Well, good morning. If you'd
open your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 27. Matthew chapter 27. Before we begin, let's bow before
our Lord in prayer. Our Father, we bow before you
this morning. A thankful people. How thankful
we are for your mercy. and your grace that you purposed
for your people through the obedience and through the sacrifice of
your son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, how can we begin to thank
you for such depths of mercy and love for wretched sinners
such as we are, that you would crucify your own son to put away
the sin of your people? Father, how we thank you. And
Father, I pray this morning that you would enable us to lift up
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that his name would be preeminent
in everything that we say and everything that we do, that his
name, his person would be preeminent in every heart and every mind
here this morning. Father, I beg of you that you'd
show us your glory by revealing your redemptive power, mercy
and grace through the sacrifice of your son and give us faith
to believe. cause us to run to Christ and
hide in Him, find in Him everything that we need. And Father, what
we pray for ourselves in our class this morning, we pray for
our children's classes. Father, how we thank you for
all these little ones that you've given to us. And Father, we beg
your mercy for them. We pray you'd be merciful, that
you'd watch over and protect them. Father, in your time, you
would reveal to them who and what they are. and reveal to
them the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, for those who are hurting
and who are sick, who are in difficult times of trouble and
trial, we pray for them. There are many, and we're thankful
there's no case too hard for thee. Father, that you'd undertake
for your people to deliver, to heal and comfort. And Father,
especially that you give a special portion of your presence, that
you give them grace sufficient for the hour. until you're pleased
to deliver them. All these things we ask in that
name which is above every name, the name of Christ our Savior,
amen. Now in our lesson this morning,
we have a very, very important subject, substitution. I titled the lesson The Gospel
of Substitution. Now this subject of substitution
is so vitally important because we cannot understand how it is
that men and women are saved unless we understand the truth
of substitution. Men and women, sinners, cannot
be saved by what we do or what we don't do. Salvation, the putting
away of sin, can only be accomplished by the doing and dying of Christ
our substitute, that he would take the place of his people
and suffer everything that they deserve to set them free from
their sin. And substitution is an utterly amazing subject to
look at. The Son of God. I mean, this
is not just anybody we're talking about here. The Son of God took
the place of a sinful people so that He could put away their
sin in justice. That He could save them in justice
and enable the Father, not to condemn them, but to let them
go free. Enable Him to be just and justifier of sinners. It's just unbelievable. You couldn't
believe such a thing would be true. unless God revealed it
to you and gave you faith to believe it. The Lord Jesus Christ,
who never sinned, was made sin for his people, so he could become
the substitute for his people, so he could justly suffer and
die for their sin. Substitution and satisfaction
is the very heart of the gospel. If we get a hold of those two,
substitution and satisfaction, we'll know how God saves sinners.
We'll understand the rest of the gospel. And our text this
morning has a very clear picture of that. And the first thing
I want us to look at is this. In this matter of substitution,
there's got to be a criminal. There's got to be a criminal
who deserves to die. Verse 15 of Matthew chapter 27.
Now, at that feast, the governor was wont to release under the
people a prisoner whom they would. And they had then a notable prisoner
called Barabbas. Therefore, when they were gathered
together, Pilate said unto them, who will ye that I release unto
you, Brabus or Jesus, which is called Christ? For he knew that
for envy they had delivered him. Now Matthew says that Brabus
was a notable, an infamous criminal. Luke tells us that Brabus was
guilty of insurrection against the government and also guilty
of murder. John tells us Brabus was a robber.
And boy, that's a good picture of everybody that God saves.
Everybody God saves is a notable sinner. Before God ever saves
us, he's gonna make us see I'm the chief of sinners. I'm a notable,
notorious criminal. Everybody God saves is guilty
of insurrection against the authority of God, against his authority
over us. Our desire by nature is still
the same as Adam's in the garden. Take God off the throne and put
myself there. I don't want God to be God over
me. I want to be the one making the rules. I want to be the one
in charge here. That's the desire of our natural
heart. Insurrection against God's authority. And everybody God
saves, every last one of them is guilty of murder. We're guilty
of murdering others. Our Lord said to be angry without
cause. That's to be guilty of murder.
Just the thinking in your heart. That's to be guilty. And far
worse yet, every one of us, we're guilty of murdering God's son.
