Well, let's look back at Matthew
chapter 27, and I'm sure you still have your Bible open. And I'm going to deal with the
subject of today, as Ron indicated in his prayer, the subject is
substitution. That is, that our Lord Jesus,
He died in the stead of Barabbas. in his stead. Substitution is
a word we're very familiar with. A substitute teacher comes in
when the regular teacher can't be there. It's one who stands
in the stead of another. That's our Lord Jesus. He's the
substitute of his people. He stood in the stead of all
of those that God gave him in the covenant of grace. And he
answered every demand of God's perfect law. And then he answered
the demand of penalty for sin, which is death. He died in the
stead of his people. And in this portion of scripture,
he died in the stead of Barabbas. Let's seek God's face once more
before we delve into this vital subject this morning. It is with
thanksgiving, Father, that we draw near to you through the
Lord Jesus, our Savior, our surety, our substitute. We give you praise that in old
eternity you gave us to Christ. who has always been our representative. He's always looked out for us. He is the one who is responsible
for our salvation. Our hearts rejoice in him and
in that perfect work of salvation that he has already accomplished
for his people. Lord, thank you for putting us
under the sound of the gospel, this good news of full and free
forgiveness, of righteousness that you freely impute to everyone
who believes on your Son. We thank you for the work of
the Spirit of grace in quickening us when we were dead in trespasses
and in sins. Lord, thank You for the gifts
of repentance and faith. And we do rejoice in Your grace
and Your goodness to us. And even more than that, we rejoice
in the Lord our God. Be with us as we seek to worship
this hour. Bless each one who is watching,
listening to this message, Lord, may the speaker be lost in the
gospel message and only our Lord Jesus be the one who comes through,
who seeks, who saves, who sanctifies, who justifies. May every eye
of faith be focused on this glorious Savior. Bless Your Word, Father,
to magnify Your great and glorious Name, and to exalt that One who
is God of very God, and bone of our bone, and flesh of our
flesh, even our Lord Jesus. These things we ask in His Name
and for His sake. Amen. Several years ago, I was visiting
with one of the men of our congregation who is now with the Lord, that
is Brother Bush, Brother Lloyd Bush, and we were conversing
about this man Barabbas. And he said he had heard someone
say that Barabbas was a saved man because the Lord Jesus died
in his stead. And so he asked me what I thought
about that, and this was my response to him, and this is my response
to you. Our Lord Jesus did die in the
stead of Barabbas, but we're not, we have no indication in
the scriptures whatsoever that he died for Barabbas as savior. I know he died in the stead of
Barabbas, but there's nothing, the scriptures speak nothing
about this man being saved by grace, being an object of God's
sovereign mercy. There is nothing said in all
of the Word of God that our Lord Jesus took His sins upon Himself
and that then He died for the sins of this man Barabbas. Nothing is said about that at
all. So I dare not go out on where
there is no limb to go out on, where there is no verse to stake
this upon. I dare not speak of the salvation
of Erebus. I do not know whether the Lord
Jesus was his offering to sin. I do not know whether the Lord
Jesus was his Savior. There's nothing in the scriptures
to indicate that. But I do know this. This is an
illustration of substitution. That is the gospel doctrine of
substitution. Here is a illustration of one
dying in the stead of another. And in this case, it is the Lord
of glory. who takes the place of Barabbas
and dies the death that he deserved." You'll notice here, kind of in
the middle of what Ron read to us, verse 26, Matthew 27, 26,
then released he, that is, Pilate, released
Barabbas unto them, and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered
him to be crucified. I can only imagine what it was
like for Barabbas. He's on what we would call today
death row. He and his other two cohorts
who were guilty of insurrection against Roman authority. And in that insurrection, they
committed murder. In addition, they were all thieves
and they had all been found guilty and therefore worthy of death. And that sentence of death had
already been passed. You men will be crucified on
this day at 9 a.m., you'll be crucified." And as Barabbas and
his two friends were there in the prison, there came a soldier
to him and said, Barabbas, come here. And he opened the door
of the dungeon or the cell, and he let Barabbas out, and then
he locked the door back. He was a little early. Barabbas
thought he would be a little later. And he says to this man,
Barabbas, you're free to go. And Barabbas, I'm sure was, he's
a tough guy, but I'm sure he was just shocked. What do you
mean I'm free to go? I'm scheduled to die this morning.
