Turn with me to John, the Gospel
of John, chapter 18. John 18. I want to read about
three verses in the latter part, beginning in verse 38. Mark chapter 15, those first
15 verses, which have to do with the same thing, but look with
me in verse 38 of John 18. "...Pilate saith unto him, What
is truth? And when he had said this, he
went out again unto the Jews." and saith unto them, I find in
him no fault, no fault. But you have a custom that I
should release unto you one at the Passover. Will ye therefore
that I release unto you the King of the Jews? Then cried they
all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas." Now, Barabbas
was a robber. My message this morning is in
the form of a question, and it is simply, are you a Barabbas? Am I? of Barabbas." We ought
to note in that 38th verse that even his enemies had to confess
that Jesus is the sinless Christ. He is the sinless God-man. Pilate said, I find no fault
in Him. And then I want you also to notice
here in John 18, in that 39th verse, where Pilate says to him,
but you have a custom, that is, the Jews had a custom, that I
should release unto you one at the Passover. And if you remember,
the Passover was that feast that God ordained to commemorate year
after year what took place when He delivered them from Egypt. They were told to put the blood
of that Passover lamb on the lentils and doorposts of their
homes. And he said to them, when I see
the blood, I will pass over you." In other words, the judgment
of God fell on every household in Egypt. But God, in a sacrifice,
delivered those Israelites and He called it Passover, and they
celebrated that feast from that day forward. And a custom, maybe
one, I don't know when it began, but a custom had come about that
on this day of Passover, Those in authority, such as the Romans,
they would release a prisoner to the people as a gesture during
the Passover. But rather than releasing or
having released this sinless Christ that had no fault in Him
whatsoever, The Scripture says that the people cried out that
rather He release unto them this man Barabbas, a man condemned
to die, a known and most likely admitted criminal, sitting in
his cell awaiting execution. Can you imagine? the shock when
the guards came to him and told him the good news. And I don't think that you could
look at this situation and what would follow after this without
thinking that there is some great injustice being done here. And especially when you contrast
this sinless one, the Lord Jesus Christ, on the one hand, and
Barabbas, this evil vile criminal, on the other hand. But just imagine if you're Barabbas. Just imagine if you're in his
situation. And this is the only way that
you can be set free. And we come to this this morning
because the way in which he is able to go free. Now think about this. The way
in which this man Barabbas is enabled to be set free is at
the heart of the gospel. Because the principle, you might
say the very foundation principle, of that salvation which is of
the Lord is this principle of substitution. I don't know how
many times and in how many ways again and again, even in the
Old Testament, was salvation by a substitute set forth in
the Scripture. There are three things that I
want us to notice in this, this morning. Number one, Barabbas
pictures every one of us by nature. Barabbas is a type of every sinner
as we are in ourselves, no matter who we are, where we're from,
whatever we might think ourselves to be. When the Spirit of God
reveals to us what we are in the sight of God and our state
in ourselves as sinners, this is the best picture of us. We are Barabbas. What does it say in the Scriptures
about this man Barabbas? Well, there are several accounts
of him in the gospel, and one thing we find out about him is
this, he was a thief and a robber. When you look at the last statement
there in verse 40 of John 18, it says that, it says, now Barabbas
was a robber. And we would not by nature want
to be thought of in that sense, but that is just exactly what
we are before God, because we have sought, as fallen sinners,
to steal the glory from God. Men try to do it on one hand,
they try to steal His glory in creation, speaking of how the
world came into existence by accidental means and things such
as that, evolution. We seek to steal His glory in
His providential workings of all things, ascribing the very
workings of God in providence to fate and chance and nature
and a host of other things? We seek to steal His glory most
of all in salvation when He says it is the gift of His grace and
His mercy and we attribute it to our own works or our own will
rather than His will. We are like Barabbas in a greater
and higher sense, a thief and a robber. Not only that, but
it said of this man Barabbas also that he was a traitor. It says in Luke's gospel that
he, for certain sedition made in the city, was cast into prison. He defied the government. He defied those in power. He became a traitor in the midst
of the people, and likewise, in a far greater sense, we have
been traitors and rebels against the government of heaven and
against the government of God Almighty, and we've been so since
the garden. When our father Adam rose up
against God and defied God in the one thing that God set as
a symbol of his right to be God, In other words, Adam, you can
eat of all the trees in the garden, you can enjoy this creation,
you can do all these things, but you cannot eat of that tree
in the midst of the garden, because it is simply a symbol of my right
as God to be God. You cannot eat of that tree,
not because it's any different in itself, but you cannot eat
of that tree because I said for you not to eat. And so we, just
like this man in a spiritual sense, are traitors and rebels
against the Most High God. Then it says this of this man
Barabbas. It says he was a murderer. If you go back and read there
in Mark chapter 15 and that 7th verse, it says that he was not
only a criminal and a traitor, but he was also a murderer. Well, somebody says, I'm glad
that that certainly could never ever be attributed to me. But
