John 18. Put this water close by. I needed
it when I was teaching Bible class. John 18. Art thou king? Art thou king? To a pilot asking. I thank God we do have a king. the Lord Jesus Christ. In the day we live in, all the
turmoil that's going on, do you not find comfort in the fact
that our King is ruling over all? If you watch TV long enough,
you'll frustrate the life out of you. But when you turn everything
off, turn everything off, and you're able to meditate upon
the Lord, and you realize all things are in His hands. As Mediator,
God has turned everything over to the Lord Jesus Christ. There
is a man, a real man, seated at God's right hand right now.
ruling and reigning over absolutely everything, everyone. And that gives me great comfort.
And I know it does you too. Now, our Lord, as you know, was
taken to the high priest. He's been standing before Caiaphas
and they've been judging him. wanting to kill him. And so after they finish with
him, and after they find him worthy
of death, and you'll find over in Matthew and Mark where they
say, you know, he's blasphemed, you know, Coppice rents his coat,
and he says, he's blasphemed, what are you saying? They say
he's worthy of death. And so they now take him from that place
where they had been trying him pretty much all night long, I
believe. And early in the morning, they get Pilate up. I have no
doubt they wake him up early in the morning, very early in
the morning. And they set him before Pilate
because they want him to be crucified. They want him to be put to death.
So they led him to the judgment hall of Pilate. And you see there
that it's the Passover. Then led they Jesus, in verse
28, from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment. And it was early,
and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest
they should be defiled, that they might eat the Passover.
You see the providence of God here, the Lamb being examined,
He's examined by man. Pilate says, I find no fault
in Him. God found no fault in Him because He accepted Him.
The evidence of that is His resurrection. God found no fault in Him. This
is the spotless Lamb of God being prepared for the Passover. And they don't even have a clue
what they're doing. They don't have a clue that they are actually
taking the Lamb that's for the Passover and getting it ready
And they don't even have a clue what they're doing. God is using
their wicked heart. God who rules over all things.
The Lord of glory, who's standing there before them and before
Pilate and being judged, He is seeing to it that they do this
properly. Remember when they came out to get Him, He asked,
who are you looking for? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. And he said, I am. And they fell
backwards to the ground. And he said, who are you looking
for? I'm the one you're looking for. I am. I am. I am that I
am. He had to give them the strength
to get up and finish the job. This is ordained of God, and
it's going to happen. But here's something here. It was a Passover. These religious hypocrites, that's
all they were, religious hypocrites, they wouldn't go into the judgment
hall of this Gentile lest they be defiled, they'd defile their
conscience and they can't eat the Passover. He's talking about
hypocrisy. I have my soul. Here they are
lying on Him. Over here in Luke, I've got it
marked, let me read something to you here in Luke. It says,
and the whole multitude of them, in chapter 23, arose and led
him unto Pilate, in Luke 23. And they began to accuse him,
saying, we found this fellow. Actually, they just, that word
fellow has been supplied. They just said, we found this.
You know, we found this, like saying, I found this laying on
the road. We found this. perverting the nation and forbidding
to give tribute to Caesar. What did he send Peter down to
the shore for? To get money out of that fish's
mouth to pay tribute, to pay taxes. I mean, they could lie. And they're saying that he himself
is Christ a king. He's not a king, he's the king. He's not a king among kings,
he's the king of kings, and he's the Lord of lords. But they lied
on him, that was no problem, that was no problem. They were
filled with hate, that was no problem, not for them. They wanted
to murder him, they were gonna take his life knowing they have
no grounds to do it. But we don't go into there in
case we defile ourselves and we can't eat the Passover. We
can't keep our rituals and our ceremonies. The hypocrisy that's
in religion is sickening. These people, they can be a saint
on Sunday and a dog on Monday. It doesn't bother them at all. Not at all. Turn over to Matthew
chapter 23. In Matthew 23, our Lord tells these religious
Pharisees who and what they really are. In verse 23, Woe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites! You pay your tithes of mint,
and anise, and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters
of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought you to
have done, and not to leave the other undone. You blind guides
which strain at a gnat, and you swallow a camel. Woe unto you
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Well, you may clean the outside
of the cup and of the platter. It looks good on the outside. You know, graves out there, that
graveyard out there, on the surface it looks good, doesn't it? You
got nice tombstones out there, you got flowers out there. It's
been mowed real well. That graveyard looks like someplace
you might want to be buried. Dig it up and see how good it
looks. It's full of dead men bone. He said, on the outside,
the cup and the platter looks good, but within they are full
of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisees, cleanse
first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside
of them may be clean also. It woe to you, scribes, Pharisees,
and hypocrites, for you are like unto whited sepulchers. which
indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's
bones and of all uncleanness." That's religion without Christ.