Don't you know what's going on?" And the soldier said, yes, you
were scheduled to die, but there's another man who's going to die
in your stead. You're free to go. Another is
going to serve your sentence. He's going to die. And you can
go. And you put yourself in the place
of Arabus. As you leave and you look back
and you watch and you see in a little bit, you see these men,
three men, who carry their crosses up a hill. And then one of them
has a man step in and carry his cross for him. And Barabbas knew,
that's the one who's dying for me. I don't know why he's dying
in my stead, but I sure am glad he's going to die in my stead."
As he continued to watch, his two buddies were crucified. But
then that man who died in the stead of Barabbas, Barabbas scheduled
to die in the middle of the other two, may be indicating he was
the ringleader. As he continued to watch, he
saw that man, his substitute, be crucified for him. And I wonder how he felt. Scripture
doesn't tell us, of course, but as I, you know, I think about
situations like this, and I'm one who kind of visualizes what's
going on. And as Barabbas made his way
away from the scene, I'm sure the thought that was going through
his mind was, that man is dying in my stead. I don't believe that our Lord
died for him in a spiritual way. As I said, there's no indication
of that, but he could certainly say this in a truthful way. I
should have been crucified. I should have suffered and died. I should have suffered on that
cross. But that man, that man right
there, I don't even know whether he knew his name or not. He's
gonna die in my stead. Our Lord Jesus now, the opposition
against him has continued to grow throughout his ministry. And now it reaches a fever pitch. All the hostility, all the hatred
of the religious folks, it now has built to where it erupts. And they're going to give vent
to their hatred of Jesus of Nazareth, and they're gonna kill him. They'll
kill him. It's interesting to know that,
of course, this is Friday. It's interesting to know that
back on Monday, the multitudes were cheering for Jesus. In fact,
go back with me to Matthew chapter 21. Would you do that? Look at
Matthew chapter 21. They were praising him. This
is when our Lord made his triumph and entry into Jerusalem. Look
at chapter 21, and I'll have to kind of break into the setting
here. Look at verse eight. And a very
great multitude, A very great multitude, they spread their
garments in the way. Others cut down branches from
the trees, and they strawed them in the way. And the multitudes
that went before and that followed cried, saying, Hosanna! the son to the son of David.
Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna
in the highest. Hosanna, be propitious to us. Be merciful to us. Now remember
at this junction, they thought that Jesus was gonna liberate
them from Roman bondage. And they're praising Him. Here
He comes in. He's coming into Jerusalem. And no doubt in their
minds, they're thinking He's coming into Jerusalem to gather
an army around Him. And then He will defeat all the
forces of Rome. But He doesn't do that at all.
He's not the Savior that they're looking for. They're not looking
to be saved from sin. They're not looking to be saved
from the wrath of God. They're not looking for God's
grace in this man. They're not looking for God's
salvation in this man. What they're expecting him to
do is to free them. Not from the bondage of the evil
one, but from the bondage of Rome. And so now they're praising
Him. Everybody's cheering for Jesus. Everybody's happy Jesus is coming
into the city. But they find out that that's
not the kind of Savior He is. He's not a Savior from this bondage
to Rome, bondage to Caesar, bondage to Herod, bondage to Pontius
Pilate. He's not that kind of Savior.
He's a Savior from sin. He's a Savior from Satan. He's
a Savior from the world. And so their attitude just, it
changes abruptly. So that as we go back to Matthew
chapter 27, by the end of the week, while they're shouting a different
theme. Look at Matthew 27, 22. And Pilate saith unto them, What
shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say
to him, this is the multitudes, they all say, let him be crucified. My, how their rhetoric has changed. It's the same group. But their mindset toward Jesus
of Nazareth is altogether different. They were praising Him, not praising
Him for grace. Not praising Him because He's
the Savior of sinners. Not praising Him because they
understand God sent Him to justify the ungodly. No, they were praising
Him back there for earthly, for carnal security that they hoped
would come from Him. No more praising of Jesus now,
though. Once they find out He's not that
kind of Savior, while they go over, we'd say, to the dark side. Actually, they've always been
there. They've always been really in opposition to Him in a spiritual
way. But it's got to come out publicly. And it does here in this passage
of Scripture. And when our Lord stands before
this governor, He stands there because the multitudes have turned
against him. They have been manipulated by
the chief priests and rulers. That's how fickle people are.
