Thank you. Turn with me to Mark 15, Mark
chapter 15. Mark chapter 15, while reading
this chapter, preparing to study for our Bible study on Sunday
morning. I was rereading this whole chapter
and something kept jumping off the page at me. Look at several
verses here. Verse 2, Mark 15, verse 2, Pilate
asked him, Art thou the king of the Jews? Verse 9, Pilate answered the
people saying, Will ye that I release unto you the king of the Jews?
Verse 12, Pilate answered and said again unto them, What will
you then that I shall do unto him whom you call the king of
the Jews? Verse 18, the soldiers began to mock him
and salute him, Hail, king of the Jews. Verse 26, They put
this superscription over him, his accusation was written over
him, the king of the Jews. That's our subject, that's the
title, King of the Jews. Pilate kept asking the Lord this
question, are you the king of the Jews? The soldiers and the
people mocked him. in this way. Hail King of the
Jews. If you remember, go over to John
18, John chapter 18. Some of you were not here in
the Bible study, but most of you were. You remember, we went
over here to John 18 and looked at the complete dialogue between
our Lord and Pilate. And that's what we're going to
look at tonight, more in depth, what Christ said, because our
Lord's answer to his question, are you the king of the Jews,
is very revealing, very enlightening. And it wasn't written for him
because he never did answer him. But it's written for our sake.
This is recorded for our sake, and it's very, very revealing.
All right, let's look at it. Now, this is our text, John 18. Verse 28, they led Jesus from
Caiaphas, high priest, unto the hall of judgment. And it was
early, and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, that
is, the Roman judicial court. These Jewish fellows did not
want to go into that Gentile court, lest they should be defiled.
But they had to eat the Passover. Pilate went out unto them and
said, What accusation bring you against this man? They answered
and said unto him, But if he were not a malefactor, if he
were not a common criminal, we would not have delivered him
unto thee. In other words, if this was a religious matter,
we would have handled it ourselves. They didn't want the blame. They
were feeling guilty. They didn't want it themselves.
No one did. Verse 31, Then said Pilate unto
them, You take him, and judge him according to your law. They tried. They tried. He kept the law perfectly. Judge
the lawgiver by the law. The Jews, therefore, said unto
him, Well, it's not lawful for us to put any man to death. They
had already judged him. Now, the law of Moses had stoned
the man that was guilty of blasphemy, but they could not convict him
of that. Their witnesses didn't agree.
Remember? None of the witnesses agreed. So they could not justly
stone him. So they tried to make it a civil
matter. And they said, we can't put him
to death by our law. You can, verse 32. And this was
in order that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he
spake, signifying, prophesying what death he should die. Back
in chapter 12, he said the Son of Man will be delivered to be
crucified because The scriptures must be fulfilled. He must be
crucified. From the very beginning, the
Christ was pictured as the crucified one. The serpent on the pole,
and on and on the story goes. But the law, here's the point,
and Paul wrote about it in Galatians. Christ became a curse for us
because the law said, curse the deceived and hang him on a tree. So Christ had to hang on a tree.
He couldn't be stoned. He had to hang. and be crucified,
be made a curse for us. All right. What you see here
in these few verses is how careful religion is to observe their
own traditions and their own rules and even what they think
is observing the law of God. Yet they hate Christ. They hate Christ. They're not
They are not really concerned with what he said, but they're
very concerned with keeping the Sabbath. This all will sound very familiar
to you, because things haven't changed. Now, these were Jews,
they were strict, orthodox in the way they dressed, orthodox
in keeping of the laws, Sabbath keeping, they were very careful,
but they hated the Christ. They hated him. And I can't help it, I have to
make a parallel. It's still true today in religion.
It's still true. Paul said this to Timothy, he
said, they have a form of godliness. They have a form of godliness.
There's much religion, a form of religion, all different forms,
all over the world, form of religion. Yet they deny, he said, the power
thereof. They denied God's right to be
God, God's right to do with his own as he will, Christ's right
as judge and messiah and Christ and Lord over all. They deny
the power thereof. I could go on and on with that.