It's not just those who were there 2,000 years ago crying
crucify and let him be crucified. It's us. That's the cry of our
heart. Crucify him. Destroy him. And give us Barabbas. Let me have my own way and my
own will. And everybody God saves is guilty
of being a robber. Don't you hate a thief? I mean,
I just, oh, I hate a thief. That's what we are. Spiritually,
we've tried to rob God of his glory. Every single time we try
to earn a righteousness by our own works, every single time
we try to make God more happy with us because of what we do
or what we don't do, instead of resting in Christ alone, Every
time we do that, we're guilty of trying to rob God of His glory.
Now, we don't do it. Can't rob God of His glory, but
we sure do try, don't we? And you know, when we try to
rob God of His glory, I tell you who else we rob. We rob our
own selves. We rob our own souls of life
and happiness and peace and rest when we try to rob God of His
glory by establishing our own righteousness. So we steal from
God and we steal from our own selves. Now look over Matthew
chapter 15. I'll show you another way Barabbas
is a picture of God's people. Matthew chapter 15. In verse 7. And there was one named
Barabbas which lay bound with them that had made insurrection
with him who had committed murder in the insurrection. There Barabbas
was, he'd been caught, he was laying there Bound. He was tied
up in ropes or chains or whatever, and he couldn't get out of it.
There's no way to escape. He's bound. He's helpless. Well,
that's you and me. We're bound by sin. We're bound
by a sin nature, and we can't escape it. And we can't escape
the results of it either. We can't escape death. We're
sinners, and we're helpless to do anything about it. We can't
stop it. We can't stop sinning. We can't not sin. And Barabbas,
there he is, he laying there bound in the dungeon. And Barabbas
is so sinful. Other sinful men, and we'll see
how sinful all these other men and people are all around this
whole thing of our Lord's crucifixion, but Barabbas is so sinful. Other sinful men have decided
we can't do anything with this guy. The only thing we can do
with this guy is put him to death. Because if we don't, he's going
to turn our society into hell. I mean, we just got to get rid
of this guy. That's you and me by nature. We deserve to die. We deserve God's wrath. And we're
so sinful. The only thing God could do with
us is put us to death. If he doesn't, we'll turn everywhere
we go into hell. We'll turn his creation into
hell. Now that's a criminal who deserves
to die. And that's a very good picture
of you and me by nature. Well the second thing I want
us to see is the substitute. Look back up at verse 12 of Matthew
27. And when he was accused of the
chief priests and elders, he answered nothing. Then said Pilate
unto him, hearest thou not how many things they witness against
thee? And he answered him to never a word. in so much that
the governor marveled greatly. Now here stands the Lord Jesus
being judged at this wicked, weak man Pilate. The Lord Jesus
has lived the life of a man in absolute perfection. In thought,
in motive, in deed, in word, he's lived a life of perfect
holiness. Peter described him as Christ,
the lamb without blemish, and without spot. He's perfect. John said in him is no sin. There's no taint of sin in him.
He has no sin. He wasn't even acquainted with
any sin. And these men keep bringing these
charges against the Lord Jesus, and he's innocent of every one
of those charges. He didn't do one thing they accused
him of. And everybody from the accusers
to the judge knew it. I mean, it's the elephant in
the room, but nobody's talking about it. He is innocent of every
charge they're bringing against him. And he always was. The angels knew he's perfect.
That angel told Mary, when he came to tell her that she is
with child, he called our Lord that holy thing that's in you. Judas, the betrayer, he knew
the Lord was innocent. He brought back the money and
said, cast it back on the floor to the high priest and said,
I betrayed innocent blood. This man is innocent of any sin. The dying thief knew it. This
tells you how the Holy Ghost had to teach him. That dying
thief, as far as we know, never even saw the Lord. Before that
day, they're both crucified, suffering there on the cross.
And that dying thief knew that man on the middle cross is innocent. He told that other thief, why
don't you just shut up? We're getting what we deserve.
This man has done nothing amiss. The centurion who watched the
Lord die knew it. He said, certainly. After he
watched the whole scene, and the Lord gave up the ghost, the
centurion said, certainly, this is a righteous man. And Pilate
knew it. Pilate knew he's innocent. He
kept trying to set him free. Pilate finally had to say, I
find no fault in him. And he wasn't the only one. if
they're being honest, had to say, I find no fault in him.