And that's only human nature. Do you know that? People can
change almost with a snap of the finger. One moment they're
happy with Jesus, the next moment they hate Him. One moment they
say, let's make Him king, the next moment they say, let's kill
Him. And they go before the Roman authority in town, that is, Herod
or Pilate, and insist that He die. Why did they have this change
of heart? Well, look at verse 20. But the chief priests and elders,
they persuaded the multitude that they should ask for Barabbas
to be released and destroy Jesus. They put themselves under the
hearing of a false gospel. of men who absolutely despised
the Lord Jesus Christ and everything He stood for. They hated Him. You see, these men, these men
right here that we're talking about, the chief priests and
elders, that is the Sanhedrin, they believed in salvation by
works. Well, that's diametrically opposed
to the salvation that our Lord Jesus preached, salvation by
grace. They preached salvation by obedience
to God's law, what they called Moses' law. We love Moses' law,
but they hated him of whom Moses wrote and Moses spoke. They hated
him. And so these, the rulers, the
chief priests of the Jewish religion, they persuaded the multitude. Listen. Men can easily be persuaded
of almost anything, especially when it comes to religion. Because
the natural man is very much opposed to grace, the grace of
God in salvation, but he's very open to error, the heresy of
salvation by works. And since these people were blinded
as to who Jesus of Nazareth really was, then they're easily persuaded
by the religious leaders. They listened to the wrong voices.
That's what they did. They listened to the wrong voices.
Now listen to me, hear me. You've got to be careful who
you listen to when it comes to the religion and the things of
God. The message of God's book is
Christ only, grace only, and our Lord Jesus
received by faith only. This book in no way ever sets
forth salvation by works. No, that's impossibility. It
isn't about what you can do for God, it's what God must do for
you. And you see, these people were
manipulated by the Sanhedrin, by the religious leaders, and
all of a sudden, Instead of praising Jesus, when Pilate asked Him,
what should I do with Jesus who is called the Christ? Here's
the multitude, the ones who said, Hosanna to the Son of David,
they now say, crucify Him, crucify Him. You see where there is no work
of grace in the heart. A person will appraise Jesus
one day and demand his debt the next. There is no work of regeneration
in the hearts of these people, none whatsoever. And therefore,
they readily receive the message of salvation by works. Of course,
this man who's kind of Heading up everything, at least in his
mind he is, Pontius Pilate. His actions really revealed that
he wanted to release Jesus of Nazareth. At first he refused
to even hear the case. He said to the Jews, you take
him. You judge him according to your law. The Jews said, it's
not lawful for us to put a man to death. We can't do that. A
little bit later, the Sanhedrin said, crucify him, crucify him.
And Pilate, he responded this way. He said, well, you take
him and you crucify him, for I find no fault in him. And the
people said, the Sanhedrin said, that's the highest court in the
land of Israel. They said, we have a law and
by that law, he ought to die because he made himself the son
of God. And they considered that blasphemy. He's guilty of blasphemy. He's
guilty of an insurrection against Rome. So at first he refused
even to hear the case. And then when he was forced to
hear the case, he said, I'm convinced he's innocent. He said, I find
no fault in him at all. And then upon learning that Jesus
was a Galilean, he thought he could pass the book off to Herod. After all, he's Jesus of Nazareth,
Jesus of Galilee. He's a Galilean. Galilee was
in Herod's jurisdiction. This was Herod Antipas, one of
the sons of Herod the Great. It's the same guy that beheaded
John the Baptist. And as soon as Pontius Pilate
found out that Jesus was of his province, immediately he sent
him to Herod to be examined and to have his case tried before
him. He figured in this way, this
is what Pontius Pilate figured, in this way he could get rid
of this troublesome business. I'll put it off on somebody else.
And he could also earn some brownie points with Herod by recognizing
his jurisdiction and his authority. And it wasn't a long distance
for the Savior to be taken from Pilate's hall over to Herod. One of the old writers said it
was only 350 steps. You say, why was Herod in Jerusalem? He's a Jew. He's supposed to be there because
it's Passover. He was born a Jew. He's at Jerusalem
to observe the Passover. Oh, how blind he was and almost
everyone who attended that Passover feast, that Passover celebration. Oh, how blind they were. The
true Passover lamb was there before them and they couldn't
see it. That's how blind they were. Men
can't see the truth. Women can't see the truth apart
from a revelation of grace. That's why we're so against this
decisionism that's been insisted upon by many religious leaders
for lots of years. It isn't a decision that needs
to be made, it's a revelation that needs to come home to the
heart. A revelation of God's glory,
a revelation of God's holiness, a revelation of God's purity,
a revelation of God's demands, and a revelation of our impurity,
of our ungodliness, of our depravity. and a revelation of the glory
of Christ Jesus, the glory of who He is in His person as God
and man, the glory of the reason for His coming into this world,
to die, to give Himself a ransom for His people, and the glory
of the salvation that He has opened up for all of His people. But it has to be revealed. He
has to be revealed. That's what the apostles said
in Galatians chapter one. God, when it pleased him, he
revealed his son in May. That's what he said. A revelation
of Jesus Christ. Well, of course, Herod, he was
happy to see Jesus because he was hoping he'd get to see a
miracle. But when our Lord was questioned
by Herod, our Lord gave no answer to his questions, and he refused
to work a miracle. See, it appears that if our Lord
Jesus had performed a miracle for Herod and his soldiers, then
it appears that he would have probably released him. Go your
way. That's not going to happen. Therefore,
our Lord answered him, never a word. Because our Lord Jesus,
He came into this world to lay down His life for the sheep.
