I'm reading from the Gospel of
John chapter 18 and chapter 19 this morning. In these chapters
is the account of the Lord Jesus Christ being crucified. In chapter
18, verse 33, Jesus Christ stood before Pilate, the governor,
who asked him the question, Art thou the king of the Jews? Then in verse 39, He said to
the people, He said, Will you that I release unto you the King
of the Jews? Then in chapter 19, verse 3,
it says the soldiers mocked Him saying, Hail, King of the Jews. Then in verse 14 and 15, It was
about the sixth hour, and it says that Pilate said to the
people, to the Jews, Behold your king. And then they said, We
have no king but Caesar. And then in verse 19 of chapter
19, it says Pilate wrote a title, put it on the cross above his
head, and in nearly every language, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of
the Jews. Now the issue then and the issue
now is who reigns and rules over all? Who is all-powerful? Is there a king? Is there a sovereign? Is there one who reigns and rules
over heaven and earth, over men and angels and devils and all
things? Is there? This book says so. God's Word says so. Though modern
man scoffs and mocks at this as they did then. They scoff
and mock at what they call the foolish notion of ignorant, unlearned,
uneducated mountain people about an unseen kingdom and an unseen
king. It is true, nonetheless. And
my question for you is, are you in this kingdom? Have you bowed
the knee to this unseen King? Now, this is the truth. There
is a King. His name is Jesus Christ. He
is unseen, but He reigns and rules right now over all. He
reigns and rules over you. Your breath and all your ways
are in His hands to do with as He pleases. David said, Our God
is in the heavens, and He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. God's King is unseen, yet He
is there, seated on the throne, and the kingdom of God is unseen.
And really, His subjects, Those who are in the kingdom of God,
the kingdom of His dear Son, are not very clearly seen to
the average person. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ first
came preaching, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That's what He first preached.
And He said to some religious men, He said, the kingdom of
God cometh not with observation. That is, not clearly seen or
known. The kingdom of God is an unseen
kingdom. And He said to some others, the
Kingdom of God is among you, within you, right in your midst. You're looking at the King and
don't know it. The Lord Jesus Christ, that is who is King.
That is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The Lord Jesus
Christ ruled. He reigned over all before He
came. He was king before He came here. And when He came, He was reigning
and ruling over all, over all things, even His own crucifixion. And I am here to tell you, right
now, He reigns and rules, sovereignly controls and rules over all things,
right now. Now this is the joy, the peace,
the glory of His people who are indeed Jews, not outwardly, Not
national people that live in the country of Israel, but true
Israel. A Jew which is one inwardly.
Circumcision not with hands, but by God and of the heart. Those Jews, true Jews, true circumcision,
they know who He is. He's their King. They worship,
they adore, they bow to Him. They know why he came, they know
where he is now, they know what he is doing and they love that
it is so. In Luke chapter 19 the Lord told
the story of a certain noble man who went into a far country
to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. His citizens hated
him but he sent his subjects, sent a message to them But they
said, we will not have this man to reign over us. That's what
made the Jews so angry then. They said, this man, this Jesus,
is not our king. He's not our sovereign. We have
no king but Caesar. And this is what made the Romans
mock him. King of the Jews. Hail, King
of the Jews. They said, he's the Jewish kingdom. What a poor king he is. They said, he's not our king,
only Caesar. Spurgeon said this, Charles Spurgeon,
an English preacher many years ago, said, this story of Christ
being crucified is the story of what all sinful hearts do
until they are changed by the sovereign power and grace of
God. They will not have the Lord Jesus Christ to rule over them. He said Christ would be hanged
today if He came among men. By every people, by the world,
they would cry out as their predecessors did, away with him. We will not
have him reign over us. End of quote. I'm here to tell
you that he does reign and rule. And you don't let him reign,
he does reign. You don't make him Lord, he is
your Lord. Maybe in mercy and grace, He'll
let you know that and let you into His kingdom. In chapter
18, verse 28, it says they led Jesus from Caiaphas under the
Hall of Judgment. Before that, it says they led
Him to the high priests to be tried by Him. Who led who? Who
was really leading this whole thing? Well, Peter, when he stood
up at Pentecost, preached this, You, with wicked hands, have
taken and crucified the Lord of glory." But he said, you did
what God determined before to be done. He said, Him being delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. Ye have
taken. and by wicked hands have crucified
Him and slain Him. No one could have touched Him
if God had not willed it and purposed it, if Christ had not
submitted to it. In fact, just before that, when
they came in the garden to take Him, He said, Whom seek ye? They
said, Jesus. of Nazareth. And he said, I am. And they fell backwards to the
ground. He said, long before that, no man taketh my life from
me. I lay it down of myself. I have
this power. I have this sovereign ability
that no man taketh my life. You cannot do something with
God. You cannot allow God to do anything. You do not let God
do anything. It is God who does the letting,
God who does the allowing, God who does the reigning, the ruling,
and controlling. Well, in verse 28 it says they
led Him, though it was Christ Himself who willingly went. It
was God who sent Him to be crucified, allowed Him to be taken by men
to do what God had determined before to be done. You see, God
is God. You don't let God be God. You don't let Him be Lord. He is Lord. It says they led
him. It was early. They themselves
went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled.