the truth is that the Lord Jesus Christ, in interpreting just
what He says in His commands, shows us the depth of what it
all means. He said, anybody that hates his
brother is guilty of murder. Why? Because he has killed him
or her, he has murdered them in his heart. And most of all,
though that rises up in us before we can ever stop it, because
it proceeds out of our depraved hearts, but most of all, it is
first of all toward God. In other words, the Scripture
says this, Paul writing says that our natural minds, our hearts,
the way we are, our natural minds are enmity against God. Not just those around us. Not
just that we fly off in anger, even if it's not demonstrated
outwardly in our hearts and our minds, if we are thinking to
ourselves, if I could get away with it, I'd kill him. If I could get away, if nobody
would know it, if I wouldn't get prosecuted for it, if nobody
would find it out, and I got a chance, I'd take him out. But the truth is, that's exactly
the way we are toward God. We are toward men and women the
way we are because that's the way we are toward God. Our natural
mind is enmity against God. And we're described as those
who are God-killers in our hearts, God-haters by nature. Not that we hate this imaginary
God that we've invented. Not that we somehow hate this
God that men have raised up and set before us, which they know
will be to our liking, who is no God at all, but the God of
the Bible. Old Jonathan Edwards said one
time, he said, unconverted men would kill God if they could
get at Him, if there was any way possible. And we know that
that is the case because when He came in human flesh and took
upon Himself a body and thereby made Himself submissive and killable,
you might say, what did they do? They cried out, crucify Him,
crucify. And when we shut a living being,
Out of our mind, out of our life, or out of our heart, when we
ignore one who's created by God, we've killed him in our heart.
Well, I'm just, I'm done with him. You just killed him. Then
the Scripture says of this man that he was in prison. Well,
we're walking around here free. It says of him that he was a
prisoner. And yet, that is exactly what
we are as those who in ourselves and in Adam have fallen captive
to Satan. If there's one thing that is
so far away from reality, It is how that we, especially in
this country, I think, but it's how we imagine that we are free
to do anything, to be anything, to go anywhere, to do anything
that we want to. But now listen to what Paul says
when he writes to Timothy. He says, in meekness, instructing
those that oppose themselves. He said that the servant of God
is in meekness to instruct those that oppose themselves. if God, peradventure, will give
them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may
recover themselves out of the snare or the trap of the devil,
who are taken captive by him at his will." You see, just as
Barabbas was locked in that prison, was without any freedom in that
prison. All liberty taken away. That's how God describes every
sinner outside of Christ. The captive of Satan. Not only that, but we're slaves
to our sin. We're captives to our fallen
nature. Somebody said, well, I can do
anything that I want to. That's the problem. I want to. I can be saved if I will. That's the problem. It's our
will. Christ said, you will not come
to me that you might have life. And we're certainly, absolutely
slaves to traditions. and to religion, and to friends,
and even to family. We're slaves and don't even realize
it. We're prisoners to our own nature. We are, as it says, by nature,
the children of wrath, even as others. Here we are, we walk
around in this world, imagine how free we are, how intellectually
free we are, how free we are to do this or that or the other. Nothing binds us when in truth
we're like Barabbas. We're imprisoned, captive, slaves
to sin. And even notice his name. His
name was Barabbas. And that name, that name word,
Barabbas, means the son of His Father. And our Father by nature,
our Father by that connection and lineage that goes all the
way back to our origin, our Father is Adam. And you know what it
says of Adam? In Adam, all We are not only
guilty in Him, but we are also guilty like Him. You go and you read Romans chapter
5. And you'll find out that Adam
is not only a man in himself, but he is and was, as far as
our race is concerned, a representative man. But when it says that sin
entered in, and death by sin, in that all sinned, When did
we all sin? When our federal head and representative,
Adam, fell. When he sinned, we sinned. When he died, our race died spiritually. When he was separated from God,
our race in him was separated from God. And here's this man,
Barabbas, who was also helpless and hopeless and guilty and condemned. He's already legally dead. Why? Because the court had sentenced
him. Because he is sitting there on
death row. And just like him, all of us
are in Adam. It says, in Adam all die. In Adam all were separated from
God. And John says, he that believeth
on him, that is Christ, is not condemned, but he that believeth
not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God. He's just sitting there condemned
by justice and waiting for the sentence to be carried out. That's Barabbas. And that's how
he's a picture of every one of us in ourselves by nature. But, here's the second thing. And that is that Barabbas pictures
all of God's elect. That is, he pictures also all
those that God saves. You see, they, though like everybody
else, were just like Him by nature. Paul, describing us in this way
in Ephesians 2, he says, wherein in time past, ye walked according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience, ye among whom also we all had our conversation
in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. But though he was all these things,
he was set free." Now, I said it appears that there is obvious
injustice here. But God brings all this to pass
to show us how that Barabbas pictures everyone he saves. Now let me just ask you this.