The Pharisees couldn't find any fault in him. They've been trying
for three and a half years. And the only way they could get
him to this place where they thought he could be condemned
was to find false witnesses who would lie. They couldn't, they
never could bring any charges against him. Well, then why? With the Lord standing here before
Pilate, these chief priests and the scribes and the Pharisees,
These people are coming and bringing all these charges against the
Lord. Why does he stand there silent? But if it was me, I'd
be screaming, I didn't do it. I didn't do it. I bet everybody
else stood before Pilate, was guilty of sin, and they said
I didn't do it. Why didn't the only perfect man
who ever lived, why didn't he protest his innocence? Why did
he say I didn't do it? Well, I can tell you. Because
now, he's been made sin for his people. Now, since the sin of
his people has been made his, he's guilty. And he's got no
defense. He's standing there as the lamb,
brought before her shears, is dumb, is silent. So he opened
not his mouth because he'd been made guilty. The sin of God's
elect, all the sin that we've committed, just like we looked
there at Brabus, has now been made his. So that he's become
guilty of it. The charges are true. Not since
he committed them, since we his people did. And he stands there
silent because he's the one who must pay the price. He's the
only one who can. And now those sins have become
his. It's his responsibility. pay the price for those sins,
and they're his. And he's got to pay the price. He's got to
give himself to suffer and die so his people can go free. Christ
must die, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.
It's the only way sinners can be brought to God. So he stayed
silent. All right, thirdly, the nature
of man. Now the nature of man is most
clearly seen at Calvary. If you look at Calvary, that's
where all the attributes of God are on display the most clearly.
And that's where the true nature of man is on display most clearly
too. When the son of God did the unimaginable, the son of
God humbled himself to become flesh so that he could become
a man and he could come to save his people from their sins. Do
you know how fallen man reacted to that? He put on display his
sovereign love, his sovereign grace, his power and willingness
to save his people from their sin. Do you know how fallen man
reacted to that? Verse 20. But the chief priests
and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas
and destroy Jesus. Now this is how man by nature
reacts. to Christ, the sovereign savior
of sinners. Destroy him. Destroy him. It sounds worse
than killing, doesn't it? Destroy him, obliterate him. And Pilate gives them the choice.
This was the custom at this time of year when the Passover was
come. He gave them a choice. I'm gonna release to you a prisoner.
Whoever you would, a prisoner of Rome, Somebody they felt like
roaming in prison wrongly or somebody they liked or whatever.
He would release one prisoner to them. That was their custom.
And Pilate gives them a choice. Do you want Barabbas, this notable
criminal, walking free in your society? Or would you rather
have Jesus, the prophet and the teacher and the healer walking
around in your society? You choose. fallen nature said,
give us Barabbas. Verse 21. The governor answered and said
unto them, whither the twain will you that I release unto
you? And they said, Barabbas. Pilate saith unto them, what
shall I do then with Jesus, which is called Christ? They all say
unto him, let him be crucified. And the governor said, why, what
evil hath he done? But they cried out the more saying,
let him be crucified. Give us Brabus and crucify Jesus,
destroy him because it's easier for us to deal with Brabus, the
notable criminal that is for Christ, the sovereign savior
of sinners. That's man's nature. That's the
nature all of us are born with. And I'll show you how unafraid
that they were to say that. Look at verse 25. Then answered
all the people and said, his blood be on us and our children,
and our children. They were so unafraid and said,
if this is wrong, let his blood be on us. And brother, it has
been. That nation has been in judicial
blindness ever since. See, this is the nature of man.
We looked at the nature of Christ, that in him was no sin. Well,
man's just the opposite. In us, all there is is sin. There
is no righteousness, there is no goodness, there is no holiness.
When I say that man is all sin, this is what I mean, all sin.