These religious men would not go into the hall of judgment.
It was to be their Passover and they would not defile themselves.
I'm here to tell you everyone shall stand someday in the judgment.
These men stood in the judgment shall stand in the judgment before
the very one whom they think they judge, whom they think they
rule over. They shall stand before Him to
be judged by Him. You and I will. If we do not
stand in Christ, we will stand before Him to be judged by Him. If we have not been judged in
Christ on the cross, we will be judged by Christ. for our
works. If Christ was not made sin for
us, if Christ's righteousness was not imputed to us, we will
stand to be judged by Him, by His righteousness, and we will
come far short. Do you understand what that means?
Go and learn what that means. Well, they had taken counsel
together and determined to kill the Lord Jesus Christ, though
they had Him before their kangaroo court. But they did what God
had already in His court, in His counsel before the world
began, already determined for them to do. This is God's predestination. This is God's sovereign will.
What do you think of that? That all things and all people
and all events are according to the sovereign will, power,
and direction and purpose of the Lord and sovereign King of
kings, Jesus Christ. All good, all evil. All angels,
all devils. All principalities and powers.
What shall we say to these things? God's people say, Amen. It is God who worketh all things
after the counsel of His will. None can stay His hand or say
unto Him, What doest thou? Now, the Lord Jesus Christ came
to die. He said, for this cause I came
into the world. He came in a sovereign covenant
and purpose made with the Father before the world began to die
as a substitute for His people, His elect, those given to Him.
That's what He said. I had laid down My life for the
sheep. And He said of some, you're not
My sheep. But He laid down His life for
His sheep. Salvation, this crucifixion of Christ was a work of substitution
on behalf of God's people, that He was made sin for them, that
God laid on Him the iniquity of all of His people given to
Christ. And Christ paid the penalty,
paid the price, paid for their sins, bore the wrath and judgment,
the hell that was due to them. Christ didn't make an attempt
to save. He didn't make an offer that was to be offered to all
mankind. He came to pay for the sins of His people, just like
the high priest of old went into the Holy of Holies with names
on his breastplate and names on his shoulder, the names of
God's chosen people, Israel. Christ went to that cross with
the names of His people engraved on the palms of His hand, on
His heart, laid on His shoulders, and He put away their sin by
the sacrifice of Himself. The gospel is no offer to man.
The gospel is a substitutionary work of Jesus Christ for His
particular people and Christ put away their sin. He came in
great love and mercy and grace to do this for some, not all.
For many, not all. None deserved it. But Jesus Christ
was crucified for His people. Now, it says that they mocked
His kingship. They mocked His sovereignty.
What about you? All mankind mocks God, but God
is not mocked. Religion is the worst. Most modern
religion tells people False religion, false prophets say, make Jesus
your Lord. Let Jesus into your heart. Accept
Jesus as your personal Savior. That's mockery. That's blasphemy.
That's not in the Bible. No one who knows and fears the
Lord, the King of kings and Lord of lords, the most high potentate,
the God in whose hands our breath is, would dare to say, let Him
be God. Make him Lord, shall the creature
say to the Creator, I'm going to let you do this, or let you
do that. I am here to declare the decree
from Psalm 2. God said it, I have set my King
on my holy hill of Zion. He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh at them, the scripture says. The Scripture says, kiss
the son lest he be angry, and you perish when his wrath is
kindled but a little. One time they tried to make Jesus
king, and He passed through them. And He wouldn't allow that to
happen. Why? Because you don't make the king
a king. You don't let God be God. You don't make Him Lord. He already
is. It's mockery. It's blasphemy
to say so. And all who say so don't know
Him. Don't fear Him. Here's wisdom. Here's the fear
of the Lord. Here's salvation. Bow the knee
right now, wherever you are, in your bathroom, in your bedroom.
Right now, bow the knee to your King, to your Sovereign. Call
on the name of the Lord. Say, Lord, save me. Say, O King,
let me into your Kingdom. Let me. Let me. Oh, may the Lord
sovereignly cause you to do just that. Amen.