What is the first thing that you think about when you think
about Barabbas walking out of that prison, walking away from
that sentence, scot-free? Well, that's unfair. Or maybe something like this.
He didn't deserve that. He didn't deserve that. And neither
do we deserve the salvation that's in Christ. Because we are made
to go free, we are delivered, and we are not punished as Him
because of the substitute. Turn back in John 18 and look
before this ever happened. Look back at when they went to
lay hold of Christ in the garden. John 18 and verse 6, "...as soon
then as He had said unto them, I am." That's actually what He
said. They ask about, where is Jesus? Are you Jesus of Nazareth? And
he says in response to them, I am, which is that name of Jehovah. And when he says that to them,
it says they went backward and fell to the ground. Now does
that sound like he was weak and helpless and unable to defend
himself had he chosen to? No. He just said, I am. And that whole group of seasoned
soldiers, they just fell back like dead men. Then asked He
them again, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. And Jesus answered, I have told
you that I am He. If therefore you seek Me, let
these go their way." There's the substitute. If you seek Me,
he said, and obviously you've come to take me, try me, accuse
me, if you seek Me, then these have got to go their way. Because
he is not only picturing the substitutionary work that he
would do, but he was showing how divine justice requires this. Listen to what Paul says. He
says, "...there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus. None. None. In John 8, the Pharisees,
these Jews, they answered Christ, they said, We be Abraham's seed,
and were never in bondage to any man. How sayest thou, Ye
shall be made free? And Jesus answered them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant
of sin, and the servant abideth not in the house forever, but
the Son abideth ever. And if the Son therefore shall
make you free, ye shall be free indeed." That means in Christ. The Lord's people are free from
the curse and the condemnation of the law. They're free from
the captivity of Satan. They're free from the penalty
of sin. They're free from the dominion
of sin. They're free to love God and
worship Him and serve Him because the Son has made them free. Because, and this is the third
thing, Barabbas pictures the one way of our deliverance and
our liberation and our salvation, and that is through a substitute. Now, that's what this picture
is all the way through. That's what the Passover lamb
was all about. That's what Abel's lamb sacrifice
was all about. Because God, who must punish
sin, if He does not punish it in you and me, He has to punish
it in a substitute that He approves of, and the only one that He
can approve of is the one He provided. In other words, one
has to die in our place if we're to go free, and we go free like
Barabbas did, but Jesus had to die in our place. The guilty one is set free and
the innocent one is put to death. The great sinner is delivered
and the sinless one remains bound, and Barabbas is spared and Christ
is crucified. Peter describes it like this,
"...for Christ also hath once suffered for sins the just for
the unjust." To do what? To bring them to God. To bring them to God. They deserve eternal death. They have the debt to God's justice. They deserve punishment for their
sin, but a substitute has suffered in their place. And that's why
in Romans 8, when Paul asks this question, he says, who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Well, they all,
as I see them described in the Old Testament, And in the New
Testament, and in my experience, they all seem chargeable. But
the next thing he says is this, it is Christ that dies. You can't lay anything. God doesn't
lay any charge to any of His people because it is Christ that
dies. We're like Barabbas in every
way, but it says, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us. It says, we shall be saved from
wrath through Him. And this is because of that one
God-appointed, God-accepted way. Turn back to Leviticus, the book
of Leviticus, chapter 14. There's no way that I could ever
explain or describe or sum up all that's involved in this except
to keep pointing you back to the places in Scripture where
God shows that this is the way it is. Leviticus 14 and verse
4, "...then shall the priest command to take for him This
sinner, him that is to be cleansed, two birds, alive and clean, and
cedarwood, and scarlet, and hyssop. And the priest, here we've got
two birds, and the priest shall command that one of the birds
be killed in an earthen vessel over running water. That priest
takes and kills one of those birds. As for the living bird,
the priest will take it, and the cedarwood, and the scarlet,
and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the
blood of the bird that was killed over the running water. and he
shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy
seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the
living bird loose into the open field." Now, here's a man that
came with leprosy, and only the priest could pronounce him clean
or unclean. And he was to take these two
birds, the priest was to, on the behalf of this leper. And
as was described, one of those birds had to die. And then, as a result of that
death, the living bird was set free, and the leper was pronounced
clean. That was the only way. Same thing
with the sin offering. Turn over to Leviticus chapter
16. Leviticus 16, and look down at
verse 5. Here's the priest again for a
sin offering. He says, "...and he shall take
of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats
for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. And Aaron
shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself,
and make atonement for himself and for his house. And he shall
take the two goats." In chapter 14, it was two birds. Here it's
two goats. "...and present them before the
Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron
shall cast lots upon the two goats, one lot for the Lord,
and the other lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat
upon which the Lord's lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering. This is the Lord doing this.