It's not just that we do some things wrong and some things
good. Our every thought is sin. Our every deed is sin, the motive
behind everything, why we do what we do is controlled by sin. And that means the nature of
man hates Christ. The nature of man hates, now
they don't hate the Jesus that they made up, but they hate the
Jesus of this book, the sovereign savior of sinners. And look at
Luke chapter 23. I'll show you, I'm not taking
this too far now, Luke chapter 23. I don't think you can take it
too far when you talk about the depths of the depravity of our
human nature. Our will is to hate the Lord
Jesus Christ. Verse 25 of Luke chapter 23. And he released unto them him
that for sedition and murder was cast into prison, whom they
desired. But he delivered Jesus to their
will. And what followed is man's will. To torture and crucify, to do
everything that we can do to destroy and get rid of this sovereign
savior of sinners. That's our nature. Would you save somebody like
that? Would you sacrifice one of your
children to save somebody like that? Aren't you glad God's not
like us? Because Christ still, after all
this, He never called those 12 legions of angels to put a stop
to it. He went forward. And here's the result of His
sacrifice. Verse 26, back in Matthew 27. Then released He, Barabbas unto them. Barabbas was set free. And when
he had scourged Jesus, now he scourged this man. This man,
he said, I find no fault in him. He's innocent. Pilate scourged
him anyway, and then delivered him to be crucified. Now the
Lord Jesus Christ took the place of Brabus. Brabus was condemned
to die, and the Lord Jesus took his place. And Brabus, the notable
criminal, went scot-free. You notice they didn't scourge
Brabus, and then releasing. He was released as is, free. And Christ was the one that was
scourged. And that's the result of Christ's sacrifice for all
of his people. Every last one of them is set
free. But they're set free now in justice
because the substitute took their place. See, God saves sinners
by substitution. It's no accident that this scene
we have before us, the crucifixion and death of our Savior, is happening
at the time of the Passover. This was an annual thing that
they observed every year. And the Passover is another picture
of substitution, isn't it? You remember the very first Passover,
the children of Israel were slaves in Egypt, and God said, I'm coming
through the land tonight. I'm dispensing justice tonight.
Every firstborn in the land is going to die. except where the
blood of the lamb's been put on the doorpost. The firstborn
lived where the lamb had died. That lamb died so the firstborn
could live. That's substitution. That was
the very first Passover. I'm sure that they had completely
forgotten that, but that's what they were celebrating on this
weekend, the Passover. Substitution, the firstborn lived
because the lamb died in his place. This is the last Passover. the last Passover, Christ our
Passover is being sacrificed as a substitute for his people
so his people would go free. Now the picture is being fulfilled. The picture that Moses gave back
there in Egypt is now fulfilled on Calvary's tree. Christ our
Passover sacrificed for us and his people go free because the
substitute died in our place. And it's important to remember
this. Christ is the substitute for sinners. He didn't die as
a substitute for all mankind. If he did, all mankind would
be saved. Christ died as a substitute for sinners. Who went free in
our text? Barabbas, the notable criminal. Christ died for sinners, notable
sinners, so that those sinners would have life and go free.
Now, I don't know where this custom started, where they would
release a prisoner at the Passover. I read some about it. Some people
think it was kind of wrong's way of kind of trying to appease
the Jews and appease people, you know, under their authority
or whatever. I don't know when it started, but I know why it
started. It started for this Passover,
this Passover. So we'd have this clear picture
of salvation in Christ, the sinner substitute. God arranged that
so we'd have this picture. And can't you imagine Obravis? I can picture how his day started,
can't you? He's laid up, he's laid on a
cold, dark, damp floor, tied up, laying there helpless. He
probably hadn't slept much. I mean, it's probably hard to
sleep when you're all tied up, you know, but also thinking about
what's going to happen to him the next day. He probably couldn't
sleep much. Crucifixion was not a quick execution. Oftentimes, the person, the victim,
would suffer for days, days, dying a slow, painful death.
And that crowd outside was so bloodthirsty, it was a much bigger
crowd. I would imagine the normal time
of the Passover, everybody's coming to Jerusalem. Everybody. Just a few days ago, they're
throwing the palm leaves out before the Lord, saying, Hosanna,
hail the king of the Jews. And now, All those same people
are crying crucify. Big crowd. Now, all that Barabbas
could hear down there in the dungeon was the cries of the
people. The cries of that loud, bloodthirsty
crowd. He couldn't hear Pilate's questions.
All Barabbas could hear was, give us Barabbas and crucify
him. Barabbas thought that crowd was
yelling for his crucifixion, for his death. And there he lays,
and he hears the guards walking down the hall. They probably
got that Roman body armor on, you know, you see the pictures
of. The keys are rattled on the jailer's chain on his side. Here's that jailer. Put that
big old key in. Turn the lock on that big thick
oak door. Swings that door open. And that guard's just scowling.
Now, the guard knows what's going on. And I bet you that guard's
upset. He wants to see this man put
to death. And now, His leader, his captain, whoever was in command
over him, told him, you got to go let that old fellow go free.
