before God, justified
before God, so that we have no sin. There's no payment for us
to make of our sin. Christ paid the whole thing.
He did the whole work Himself when He came in the likeness
of this flesh and died in the place of his people. He died
to put away our sin. So, as we go through this passage,
we'll notice that we need Christ to do this. We see, as we go
through here, we're seeing we need a Savior. We need Jesus
Christ to do this work because we cannot make ourselves righteous. We cannot satisfy God by our
works in our person. Our title is The Sinner's Substitute. The Sinner's Substitute. And we're going to look first
at Christ our Substitute and then we'll see a picture of substitution. We'll see a picture of substitution
in this passage here. Alright, so Christ our substitute.
When Adam fell, when Adam fell, our fellowship with God was severed. When he fell, our fellowship
with God was severed, and we died spiritually. We died spiritually. We have no fellowship with God
in Adam. We became corrupt, dead sinners,
having no light, having no understanding of the things of God. And so, that means that we were
responsible and we had to pay for our sins. We were to eternally
die and be cut off forever from the true and living God. We're
told in Romans 6 Verse 23, that the wages of sin is death. The wages of sin is death. We've
earned death by what we've done in this flesh and being sons
and daughters of Adam. We've earned this and it's death.
That's the payment. But, we're told the gift of God,
apart from any earning that we do. The gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so what we have in
this chapter, this is a very sober chapter because it reveals
to us the salvation God has provided in His Son. we see what Christ
has done for us in laying down His own life to put away the
sins of His people. Alright, so that He's our sacrifice,
He's our substitute, He stood in our place. So to begin with,
we're told in verse 1, Mark 15 verse 1, and straightway in the
morning the chief priests held a consultation. First thing in
the morning, they got to doing what they set their mind to do
the night before. They held the consultation with
the elders and scribes and the whole council. all those that
weren't present when they condemned Christ to die. And so they told
him, this is what we're doing. He's blasphemed God. He said
he's the Son of God. What more do you need to hear?
What about all his works? What about all the miracles that
he did? Who could do that but God himself, except God were
with him? We don't care about that. We've determined that he's
blasphemed God, and we don't want to hear any more So we're
told that they bound Jesus and carried him away and delivered
him to Pilate. They delivered him to Pilate.
Now the thing about Christ The thing that God is making known
to us is we don't even know our need of Christ. Naturally, we
don't know that we need a Savior. Naturally, we don't know Christ,
we don't know why God sent Him, we don't even understand fully
and completely why the Lord Himself had to take upon Him flesh and
come to put away our sins. Because that's how dead in trespasses
and sins we are. That's how desperate we are for
the grace and mercy of God to save us. We're ignorant of these
things. We're darkened spiritually. We're
dead of these things. And Paul calls it the mystery
of Christ. He calls it the mystery of Christ
in Ephesians 3 verse 4. And so it requires to us that
the Spirit of God save us. It requires salvation by the
Spirit of God. And the Spirit is the one that
makes known to us what God has done. It's the purpose of God
in Christ. He's revealing to us the purpose
of God in Christ. because we don't know the purpose
of God in sending Christ otherwise. So the Spirit has to reveal this
to us. He's got to teach us why he sent
his son. The chief priests, they didn't
understand it. The chief priests didn't understand
why Christ came, and that's why they bound Jesus and carried
him away and delivered him to Pilate. They didn't understand
these things. Paul tells it, he words it this
way to the Corinthians, in 1 Corinthians 2.8, he said, none of the princes
of this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have
crucified the Lord of glory. They didn't know it, they didn't
see this, but we don't even know it, right? We don't even know
what God has done and what God would have us to know And yet,
even though we don't know it, the glory is that God is still
doing it. He still provided everything
apart from our knowledge, apart from our participation, apart
from us having any hand in this work. God did it. God did it
as it pleased Him according to His good purpose. In Romans 16
25 we see that the glory is the Father's. It's God the Father's.