He came to die. He's not going to try to get
out of it. Why, He told one of His disciples
when Peter drew a sword, ready to defend him. Our Lord said,
put your sword away. Why, if I needed to be released,
if I needed help here, I could call on 10,000 angels, they'd
be here immediately. But then how shall the purpose
of God be fulfilled? He said, this is the reason I
came, to give my life a ransom for many. No, he didn't seek
to be released. Our Lord didn't avoid death. Why, he's the lamb who was slain
from before the foundation of the world. And then Herod sends him back
to Pilate. Not before he and his soldiers
mocked him though, and then they put a purple robe on him. They
mocked him as the king and they sent him back to Pilate. And
the scripture says that very day Herod and Pilate became good
friends. When the Savior is brought back
to Pilate, the Sanhedrin follow again. And once again, Pilate
says, I find no fault in this man. I've weighed the evidence. I don't see that he's done anything
worthy of death. What a disgusting ruler. He has admitted with his own
words the innocence of Jesus of Nazareth. And then on top
of that, his wife, his wife had a dream, and she sends message
to him and says, don't have anything to do with this man. Don't have
anything to do with him. I've had a dream about this.
It's not going to come out good for you. Let him go! But he doesn't let him go. And
really, he couldn't let him go. First of all, the purpose of
God would not permit Pilate to release him. And secondly, this
man Pontius Pilate, he's not gonna release him because then
he'd lose face with the Jews. He can't bear that. He's an arrogant
man. He loves his power. He loves
his authority. This would make him appear to
be weak. And so he gives in to the crowd. And then he, in a
ceremony as it were, he washes his hands. I'm innocent. I'm innocent of this. It's on
y'all. And the crowd said, that's okay.
His blood be on us and on our children. And it is. It is. Now it was the custom, I'll give
you four words here just briefly. First of all, it was the custom
for the Roman authority to release to the Jews someone who is in
captivity as a remembrance of the release of the Jewish captivity
from Egyptian bondage. And so they would, and this was
also to kind of get in good with the people, they would release
someone who was a prisoner. That was the custom. And there
was a Here's another word, criminal, who is about to be crucified
and his name is Barabbas. Very wicked, openly wicked, threat
to society. He's guilty of robbery. He's guilty of murder. Of course,
to some of the Jews, he was a hero. because he was leading an insurrection
against Rome. He's rising up against Rome.
And in the process of doing that, he murdered somebody. He is a criminal. Scripture says
a notorious criminal. Which means he was well known
as a criminal. He's a rebel. He's a seditionist. And he's a robber. It says in John 18 verse 40,
Now Barabbas was a robber and a murderer. So here the choice is put before
the people. Who do you want me to release
to you? Hey, he's pretty shrewd, man. He's got this figured out. If
I said before them a robber and a murderer, if I said before
them this man, say, well, I can release him or I can release
Jesus of Nazareth who performed all kinds of good miracles for
you folks. Pilate just knows the crowd is
going to say, the multitudes are going to say, release Jesus,
let Him go. But he didn't figure right. Sometimes
these politicians don't have the crowds figured exactly right.
And here is Pilate. He thinks this is going to get
him off the hook. And they said, release Barabbas. What then shall I do with Jesus
who is called the Christ? Crucify Him. That's what they
said. Crucify Him. They made the choice. They made the choice. Accustomed. They made their choice of a criminal. And then there's the condemnation. Well, what's going to happen
to Jesus of Nazareth? Crucify Him. But make sure you
always remember this. This is all working out according
to God's purpose. His purpose of grace. What's
it going to take to save you? What's it going to take to save
me? It's going to take the God-man living a life in obedience to
God's law and dying under the righteous and just penalty for
sin He's got to be crucified, he's got to die. The wages of
sin is death. So there's the condemnation.