But whether it be Jehovah's Witnesses in our day, Mormons, Catholics,
Pentecostal, even Southern Baptists. Across the board, they all deny
the absolute sovereign right and reign of the Lord God and
His Christ. Look back at John chapter 6 with
me. John chapter 6. John chapter 6. Now some, most,
do Him lip service. Most call him Lord, but yet they say that we must
make him Lord. Now that's lip service. He either
is Lord or he's not. And if he is Lord, capital L,
capital O, capital R, capital D, you don't make him that. Most just give lip service when
they talk about a king. Many will talk about him as a
king. But he's merely a king that they have crowned themselves. And he's no more than one of
these figureheads. That's a perfect description
of the Jesus men purportedly worship today. He's a figurehead.
That Charles over there in England, when he becomes king, if he,
I guess he'll become king. Sure they will, they'll make
him king. They want a king. Well, he's not king of anything.
He can't decree anything, you know that? He can't decree anything
unless the people let him. Does that sound familiar? They're
going to make him king and they'll let him do whatever they let
him do. Old Charlie. Well, John chapter 6, there was
a time when the people tried to make the Lord King. Look at John chapter 6, verse
15, verse 14. He just fed many people, and
those men, when they saw the miracle that Jesus did, said,
this is of the truth, that prophet that should come into the world.
They got excited. This is that prophet. Verse 15,
when Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take
him by force to make him a king. A king. He departed. He left them into a mountain
himself alone. Now why didn't he let them make
him a king? Why didn't he let them make him
a king? They wanted to make him king. This is so revealing, people. You don't make a king a king. A king is born a king. You don't make a king a king. He's born a king. Every king
who's truly been king has been born a king. That's what they
announced when Christ came. Where is he that is born king? You don't make him king. He already
was king. He had a throne. He left back
to come to this cesspool. He already had a kingdom. He
doesn't need a kingdom, he's got one. And he's gathering his
subjects. He's the king of the Jews. He is the king of the Jews. But
not that little two-bit country over there in the middle of those
eastern countries that everybody's all excited about. That's not the Jews that he's
king of. We're going to see then. All
right, back to the text. John 18. He is king of the Jews,
but not that little country in the Middle East. Oh, he's king
over there, but that's not his kingdom. John 18. All right, look at verse 33.
Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again. John 18, 33. and called Jesus
and said unto him, Art thou the king of the Jews? And Jesus answered
him by asking a question. Sayest thou this thing of thyself? Or did others tell it thee of
me? I got a blessing Sunday morning
in considering our Lord's majesty and power as he stood
before that little peanut ruler. Our Lord stood before him, looking
him right in the eye, and this man was trembling. Pilate was
trembling. He was afraid of the man who
was before him in chains. Pilate was on the judgment seat,
and yet he was fearful of this man he was judging. as all men should be. The Lord's majesty and dignity
as he stood before Pilate. He doesn't answer his questions.
He doesn't answer this man's direct questions. Now listen,
this is important. He does the asking. Kings don't run around telling
everybody, trying to convince everybody they're a king. Not
a true king. A true king doesn't run around telling everybody,
listen, I'm the king. They used to make fun of him
for Mr. Nixon when he was president. Remember how he used to say,
now I am, let me make this perfectly clear, I am the president. Remember
that? And I'm not making fun of the
man, I thought he was a pretty good president. But they made
fun of him for that because he kept Reminding everybody, I'm
the president. Well, if he really had the homage
of the people, he wouldn't have to do that. Kings don't have
to keep telling everybody they're the king. Not a real king. His subjects know it. And if they're not his subjects,
he's not trying to convince them of anything. Kings don't... Kings aren't subject to their
subjects. Kings aren't subject to the demands
of the subjects, are they? You don't ask kings questions
unless they give you permission. Right? He doesn't answer this
man. Kings aren't subject to the demands
of their peasants. But a true king is the one who
makes the demands and asks the questions. Are you with me? A
true king. What we're seeing and learning
by this and the purpose of this message is every time we meet
together, if we exalt Christ, you'll profit. If I exalt Christ,
I've done my job. If we go away from here seeing
him as he is, a little more clearly, it'll give us more peace. It'll
give us more comfort. It'll increase our faith. It'll
increase our admiration of him. And it will increase our petitions
to him. Everything will make us trust
him. He's king. He's king. What we're learning is he's the
true Christ of scriptures, as opposed to the false one out
there. And this false stuff is. Has encompassed the world and
there's so very few. Who knows, see the whole like
this whole story here, the whole nation people everybody. Killed him. Hated him, killed
him, said we will not have this man reign over us. But now he
had killed him. At that time. Subjects who, who
bowed to him as king. See he's not, Jesus Christ didn't
come to this earth to try to get anybody to believe on him.