It's all show and no substance. That's what it is. And then Pilate
asked them this, there in verses 29 and 30. He asked them this question, what
accusation or charge do you bring against this man? What's he guilty
of? You know, if you're going to
take somebody to court, don't they have to be guilty of something? I mean, especially if you want
to put them to death, don't you think you would say what they're
guilty of? It says, what proof do you have that this man is
a criminal? And again, here's the arrogance,
the arrogance of these Pharisees. They say, if he were not a malefactor,
there in verse 30, they answered and said unto him, if he were
not a malefactor, a criminal, we would not have delivered him
up unto thee. Who in the world goes to court?
And says, this guy looks like a criminal. I believe he's a
criminal. He needs to be put to death. You talk about a kangaroo court.
But God's hand is in this. God's hand is in this. God has
purposed this. He purposed the death of his
son because he purposed the redemption of his people. And this is gonna
be followed as God has purposed it. But they were offended. How dare you, I'm saying to Pilate,
how dare you accuse us of bringing someone to you that's not a criminal? They would not tell him the real
reason why. It says in one of the Gospels
that Pilate knew they brought him there out of envy, but they
weren't going to tell him that. They were not going to tell him
the real reason why. Because of this, they want him
to die. They want Pilate to put him to
death. And Pilate knew, he knew that
this conflict was according to their religion. It wasn't his
jurisdiction. It wasn't a civil problem. He's
done nothing against Caesar. Pilate knew that. He knew that. But the Jews protested and said,
it's not lawful for us to put any man to death. Really? How
many times did they try to put Christ to death? They was going
to throw him off a hill one time, off the brink of a hill. How
many times did they seek to kill him and he slipped out of their
sight? Oh, it's not lawful for us to put any man to death. What
about the adulterous woman that you brought and threw down at
the feet of Christ and you wanted him to stone her to death? But here's God's providence.
Here's God's providence. The Jews' form of punishment to put someone to death was by
stoning. God's Lamb is not going to be
stoned to death. He's going to be crucified. He's
going to be crucified. And they, God worked this in
such a way that they had to bring him to
the Roman government so that the Gentiles would be involved.
The whole world crucified Christ. The whole world was guilty of
the death of the Son of God, as far as that's concerned. But
they wanted him to be crucified like a criminal. They wanted
him to be hung upon a cross so everybody could see him. And
they could say, he's a criminal. Even the Romans say he's a criminal.
They knew if they stoned him, they'd have a mob on their hands.
They knew that. Because he had a big following
at that time. He fed 5,000, healed many. If we stone him, we'll really
be in trouble. So we'll get the Roman government to crucify him
as a criminal. Didn't you see the hand of God
working here? They did what their wicked hearts
wanted to do, but they ended up doing what God purposed to
be done. God's purpose is being fulfilled
in this, because our Lord told His disciples what death he would
die. That's what it says there in
verse 32. And the saying of Jesus, that's the saying of Jesus, might
be fulfilled which he spoke, spake, signifying what death
he should die. This is the, he chose his own
death. He chose it. This is how I'm
gonna die. And it's gonna happen. It's gonna
happen. You know, whenever God has purposed
something, ordained something, you can't change it. It cannot
be changed. He must die on a cross so that
He can remove the curse from us. Cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree. He's got to hang on a tree. He's
got to bear our curse that we might go free. He's got to. And He's got to do it on Calvary. He has to do it. They were doing, as I said, what
they wanted to do, but they were fulfilling God's purpose. And
I want to show you that in Acts chapter 4. In Acts chapter 4, look in verse 27. For of a truth against thy holy
child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
with the Gentiles, they're all mixed in with it, and the people
of Israel were gathered together, listen to this, for to do whatsoever
thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. That's what
they did. That's what they did. As one
preacher on television, I think I know which one it was,
but I don't want to say the name in case I get it wrong, but he
said, if I were there, I would have stopped it. You're going
to stop the purpose of God? If you really stopped it, we'd
all perish. No one can stop this. Jesus Christ
is going to die on that cross. He's going to redeem His people.