Now let me remind you of a few things about this story of Barabbas
and how this relates to you and me. First of all, here's sinfulness
that is described. Barabbas, he's a type of us in
many ways. He's a rebel against authority.
He stirred up sedition. Well, we're a bunch of rebels.
We rebelled against God. Don't ever forget in Adam, we
became rebels. God gave him one law and he rebelled
against that law. He willfully defied God. It wasn't just the eating of
whatever that fruit was. That's not when he sinned. It's
when he willed to eat. You see, it's in the heart. Not that which pumps blood through
us, but our innermost being. That's where sin starts. That's
where it originates. Out of the heart, the Savior
said, all of these evil things proceed. Out of the heart. We're rebels against God. We've
got a rebellious nature against Him. Secondly, He was a robber. Not only a rebel, but a robber.
Do you know we're all thieves? We're all God robbers. We've robbed Him of the worship
that's due Him. We've robbed Him of the glory
of creation. Most people believe evolution.
That's robbing God. You're just trying to rob God
of His glory in creation. And then people rob God. We've
all robbed God by nature in divine providence. That's why we attribute,
that is men and women in general attribute everything to luck
or chance or fate. People say, well, as fate would
have it. Not fate, God. Not luck, God. Not chance, God. God governs all things. That's what the Scripture says.
He has dominion over all things in heaven, on earth, and under
the earth. That's why David said, whatsoever
the Lord pleased. That's what he did everywhere
throughout his vast creation. and we've robbed him of the glory
of salvation by believing man has a free will and that it's
up to a man or a woman or a boy or a girl as to whether they
will be saved and not up to God. That is thievery of the worst
sort. That's robbery worthy of death. You try to steal God's glory
and salvation. And he was a murderer, this man
was, and we're murderers. We're all murderers. We've committed
multiple murders in our hearts. Envy, hatred, anger, wrath, malice,
in the eyes of God, equal to murder. You hate somebody? Say, I just despise that man. You've killed him in your heart.
You're a murderer. Me too. What's more, we're all guilty
of the murder of the Son of God. Our sins nailed Him to the cross.
Why did Jesus of Nazareth have to die? Because of our sins. He died for His people and His
people are filthy in sin. Our sins killed Him. His death was a direct result
of all that we are in opposition to God. There's only one way
for God to be just and justify us. The Lord Jesus had to die
for our sins according to the scripture. And so, I say secondly, here
is a sentence that is determined Barabbas was not merely awaiting
the sentencing for his conduct. The sentence for his crimes had
already been determined. He had already been found guilty.
For his criminal offenses, he must die. Did he deserve to die? Sure he did. Sure he did. He's a threat to society. and
the law found him worthy of death and sentenced him to die. What
about you and me? The Bible says all who sin and
come short of the glory of God. Do we deserve to die? Well, the
law of God has pronounced us guilty. Guilty. Guilty as charged. Read Romans
chapter 3, 19 and 20. We're justly condemned. The soul
that sinneth shall die. Have you sinned? Now, let's just
stop. Have you sinned? We say, well,
I'm not as good as I ought to be, but that wasn't the question. Have you sinned? Would you admit
that you've sinned at least once? Well, yeah, nobody's perfect.
One sin. That's all it takes, just one. But I've got news for you. I'd
say my estimation is each one of us in our minds, in our hearts,
in our innermost beings, in our imagination, in our dreams, in
the reason why we do things, I'd say each one of us sins at
least a thousand times a day. And moreover, it's not all the
sins that we do. That's not the only problem,
but it's our sin nature. It is what we are. We are sin. And the sentence has already
been determined. For He said, the soul that sinned
shall die. And you've already been judged
and found guilty. God's law has pronounced us all
guilty before Him. The sentence has been determined.
But here's the third thing. Substitution demonstrated. Can you imagine how Barabbas
felt when they came and unlocked his cell door and said, buddy,
this is your day. You're free to go. Go on and
get out of here. But what about the law? Well,
the law's going to get satisfaction. We're going to kill somebody
in your stand. I bet you Barabbas said, well,
I never heard of such a thing. And the soldier said, me neither,
but go on and get out of here. We have no issue with you anymore.