That guard didn't like that. He's cow on his face. He gets
Brabus up, and he unties him, loosens the chains or ropes,
whatever's on him, and tells him, get out of here. Go on. You're free. Brabus thought his
ears were playing tricks on him. He said, what did you say? He
said, you heard me. Get out of here. Go free. And Brabus says, why? He said,
you're being released and we're going to crucify Jesus. Now you
go on. I got work to do. You know, Brabus
could have written that song. I was guilty with nothing to
say. And they were coming to take
me away. But then a voice from heaven was heard that said, let
him go. Let him go, take me instead.
Oh, I should have been crucified. I should have suffered and died.
I should have been the one hanging there on the cross in disgrace.
But Jesus, God's son, took my place. Those rusty nails, they
were meant for me. Oh, but Christ took them and
he let me go free. That's substitution, isn't it?
So how does God save sinners? It's by substitution, by Christ
taking the place of his people. The innocent takes the place
of the guilty. The guilty goes free and the
innocent dies. Not exactly. Matter of fact,
not at all, not at all. Remember the gospel is substitution
and satisfaction. It would be unjust for the guilty
to go free, wouldn't it? It would be unjust for the innocent
to die. I mean, I showed you, look how
wicked a judge this pilot is, scourging a man he knows is innocent,
taking a man he knows is innocent and condemning him to be crucified.
That's wicked. But it's just as wicked for the
judge to let the guilty go free without paying for his crime.
Now, God is a righteous judge. Not a wicked judge. He'll never
slay the innocent. And he'll never let the guilty
go free, ever. God said, I will by no means
clear the guilty. By no means. The debt must be
paid. Well, then if we're going to
be saved by a substitute, God's going to have to make the guilty
to be innocent. And he's going to have to make
the innocent to be guilty and slay the guilty. instead of the
innocent. And that's exactly what he does.
When the father forgives sins, scripture says he's faithful
and just to forgive us of our sins. He's faithful and just
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So God saves sinners in justice,
in justice. Our God is a just God and a savior. And that's accomplished through
the death of the substitute. The substitute is made guilty.
The guilty is made innocent. And the guilty dies to put away
the sin that's been laid upon him. And when the substitute
dies, he dies to satisfy God's justice. God's justice demands
his people go free. Because the debt's been paid,
he demands it. Now I want to show you one more thing here
in closing. There's three men that we looked at primarily in
this text this morning. There's Barabbas, there's our
Lord, and there's Pilate. Now there's a great difference
between Barabbas and Pilate. Look at verse 24. When Pilate
saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was
made, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude,
saying, I'm innocent of the blood of this just person. See ye to
it. Now, Pilate tried to wash his
hands, dipped his hands in some basin of water, made this ceremonial
washing, and it shows I got nothing to do with this. I'm out. I'm
innocent from what y'all are doing. Now, you can only do it
by my authority, but I'm innocent of what y'all do. Pilate trying
to wash his own hands, trying to cleanse his own self, that
didn't work. And he died in his sin and in
his rebellion. Barabbas, who did absolutely
nothing to cleanse himself, was set free by the blood of Christ,
by Christ, his substitute. And God saves you and me. That's
the way he's going to do it. He's going to do it all by himself.
He's going to do it as a substitute, dying for his people to cleanse
them from all of their sins. We're not going to help at all.
The only way we'll be cleansed is the blood of Christ. and God
will set his people free in justice. Jan, I've talked about old Brabus
before. Jan asked me one time, do you
think Brabus is one of the Lord's own? Well, I don't know. I sure do hope so, don't you?
Can you imagine this old boy getting set free? No, I'm supposed
to die this morning. and him getting set free and
leaving that place and seeing all the goings on of that day
and not taking some note of what's going on there at Calvary Street.
He's got some interest to find out who is it that took my place
so I could go free. Maybe he went and saw, who is
that fella on the middle cross? Could somebody tell me? Maybe
by that time, Peter had come back kind of close. Or John had
come back kind of close. And they said, come here, I can
tell you. Let me tell you who he is. And we preach the gospel. That's what we're doing, aren't
we? If we can find old Barabbas guilty, deserves to die, we can
tell him, come here. Let me tell you about him. Let
me tell you about the substitute. This is how God saves sinners.
All right. I hope the Lord will bless that
to you.