And He's not going to lose one of them. And on that new earth, every
one of them is going to be on that new earth. They're going
to be with the Lord. They're going to be with Him forever
and ever. I think of that a lot now. I think of that a lot. I think
of what it's going to be like to see him. I think of what it's
going to be like to walk with him and to see all the saints
of God. I think of that often. Probably
because I'm getting older. But I've also done a lot of funerals.
And when you put those two together, you think about that a lot. You know, the scripture says,
God makes even the wrath of man to praise Him. Here is the wrath
of man at its pinnacle, putting the Son of God to death, crucifying
the Son of God. And yet they don't even realize
that their wrath is praising Him, doing His will. And then Pilate brought the Lord
Jesus Christ there in verse 33 and 34. He brought him into the
judgment hall and he asked him privately, are thou king of the
Jews? Are thou king of the Jews? He
knew there was something about this man, didn't he? I guarantee
you, he knew there was something about this man. that he's never
saw in any other man. The way he walked, the way he
carried himself, the way he conducted himself, there's something different
about this man. And Pilate's wife in Matthew
27, she had a dream. And she came to her husband Pilate.
She said, don't you have anything to do with this man? I've suffered
much in a dream this night because of him. He's like, man, there's something
different. Are you a king? Are you a king? Are thou the king of the Jews? And the Lord replied, is this
something you're interested in knowing? Do you wanna know this? Every one of you. Do you wanna
know who the king of glory is? Or did somebody just tell you
this? Or is this something you're really interested in? And Pilate, just with being real
arrogant, he said, am I a Jew? Am I a Jew? Do I care about your religion?
Do I care about your nation? Am I a Jew? And the Lord answered him. Look how the Lord answered him
in verse 36. And Jesus answered him. I can only imagine standing
there at Pilate, standing there listening to God Almighty talk.
This is God speaking, the God of heaven and earth. Here Pilate is judging the judge
of all. And he said, my kingdom is not
of this world. You couldn't understand, you
couldn't understand if I told you. You know, when Nicodemus
came to the Lord by night, and he was going to ask Him some
questions, and he was going to ask Him some questions, no doubt,
about the kingdom of God. And the Lord stopped him. He
said, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
God. He cannot enter the kingdom of God. You can't see, you can't
understand what I'm talking about. Pilate, if I had talked to you
about the kingdom of God and my kingdom, you couldn't understand
it at all. But there's something here he's really pointing out
is this, my kingdom is not of this world. See, there were many
different kingdoms, you know, you had Rome, you had other nations. He said, my kingdom is a spiritual
kingdom. He said, in one place, the kingdom
of God comes not with observation, it's a spiritual kingdom. MY KINGDOM RULES IN THE HEARTS
OF MEN AND WOMEN WHOM HE SAVES. He said, IF MY KINGDOM WERE OF
THIS WORLD, THEY'D FIGHT FOR ME. THEY'D FIGHT YOU OVER ME. THEN WOULD MY SERVANTS FIGHT.
THEN I SHOULD NOT BE DELIVERED TO THE JEWS. BUT NOW IS MY KINGDOM
NOT FROM HENCE. You know, he's telling them,
your kingdom, Rome, is not under any threat by me. I didn't come into this world
to replace Caesar. He has a kingdom. He's the king
of that kingdom, and he's saving the subject of that kingdom.
He's saving every one of them. And this is part of it. This
is how he's going to save them. He's gonna go to the cross, be
crucified, and die for them. What king ever died for his subjects? Saul didn't die for Israel, did
he? David didn't die for Israel. No king ever stepped forward
and died on purpose for his subjects. But ours did. Ours did. The King of kings and Lord of
lords, so to speak, stepped down off the throne, robed himself
in flesh, went to the cross under the penalty
of law, God's law, not Roman law, God's law. And under God's
law, he suffered God's wrath for his subjects. And now they're
free. And what he's doing right now,
he's gathering every one of them. He's gathering everyone out of
every tongue, kindred, tribe, and nation under heaven. He's
gathering every one of them. Are you a king? Yes, I am a king.
And my kingdom is not of this world. My kingdom is no threat
to the Roman government. My kingdom rules over all. Not
just this little Roman government here. My kingdom is a spiritual
kingdom over the hearts and minds of men and women. That's my kingdom. His kingdom is in this world,
the church, but it's not of the world. It's not of it. But Pilate
here, he wants a yes or no. Pilate therefore said in verse
37 unto him, Art thou a king then? Just tell me, are you a
king? Are you a king? Jesus answered,
Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born. Yes,
I am. Yes, I am. And for this cause came I into
the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. And Paul
said, what is truth? What is truth? Truth is standing
in front of him. He's looking at truth. Christ
said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. You're looking
at truth. Truth is a person. It's a person. He came as the
truth, bearing witness to the truth, the gospel of truth. And everyone, now listen, everyone
that is of the truth, born of God, Christ is the truth,
Christ is God, you're born of God, everyone that's of the truth,
heareth my voice. No one else hears me, but they
do. You know the truth when you hear
it, don't you? I know you do. I know the truth when I hear
it being preached, and I know a lie when I hear it being preached.