It's to Him that is of power to establish you according to
my gospel, Paul said, and the preaching of Jesus Christ according
to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the
world began. So even though we didn't understand,
even though we don't know what's going on, God has a purpose and
he intends to save his people and we're thankful for that,
that God has a purpose in what he's doing. He intends to save
his people by his son Jesus Christ so that in the appointed time,
The Father sent the Son, and the Son came and did that perfect
work for His people in saving them from their sins. We're told
in Acts 4, verse 27 and 28, that of a truth against thy holy child
Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together,
for to do whatsoever thy hand Thy counsel determined before
to be done." And so, to deliver us from our bondage, because
naturally we're in bondage to sin. We're bound up in sin. We're in that body of sin under
the dominion and the reign of sin and death and fear of punishment. To deliver us from that bondage,
Christ was bound. He allowed Himself to be bound
as the substitute of His people, the substitute of sinners. He
was bound for you. That's where you and I should
be. Bound up, delivered up to God, and slain for our sin, and
cut down for our iniquities. But Christ Himself was bound,
and they carried Him away and delivered Him to Pilate. The fact that he's our substitute
is because he was to die in our place. And so when we say Christ
is the sinner's substitute, we're declaring that he suffered in
the place of his people. He suffered what they should
have suffered. He died the death that we should
have died. What we have coming to us, the
wages of sin, death, that was ours. But Christ stood in our
place and bore that wrath, and bore that shame, and bore that
judgment to save His people from the just holy wrath of God. Isaiah,
this is according to the scriptures, it's according to the scriptures
that Christ did this. In Isaiah 53, verses 4 through
6, Isaiah 53, 4-6 says, Surely he
hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. These weren't his
griefs and his sorrows that he had worked up for himself. This
is our griefs and our sorrows, and he bore them as the substitute. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised. He was beaten
for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed." So you see that
substitution work. He took our place and bore our
stripes and our beatings and our chastisement, and we receive
healing. from Him that is perfect and
holy and just and has established peace with us, with God. And
all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord, this is the will of God, the purpose
of God in sending His Son, The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity
of us all. And so the prophets say this,
but they speak of substitution, but it's not even just Isaiah,
even Daniel in 926 said that Messiah shall be cut off. Messiah shall be cut off, his
life ended, cut short, but not for himself. It wasn't because
he did anything to earn death, We earned that death, and so
Christ stood in our place as our substitute, and he died in
the place of what we deserved. This is what happened with Christ
and why they bound him and sent him to Pilate. Acts 13.27 says,
for they that dwell at Jerusalem, this is how Paul summarized it,
they that dwell at Jerusalem and their rulers, because they
knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets, which are read
every Sabbath day, this is still read to this day, every Sabbath
day they hear the book of the law. They hear the prophets.
They hear what was written concerning Christ. And yet they have fulfilled
them in condemning him. And they still condemn him to
this day. If you talk to a Jew, they still say the same things
that they said back then. He's just a magician. He's not
the Messiah. It's not him. And they still
despise him and reject him. But the glory in this, the good
news in this word to us is that Christ was bound that we go free. He took our place and he was
bound. That's why he went with those soldiers and said, I'll
go with you, but let these go free. Let these go free. And
so he was bound in your place, sinner. You that believe him,
he was bound so that you might live by his life. And so he had
to die, right? And that's the gospel. He had
to die. And when he died, we died with him. And what we're
seeing in that, what the Lord shows us is that We had to die
because naturally we're born of Adam. And so we must suffer
the consequences of Adam. We sinned in Adam and everything
Adam earned is ours by inheritance and by our own commission of
sin. So we had to die in Adam. We had to die to the law and
be delivered from that body of sin and death. that we might
now be born again by the Spirit of Christ, of His spiritual seed,
so that now we stand in Christ, not only as our federal head,
but even more so, born by His spiritual seed. We're the generation
of Christ now, we're His seed, we're His children, and therefore
we stand in Christ our head, and all that is His inheritance
that He's earned and obtained is yours who believe Him." That's
beautiful and that's what we see in Christ. So we live in
Him now. Alright, now back in our text
in Mark 15. Mark 15, let's pick up in verse 2 and we'll read
down to verse 5 together. Once Christ is at Pilate, we're
told, And Pilate asked Him, Art Thou the King of the Jews? And
He answering said unto them, Thou sayest it. Thou sayest it. And the chief priests accused
him of many things, but he answered nothing. And Pilate asked him
again, saying, Answerest thou nothing? Behold, how many things
they witness against thee. But Jesus yet answered nothing. So that Pilate marveled. and so here again we see how
that Christ is showing himself that he is indeed the perfect
sacrament that he's the perfect substitute he really is the one
spoken of by the prophets concerning our salvation that which God
had had laid out and made clear since the foundation of the world
but was kept secret and hidden from our understanding because
we were dead spiritually. We could read this word and had
no clue as to what God was doing. Had no clue how it is that God
saves sinners. We thought it was in something
we did. Something that we were. Something
that we understood and had to do for ourselves before God would
receive us. And God strips us down of all
that in the light of the gospel, in the face of Jesus Christ,
to know I'm nothing but a sinner. Lord, have mercy on me. Save
me, wash me by the blood of your Son, Jesus Christ. So Christ
here is standing before Pilate, and he's silent. He's not answering
any of the accusations. He's not getting out of this.