This is the Lord's goat. This is the Lord's sacrifice.
This is a picture of Christ. But the goat on which the lot
fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the
Lord to make an atonement with Him, and to let Him go for a
scapegoat into the wilderness." Now, that second bird and that
second goat, What happens to them as a result of the death
of the first bird and the first goat? They go free. Now we use the term scapegoat
as if somebody is going to get away with something. unjustly
maybe, or be dealt with unjustly. No, this is all a matter of justice. And the reason that the second
goes free is because the first one, in their death, satisfied
the judgment of God in the matter of sin. As a matter of fact,
the justice of God that requires that the substitute die, if he
be the substitute for the sins of his people. That same justice
now requires that everyone for whom he died that day, like the
bird and the scapegoat, Go free. That's why He says, if the Son
shall make you free. He freed all His people. He made
them all free in His cross death on the cross. Not a matter of
your feeling. It's not a matter of your experience. It's not a matter of anything
you did or felt or anything done in you. It is all a matter of
what Christ did for you. There are a lot of people, they'll
spend their lives trying to feel something, trying to feel their
sinfulness maybe, trying to feel a feeling that assures them that
they're one of the Lord's people. They'll try to look inside themselves,
in their experience, for a work that will assure their salvation,
when in reality, Christ has already done that work. And that's why
when the Gospel is preached, it comes to His people. It comes
to every one that the Father chose, every one of these that
the Son died for. It comes to them just like when
that guard went to the cell door of Barabbas and gave him the
good news. Well, no, I think I'll sit here
a while and contemplate this thing. I'm out of here. I'm free. And it's only freedom
through this substitute. All through the Scriptures, such
as in the prophet Zechariah, when God says, "...awake, O sword,
against My shepherd, and against the man that is My fellow, saith
the Lord of hosts, smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall
be scattered, and I will turn My hand upon the little ones."
In the New Testament, for even the Son of Man came not to be
ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life a ransom
for many. Christ says, as the Father knoweth
Me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down My life for the
sheep. As it was with Adam the first
Adam, he says in Type, it is with the last Adam, for as by
one man's disobedience many or thee many were made sinners,
so by the obedience of one shall the many be made righteous. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that He loved us. and sent His Son the propitiation
for our sins." 2 Corinthians 5.21, "...for He hath made Him
who knew no sin, sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him." You see, Barabbas went free. Because the Substitute
died rather than Him. And that's why the Lord's people
will all be saved. They will all be set free. They
will all be brought to the knowledge of this and able to believe it. Because He's already suffered
in their place. He's already paid that ransom
debt. He's already borne their sin
in His own body on the tree. Somebody says, well, what do
we do now? Believe Him. Believe Him. That's where assurance
comes from, through believing. They're all put away. God's justice has been satisfied
by the one who stands in our place. He's already judged that
sin, and He sets all His people free. There's an old hymn that
came to my mind, and we sing it sometimes. It's called, Hallelujah,
what a Savior. Man of sorrows, what a name for
the Son of God who came. Ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah, what a Savior. But it's this second verse that
came to my mind. Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
in my place condemned he stood, sealed my pardon with his blood."
Hallelujah! What a Savior! Are you a Barabbas? If the Lord has saved you through
the death of His Son, if He died in your place, there is no condemnation. to them that are in Christ Jesus. They were chosen in Him before
the foundation of the world, and the Scriptures describe them
as having died in Him, being buried in Him, and risen with
Him. And they'll all be brought to
have faith in Him. Father, this day we give You
thanks and pray that You might show us by Your Spirit the reality
of what took place in the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus Christ
on the cross. Enable us to see that work as
having been accomplished on our behalf. Enable us to rest in
what He's done, to rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. To find
our peace in His experience, to hear His voice when He cries
out from that cross, it is finished. Cause your spirit to take the
precious truth of Christ crucified and unlock our hearts and our
minds, our affections so long imprisoned so long enslaved that
we might know that liberty and that freedom that is in Christ. We thank you and we pray in His
name. Amen.