As far as we're concerned, your sentence is going to be carried
out. It's just it's going to be carried
out in somebody else. And Barabbas? I'll tell you what,
as far as the law is concerned, you are not a lawbreaker. Go. And he went, knowing the
only reason he was set free was because the substitute was going
to die in his stead. Now that one who died in his
stead in a literal way, in a truthful way, but not in a spiritual way,
That one who died in his stead, he died in a truthful way, in
a real way, and in a spiritual way, and in a saving way for
all of his people. You deserve to die. Christ died
in your stead. You see, this is the good news
of the gospel. Everything that the justice of
God demanded, our Lord Jesus has rendered to it. Perfection
in life. Death to satisfy the justice
of God. They demanded death for sin.
Substitution is demonstrated here. Jesus took our place. And then here's the salvation
demanded. Jesus died for Barabbas. Now, I know there was a lot of
crookedness about the laws of Rome back then, but let's say
it was laws that were abided by. Was there any way that Barabbas
could be killed also and still be true to the law? The answer
is no. What was it the law demanded? Death for violations of the law. Well, the law got death. It wasn't
the death of Barabbas. It was the death of Jesus of
Nazareth in his stead. Barabbas goes free. I'll tell you something, salvation
is demanded by the justice of God for everyone Jesus Christ
suffered, bled, and died for. Now, don't you pay any attention
to those who teach universal redemption. No, that's not true. Our Lord Jesus died for those
God gave him in the covenant of grace. It was for them that
he worked out a life of perfection. And it was for them that he died
on the cross of Calvary to satisfy everything law and justice demanded. Well, was salvation really accomplished
then? Oh yes, and the evidence is our
Lord Jesus was raised from the grave. The justice of God dealt
with him in the most severest of ways. The justice of God reached
out and thrust its sword into his very heart. The wrath of God fell on him
because he bore in his own body our sins on the tree. And justice
poured out on him all of its wrath of all of the people God
gave to Christ in the covenant of grace. At last, there wasn't
any wrath remaining. And justice was satisfied. And
our Lord Jesus, therefore, was raised from the dead. And as
He had no sins, being raised from the dead, He had no sins,
He put our sins away. We don't have them either. In
fact, we have His righteousness imputed to us. What does imputed
mean? Charged to our account, put to
us. His obedience unto death is reckoned
to be ours. Read Romans chapter four, imputed,
reckoned, numbered. You see, the doctrine of imputation
is really quite simple. Adam sinned and his sin is imputed
to all of his race. The sins of all of God's elect
were imputed to the Lord Jesus, charged to his account. If they're
put to his account, they're taken off of our account, right? Now
you know that's true. And our Lord Jesus, He was obedient
even unto death in establishing righteousness. And that righteousness
He established, that's put to our account. The law can't come after us.
If the law looks at us, and it does, the law says, he's perfect. He's perfect. Our perfection
is seated at the right hand of God. He is our righteousness. He is the Lord our righteousness. Christ is. And in Him we have life, we have
freedom, we have righteousness, we have peace, we have joy, we
have forgiveness, and we have sonship. Oh, the glorious doctrine of
substitution. As our Lord Jesus died in the
stead of Barabbas, in a greater way, in a more spiritual
way, in a saving way, he died for all of his people. Here's
our hope. This is my hope and this is my
plea that when Christ died, He died for me. And if He died for
me, there is no way a just and holy God could ever or would
ever punish me because all of my sins have already been punished
in my substitute. That's good news, isn't it? That's
good news for the day. And I tell you, if there's anyone
listening to me who hasn't been brought to faith in the Lord
Jesus, may the Spirit of God draw you effectually to Him right
now and show you what you are and
who the only Savior is. And I tell you, if the Spirit
of God does a work of grace in your heart, I can assure you
Christ put away your sins. He put away your sins because
God chose you unto salvation before the world began. Here's
our hope. Salvation is of the Lord. Well,
let's close in prayer. Lord, we thank you for your grace
that was given us in Christ Jesus. We rejoice in Him who is our
substitute. And we see a beautiful illustration
of our Lord Jesus' substitutionary work for us in this story about
Barabbas. Christ took his place. And in a greater way, in a more
wonderful way, in a saving way, the Lord Jesus Christ, the King
of heaven and earth, he came and he died as the substitute
for your people, Father. And then He was buried and He
arose again. And the evidence that He did
the work you gave Him to do is He arose again and He's gone
back to heaven and He governs all things. What a sweet, sweet
story this is. And we rejoice in your Son and
in His salvation. Bless all who've sat under the
sound of the Word this morning. These things we ask for Christ's
sake. Amen.