He doesn't want to get out of this, though he could. He could
deliver himself in an instant, but He wants this for the salvation
of you that believe Him, you that have no righteousness of
your own, you that must be delivered and saved by Christ. We're told
in Isaiah 53 7 that he was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he
opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shears his dung, so he openeth
not his mouth. And so our Lord purposely kept
his mouth closed before his enemies. For your sake, you that believe
and have no righteousness of your own, We're told that he
endured such contradiction of sinners against himself so that
he should be the perfect substitute for his people in fulfilling
all that was written of him. For your sake, brethren. And
then we see another picture in this, that he's silent because
it's also he's the substitute of his people. Because we, if
we had to stand before holy God, knowing what we are now, knowing
what we are now in ourselves and you and me were to stand
before God in our own righteousness and in our own works and what
we've done in the flesh our mouths will be shut and we'd have nothing
to stand before God and boast of and everything the Lord laid
out before us what could we do but hang our head and close our
mouths and be silent before him and so Christ was silent in our
place as our substitute, he was silent so that he endured the
cross and despised the shame for you and for me that have
nothing but him and have no other hope of righteousness but him. All right? So that's how he's
our substitute. Now as we move on in this text,
we see a picture of substitution. We're given a picture, an example
of what Christ really did for his people. We're told about
a wicked man, a guilty sinner, a man named Barabbas who committed
crimes, great crimes that were worthy of death. And Barabbas
was scheduled for that day to be crucified. He was going to
be the one hung on that cross. They had three crosses and he
was going to be the chief one crucified among those people. But, because of Christ, he goes
free. because of Christ he doesn't
die that day and actually he's released, set free from the prison
and delivered of all his crimes. The slate is wiped clean and
there's nothing for him to die for. And so what we see in that
picture, that's a picture, a type, what we see as sinners who have
no hope but him, we see that as he went free, that's what
Christ did for us. We go free. Because Christ died
in my place, Christ died in your place, we go free from the judgment
of hell, the judgment and wrath of God, alright? And so that
the only difference between us and Barabbas that I know of,
because I don't, there's nothing in here that says Barabbas was
converted, but the difference is that for you and me, the Lord
has brought home this justification through the sanctification of
His Spirit coming into us and giving us life, to know what
God has done for us, to believe what He's done, to believe Him
by faith and walk by faith and trust His work and not look to
our own works and dead letter religion, but to trust Him and
believe Him and walk by faith in Christ, alright? So let's
read that in verse 6, Mark 15 verse 6. Now at that feast, Pilate released
unto them one prisoner, whomsoever they desired. This was the custom. Every year, this is what Pilate
would do while he was governor there. And there was one named
Barabbas which lay bound with them that had made insurrection
with him and had committed or who had committed murder in the
insurrection. So here's this parabus. John
tells us he's a robber and in the other Gospels we're told
he's a murderer and an insurrectionist, which means a rebel against authority. He was a rebel against the civil
government. He was stirring up trouble and
in the process a person was murdered, was killed, and he was judged
for it, and he was gonna die himself for what he had done.
All right, and so the multitude, verse eight, crying aloud, began
to desire Pilate to do as he had ever done unto them. Get
on with the custom, Pilate. We want you to release to us
one of the prisoners. All right, but Pilate answered
them, saying, will ye that I release unto you the king of the Jews?
For he knew that the chief priests had delivered Christ for envy.
But the chief priests moved the people, that he should rather
release Barabbas unto them. And Pilate answered and said
unto them, What will ye then that I shall do unto him whom
ye call the king of the Jews? And they cried out again, Crucify
him, crucify him. Then Pilate said unto them, Why,
what evil hath he done? And they cried out the more exceedingly,
Crucify him. And so Pilate, willing to content
the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus
when he had scourged him to be crucified." And so we see here
that Christ died in the place, in the picture there of Barabbas
going free, Christ died in the place of a sinner. And that's
the hope of our gospel is that Christ died in the place of us
who are sinners against holy God and deserve to die for the
crimes and the sins and the iniquities and the transgressions which
we ourselves have committed. And we that are sinners know
that. We know that. And Paul tells us that God hath
made Christ to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. That's our hope,
brethren, that we are justified and forgiven in Christ. It's
not because we're good, moral people that Christ did this.