He came looking for his subjects. He already had them He's going
to reveal himself to them and them only, not everybody. He
has a kingdom and he's come to save his poor subjects. Things haven't changed. Things
haven't changed, not one bit. Not one bit. There's nothing
in the scriptures to tell us that there's going to be some
kind of worldwide revival, and everybody bowed the knee to Jesus
Christ. No, sir, it's not fair. I'll
give you a verse of scripture. I quote this all the time. When
Christ said this, when he said, when the Son of Man comes, talking about his second return,
when he comes, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith
on That astounds me the more I think
about it. It's going to be so rare. Everybody
calls him king. Everybody calls him lord. He's truly king in the heart
of and truly lord in the heart of those who just know that he
is and bow to him. They didn't make him that. They
didn't accept him as that. They didn't Had anything to do
with him being that. He just revealed himself to it. Like the thief on the cross. All he saw was this bloody hanging
man beside him. Lord, God. How do you know that,
John? In a moment and a twinkling of
an eye, his whole heart and mind and everything changed. His eyesight
was changed. Before he was cussing him too,
making fun of him. How did that happen? The king
just revealed himself. He's king. Now more than ever,
God's word is being called into question. There's very little
of this word to people. This is the word of the king. Can you imagine if the king...
King James, if you read in the front of your Bible, if it has
a dedication to King James, read it sometime. 1611 is when King James had the
Bible translated into the common language, the language of the
people, the English language. He's the one that set that in
motion. Read it sometime. It would be
very interesting. They were scared to death of King James. The translators
who wrote that dedication to him, referred to him almost like
he was God. After you read it, you want to
tear it out of your Bible. I did. They did. They referred to him as your
most dreaded high majesty. In capital, all capital letters.
They were scared to death of him. What if one of those translators
that just And they diligently compared
with one another what each one of them came up with. What if
one of them purposely twisted some part of the translation?
King James would have had them with their heads. Well, there's
a king a lot higher than James that set this thing in motion
with his word. But men take it or leave it.
Now more than ever, God's word is being called into question.
The king, the word of the king. The sovereign rights, reign and
rule of Christ are being questioned. The demands are being made of
the king. People the world over now are
not asking God for anything, they're making demands of him.
Especially in that Pentecostal religion. Claim it! Go up to the king and you claim
it. Well, the king of glory, listen
to me, is still not answering men. He didn't answer this peanut
pilot with a little fig leaf laurel on his head. Can't you
see that fella? Hot-bellied pilot, little pinhead
fella, pretending he's somebody. He wasn't answering him, and
the Lord's not answering people today. He's not answering people.
They think he is. He's answering his people in
power and in majesty and glory and honor, secretly, revealing
his word to them. But he's not talking to these
people that say he's talking to them. No, he's not. He's not
answering them. He doesn't answer anybody that makes demands of
it. He's the one who makes the demands. And this is what our
Lord demanded of Pilate, and this is what he demands of us.
This is what he demands of all human beings, right here. The
question that Christ asked him, the demand he made of Pilate,
is the question of questions still today. Verse 34, Christ
said, You say this of yourself? Are you asking this for your
own information? Are you saying this about me? Or is it just something you heard?