And everyone's of the truth will say, Amen! That's the truth.
That's the truth. That's the gospel. That's the
gospel. And Pilate said to him, What
is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again to the
Jews and said to them, And here, you know, we can find fault in
anybody, can't we? We can find fault in anyone. And here Pilate, under pressure
from them to crucify him, to condemn him, he comes out and
says, I find no fault in him. I can't find one thing wrong
with this man. And you won't. This is God's
lamb. This is God's perfect lamb. But
you have a custom. He thinks he's got a way out
here. Let me say it this way. God has
all the bases covered. He has all the bases covered.
Watch this. 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 and
say, not this man, not this man. But Barabbas, now Barabbas was
a robber. In another place he had murdered. Here's the providence of God,
that there is one man, other than Christ, a Jew, that's been
caught and convicted by the Roman government in jail. So that when Pilate says, you
have a custom that I've released to you one man at the Passover,
here he is. And they said, no, Barabbas.
You see, the Lord covered all the bases. Barabbas, a murderer, a true
murderer, a robber, I mean a real criminal. And I say, no, no,
we don't want Christ. We don't want Him. Give us Barabbas. It just stood out to me how Barabbas,
and Barabbas didn't have any idea that his evil conduct was
going to be used of God to promote His glory. He's going to go to the cross.
Nobody's going to stop it. Nobody's gonna stop it. Not even
that preacher said if he was there, he'd stop it. Nobody would
stop it. If we were there, now listen,
if we were there in our unregenerate state, we would be crying, crucify
him, crucify him. They are just examples of everybody
in this world. We would be crying for his crucifixion. Every man, every woman, the scripture
says, born into this world is enmity with God. We had a hostility
toward God. He's the one who reconciled us
by the death of His Son. He reconciled us to Himself. Then Paul says, now you be reconciled
to God. Art thou king? Are Thou King? Let me read Psalm 2. Listen here. Why do the heathen rage tumultuously
assembles, what that means, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
His anointed. We're seeing this happen in John 18. Let us break
their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. That's
what the wicked say. We'll be our own God. We'll be
our own sovereign. He that sitteth in the heaven
shall laugh. Like you're going to challenge God? The Lord shall
have them in derision, then shall he speak unto them in his wrath
and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I said, this is past
tense, Christ is King, Christ is Lord. Nobody makes him Lord,
God made him Lord. Yet have I set my king upon my
holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree the
Lord has said to me. Thou art my son, this day have
I begotten thee. Ask of me and I shall give thee
the heathen for thine inheritance. Aren't you glad? I'm so thankful the Lord asked
for me. He said, ask me, I'll give you the ones you asked for.
What did He say in John 17? I pray not for the world, I pray
for them which Thou hast given Me. I'll give them for Thine inheritance,
and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession. Is
there any place He doesn't reign? Is there any place the Lord Jesus
Christ does not rule and reign? No, it's all over, the whole
world, heaven and earth, universe, everything. Thou shalt break
them with a rod of iron, Thou shalt dash them in pieces like
a potter's vessel. Be wise now, therefore, O ye
kings, be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord
with fear, rejoice with trembling, kiss the sun. You know what they
did to him? They slapped him, they spit in
his face, they plucked the hair from his face, they mocked him,
they blindfolded him, said, tell us who slapped you. They put
a robe on him, they put a crown on him, mocked him as a king.
You know what, listen. Kiss the son, the son, the lamb
of God. It doesn't sound like it's little
old Jesus being preached in our day, does it? KISS THE SON LEST
HE BE ANGRY, AND YOU PERISH FROM THE WAY WHEN HIS WRATH IS KINDLED
BUT A LITTLE. Just a little, when his wrath
is kindled. Yeah, well, you just wait until the full-blown wrath
is kindled. BLESSED ARE ALL THEY THAT PUT
THEIR TRUST IN HIM. Are we blessed who believe? We are blessed beyond measure. beyond measure. All right.