Good, moral people need not a Savior. But you and I who are sinners,
we need a Savior. We need a substitute who does
everything for us and puts away our sins perfectly that we may
stand holy and righteous before Almighty God all the rest of
the days of our life on into eternity. Thanks be to Jesus
Christ our Lord and Savior. Alright, now the other things
that we see here is that our life now is wrapped up in Christ. We are one with Christ. We're
married to him as the bride of Christ, of the Lamb of God. We're
his bride. We're his people. We're his body,
and he is our head. He's the one who rules and reigns
over us. And so now, because of him, we'll
never be lost. That's why we don't go back to
the law, because we're already dead to the law. We'll never
be lost looking to Christ. We walk in him and serve him
by his spirit. And so we see here in this passage,
the other things that we see is we're not to put our trust
and confidence in man. We don't put our trust and confidence
in ourselves? Well, don't put your trust and
confidence in man. We see from this that there's
not going to be a political solution, all right? Don't trust politics
and government. Don't rebel against them like
Barabbas, but don't put your trust in these things because
they're not going to save any of us. Because it's the Roman
government, those that were put there and appointed to be there
by God did what they did and they crucified. When they had
the Lamb of God and all his innocence, they crucified him. They put
him to death. So we see how ignorant and in
darkness they are. So there's not going to be a
political solution. And then we also see from here
that there's not going to be a religious solution. Religion
isn't going to save us. We can be very, very religious
people and make up all kinds of rules and regulations and
duties and this and that, but religion itself does not save. We need the Son of God. Christ
alone saves his people. This is what religion did. In
Mark 14, 55, it says, the chief priests and all the council sought
for witness against Jesus to put him to death and found none. They found no cause for death
in Him, and yet we see that they bound Him anyway and carried
Him up and delivered Him to Pilate. That's what religion did. They
killed the Son of God. When they saw Him that is perfect
and holy and their Creator, Rather than bow down to him, they crucify
him. And so Pilate even gave them
an hour. He even asked them, said, sure
you want to do this? Is this really what you want
to do? And they cried, crucify him. And then just to make sure
that we don't miss it and that we understand what the heart
of man is. So we know what our heart is
and the great trouble we're in. Pilate asked him, the Lord had
him ask again, why? What evil hath he done? What
has he done that he should deserve this death, this horrible death,
this painful, horrible, horrible death? What has he done? They
didn't even answer the question. They just said crucify him. So
that's our heart. That's the heart of you and me.
That's what we are. We cannot save ourselves. So it's clear to us, it should
be clear to us, that we're all totally depraved sinners. That
doesn't mean, right, in the body of sin that we're going and being
the worst possible person that we can be. But it does mean that
there's nothing we can do to We don't even care. We could
care less about it. We just do what we think we have
to do according to the law and what we put upon ourselves, that's
what we'll do. But we don't even care what God
says. And so we need, we're that depraved
that we need the grace and glory of God to make known to us why
Christ came and that He is the Savior and that we desperately
need Him. We desperately are sinners that
need the grace and glory of God and His Son Jesus Christ. Even
though we didn't even know that we needed a substitute, yet God
in grace and mercy sent His Son for this very purpose, to do
that work while it was yet still a mystery to us, a secret kept
from us, and we were still in darkness, yet God did all this
work to make salvation for His people that we may know Him and
be delivered from our sins. So I would ask, do you need Christ? Do you believe that Christ is
the substitute? Is He the Savior, the only Savior,
and do you need Him? If you believe that He died to
save sinners and that He died for you, because you're a sinner,
to put away your sin, then believe Him and confess His name before
others. Confess His name before men.
Speak and glorify Him, not yourselves, and serve Him. And if you've never been baptized,
Come and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. If you were
baptized as a baby or just not believing the truth, not knowing
the gospel, then come and be baptized, calling on the name
of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. And he receives all
sinners who come to him having no hope or righteousness of their
own. Everyone who needs him, he's
a merciful, kind, and gracious seeker. All right, let's pray. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your grace and mercy. Father, we pray that you would
open our ear and help us to hear the voice of the Son of God.
Lord, help us to ever be coming to Jesus Christ, to never see
ourselves as beyond Him and beyond our need of Him. The Lord, that
we would Be humbled when we forget and that we would see how glorious
and merciful, how freely you love and forgive your people.
And Lord, that we would be given a new heart, a soft heart that
hears your voice and is moved by your Spirit. Lord, that we
would stay upon Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. It's in
His name we pray and give thanks. Amen.