In other words, what do you think about me? I love this guy. Our Lord is
standing there in bonds and chains. And this man who normally has
the right and the power to just, you know, if he doesn't like
the look of a fellow, cut his head off. Our Lord is standing
before him and he makes a demand of him. What do you mean? What do you think about that?
Now, if that had been anybody else standing before Pilate,
he would have become indignant, wouldn't he? And as it is now, he just gets
all flustered. But this is the demand. This
is the question of questions. It's still the issue among all
human beings. This is the one great issue.
What think ye of Christ? Who is he? Who is that man named
Jesus that walked this planet? What do you think about him?
And your answer reveals whether you know him or not. Your answer
reveals whether you're in the kingdom or not. Your answer reveals
whether you're a rebel or a subject. Yes, it does. Are you saying
this of yourself? Do you think I'm king? Or is
everybody just saying that? Now, do you remember when we
looked at 1 Timothy 3.16? It says, without controversy.
Paul concluded that it's without controversy. God. came here. God was manifest in
the flesh. And we, so we decided if that
man named Jesus was God, is God, was God, faith's not an option. It's not a decision. Faith's
not a decision. Faith's not an option. Submission
is not an option. You accept him as your personal
savior, and then later on you make him law. Oh, no, no, no,
no, no. If that's God, it's not an option.
First, if he's God, that's the first thing you do is bow. First
thing you do is believe, whether you understand or not. Agreement
with him is not an option. Well, I believe if he proves
it, that's God. Agreement is not an option. Now, like I said, Pilate, seemed
to be the one in control, was thought to be, yet the scripture
says, King's heart is in the hands of the Lord. Like rivers
of water, he turneth it with us wherever he will. Our Lord
is standing there controlling this man's heart. What do you
think about me? And Pilate's shaking, and he
doesn't know what to think. He's confused. He's not one of
the Lord's own. Verse 35, Pilate answers, Am
I Jew? I can hear him. I can hear him
all flustered. I'm not a Jew. Your own nation
and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me. What have you done? What hast thou done? He wouldn't have tried just any
old common criminal this much, would he? Am I a Jew? Now, our Lord's statement right
here. I'm going to dwell on this a little bit. Our Lord's statement
right here about His Kingdom is all revealing. This will open
up a whole lot to us, what the Lord says. This will expose all the heresy today concerning
Christ's Kingdom. And it's written What he says
is written to us. What he says, Pilate didn't understand,
but we did. Our Lord answered verse 36 and
said, My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, if my kingdom were of this world,
then would my servants fight? that I should not be delivered
to the Jews, but now is my kingdom, not from hence, from here. My
kingdom is not of this world. Now that just blows out of the
water. Ninety-nine percent of religion
is that. My kingdom is not of this world. I've got written down here, repeated
over and over. My kingdom is not of this world,
he said. It's not of this world. If it
were, we'd fight. But it's not of this world, my
kingdom. Now, although the Lord Jesus
Christ reigns and rules and controls all flesh, The earth is the Lord,
Psalm 24 says, and inhabitants thereof. The world and the fullness
thereof. The earth and the fullness thereof.
Everything is the Lord. He owns it. But His kingdom is
not in this little ball of dirt. This is not it. His realm, a
kingdom is a realm of operation. A realm, or God's realm of operation. His purpose, His will, work is
primarily concerned not with this world, but with another,
a spiritual kingdom, a spiritual kingdom, an unseen kingdom. He said in another place, listen
to this, there's another revealing statement, he said the kingdom
of God doesn't come with observation. Well, the revival. That's what it is. The kingdom
of God was there. It was 12 men in an upper room,
and everybody said, ain't nothing too bad. Kingdom doesn't come
with observation. Look, the whole world's gone
after him. That wasn't his kingdom. Those weren't his people. Those
weren't his believers. His people. His subjects. Thousands and thousands
followed him. Just a few were his subjects.
And they didn't look like his subjects. Poor little finite
man thinks that this ball of dirt is what everything is all
about, you know? Little finite man thinks that
this ball of dirt, and he thinks the universe, time and eternity
and everything revolves around this little planet Earth. We've
got to save it. We've got to save it. The Jews over there, now you
picture this globe. I looked at a big, I've got a
big map on my wall of the world. And it'd be even better to look
at a globe. If you have a globe at home,
look at it. It all looks so small and so
insignificant when you look at it from a distance. Now, this
is just one tiny planet in a huge universe. And the inhabitants
thereof, Isaiah said, are like grasshoppers to God. Boy, he sure needs man. Why,
he can't do anything without man. Man is an idiot. You know,
man is an idiot to think that God, everything revolves around
this little ball of dirt and worms crawling around on it.
Why, he's the head. If you look, I meant to say,
the Jews, if you look at the globe or a map and find Israel,
you have to look real hard. Now there's the kingdom. There it is. If you look a little
while, you'll find it. A little bit of speck on the
map over there in the Middle East. You look real hard and
you'll find it. Well, there's God's kingdom.
How foolish can you get? How foolish can you get? America. Oh, well, America then. It's much bigger. Put two of this country in Africa,
four or five of them in Asia. This is God's kingdom? No way. This ball of dirt plays a part
in God's purpose. He created this ball of dirt.
He created man upon it for the purpose of having a people out
of every tribe, kindred, nation, and tongue under heaven to the
glory of his grace. And he came to visit this planet
several times since he created it. He came to visit this planet
like a king would visit some of his poor little countries.
You understand, he's reigning the rule over angels, a multitude
of heavenly hosts before the world, before this ball was ever
created. And when he created, he condescended,
Proverbs 8 says, his delightful with the sons of men, like a
good king, went down to visit some of his subjects, his poor
little subject. He did come to earth. But his
kingdom, that's his kingdom. He sits on the circle of the
earth. His kingdom's not confined to that little ball of dirt.
He came, in the end, to do that great work of redemption for
some of those poor earthbound creatures. He came to save them,
then he went back to his eternal throne. In the right hand of
the scriptures, it says, of the majesty on high. Where's that?
Well, the heavens can't contain him. The heavens can't contain him.
The heavens, not just our atmosphere, the heavens can't contain him.
God dwelleth not in buildings made with hand. He's not going
to sit on some throne in Israel. He didn't do it the first time.
Did his thing. Why didn't he do it the first
time? Because that's not his kingdom. He had a throne. It's in heaven. His kingdom's not of this world.
Someday he's going to incinerate this little ball of dirt. It's
burned it up. The blast of his nostrils, as
Scripture says. His kingdom is not of this world.
Not of this poor little sphere. If so, we would fight. If this was it, Christ is going
to come back and reign a thousand years and all of the preliminal,
everybody's all caught up with, and we'd fight. We'd get into
church and state and all these fights. I just finished this message
when I got a package from UPS and it was a package and I didn't
know, I wasn't expecting a package. Well anyway, in it was this thing
from the Legislative Action Arm of Family Research Council of
America, located in Virginia. And they sent me about 250 voter
guides for Christian voters to know who to vote for. I thought,
how appropriate, right after I finished it. And here they
send me this big thing and want me to start politicking. We've got to get us a Christian congressman. They want me to
take my time tonight to inform you voters who to vote for. And that's what preachers are
doing, people. Social issues, political issues, all manner
of issues regarding this world. We've got to fight. We've got
to fight. No, we don't. What's our fight? Paul said to
Timothy, he said, No man that woreth entangleth himself with
the affairs of this body. Nowhere in this book will you
find any prophet or apostle taking up any political cause for anybody,
ever. You won't find one instance of
one apostle candidating for Tiberius, the first, or whoever, candidating. You won't hear him talk about
social issues. You won't hear him talk about
prayer in schools. You won't hear him talk about anything
but one thing. One thing needful. This is the
battle that's being raised. This is the warfare. Paul said
this, we're not wrestling against flesh and blood. We're not fighting
evil government. The fight is against principalities
and powers, spiritual wickedness in high places. What's the power? What do we use? What do we use
to fight with? What's our weapon? What is it
people need to be informed of? Who to vote for? Who to vote to? That's who. Truth. Tell them the truth. Christ said the truth will set
them free. The gospel. People are informed voters. I'm trying to inform believers.
That's all I'm concerned with. Christ said, My kingdom is not
of this world. If it were, we would fight. We'd
enter into these issues, these social issues. Save this planet. Verse 37, I'm going to go on. Pilate therefore said unto him,
Art thou a king then? Are you a king? Jesus answered. Now, he still didn't answer. Thou sayest that I am a king." I love that. You said I'm a king. Oh, my. Pilate wished he had
never asked him that. I wish he had bowed before him,
doesn't he? Right now, Pilate wishes that. Art thou a king? Thou sayest. Well, here's what
he answers. He says, To this end was I born,
and for this cause came I into the world. Not to set up an earthly
kingdom. No, but that I should bear witness
unto the truth. And that's what we're all about.
The preacher and the church, that's what it's all about. To
bear witness unto the truth. Because everyone that's of the
truth, here is my voice. Every subject of the kingdom
is going to bow. Every Jew is going to acknowledge
him as king. Every Jew. The bear witness of
the truth, he said. Everyone that is of the truth
is going to hear his voice. I'm looking for Jews. I'm looking
for Jews to tell them there's a king. King of the Jews. You
see, he still didn't answer this man, did he? He still didn't
answer him. All spiritual Israel will be
saved. But he's not a Jew which is one outwardly, but inwardly,
and circumcisions of the heart. And all Israel will be saved
by decree of the King. He decreed it. He gave commandment
to save his people. Right now, all true Jews are
meeting together to bow the knee and freely confess that Jesus
Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords. Not by man's decree,
not by their decree, not by choice, not by our making him so, but
by decree of God. I want you to read this in closing.
John 19, in closing, had like this. John 19, verse 19. Well, Pilate,
after all of this interview, he still didn't get an answer. So it was customary for them
to write over whoever it was that they crucified, it was customary
to write their accusation. He's a murderer. The thieves
on the cross had that written over there, murdering a thief
so that everybody could go by and see why they're getting what
they got. Well, Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross, and
the writing was, Jesus of Nazareth, in capital
letters, the King of the Jews. The King of the Jews. And the Jews got furious. I mean the fleshly Jews, the
national Jews. Look at it. The title read, Many
of the Jews. And you know, he wrote it in
Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. He had it written in three languages.
That was all the languages of the earth at that time. All the
known languages. Every tribe, kindred, nation,
and tongue got to read when they walked by her. That's the King
of the Jews. But the Jews, these national
Jews, when they read that, the chief priest of the Jews said
to Pilate, don't write the King of the Jews. Writer, he said,
I'm the king of the church. Well, he didn't. Pilate answered,
what I've written, I've written. Why? Why did he write that? Pilate said, I've written. God wrote there for Jews to read
in every language. There is a king of the Jews.
He has a people. They're all Jews. Jews now, do
you know what a Jew is? It's the son of Jacob. He's the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. The son of Jacob. Chosen, loved by God, covenant
given. What advantage hath the Jew? Every way. All Jews will be saved. All Jews. They have a king that
commanded it. All right, let's sing in closing
a good hymn. We'll sing an acapella. You can
stay back there, Jeanette. Number 16 in the green book.
I like this. Number 16. Let's stand as we
sing. The Lord is King, lift up, lift
up thy voice, sing His praise, sing His praise. All heaven and
earth before Him now rejoice, sing His praise, sing His praise. Sing his praise. From world to world the joy shall
ring, for he alone is God and King. From sky to sky his banners
fling. Sing his praise. Sing His praise. The Lord is King throughout His
vast domain. He is all, all in all. The Lord Jehovah evermore shall
reign. He is all, all in all. Through earth and heaven one
song shall ring, From grateful heart his anthem spring. Arise ye saints, salute thy King,
All thy days sing his praise. Thank you.