Now, if you'll take your Bibles
and turn to John Chapter 18, what we're going to talk about
this morning is the trial of Christ, which was just a total mockery
of a trial. And I've been reading the history,
just the natural history from a lawyer's point of view as to
what was taking place. And it was very interesting.
to know the mindset of these men who were gathered there,
and the politics behind it, and all of these things from a natural
point of view, and yet understand from a spiritual point of view
what's taking place. And most of what I had to say
this morning is just going to be scripture. I want to read
for you several verses of scripture, beginning with verse 12 of John
chapter 18. We'll read from verse 12 through
the end of the chapter. Then the band and captain and
the officers of the Jews took Jesus and bound him and led him
away to Annas first. For he was father-in-law to Caiaphas,
which was the high priest that same year. Now Caiaphas was he
which gave counsel to the Jews that it was expedient that one
man should die for the people. That was back right after the
resurrection of Lazarus. They said, what are we going
to do? If we just let this man go, they are going to come and
take away our place. The Romans are. They are going
to take away our nation because all men are going to follow after
He's raising the dead. He's calling the dead out of
tombs. We can't compete with that. We've
got to get rid of this man. So Caiaphas told him that and
made that prophecy. Verse 15, And Simon Peter followed
Jesus, and so did another disciple. Now that other disciple from
those of you who studied Scripture very much, was John. He always
referred to himself without giving his name. That disciple was known unto
the high priest and went in with Jesus into the palace of the
high priest. But Peter stood at the door without. Then went out the other disciple
which was known unto the high priest and spake unto her that
kept the door and brought in Peter. Then saith the damsel
that kept the door unto Peter, Art not thou also one of this
man's disciples? Peter said, I am not. And the
servants and the officers stood there who had made a fire of
coals, for it was cold. And they warmed themselves, and
Peter stood with them and warmed himself. And the high priest
then asked Jesus of the disciples and of his doctrine, Jesus answered
him, I speak openly to the world. I ever taught in the synagogue
and in the temple, whither the Jews always resort. And in secret
have I said nothing. Why askest thou me? Ask them
which heard me what I've said unto them. Behold, they know
what I say." Now, these are the men that the council, the Sanhedrin,
had sent out as spies. to hear him. That's who he's
talking about when he said, ask them. These were men, he knew
who they were. They didn't know that he knew,
but he knew who they were. And he knew that the high priest
had sent them out there. They were there under his direction.
And he knew why they were there. And he said, you don't need to
ask me, ask them. They heard me. They'll tell you. Verse 22, and when he had thus
spoken, One of the officers which stood by struck Jesus with the
palm of his hand, saying, Answerest thou the high priest so? Jesus
answered him, If I spoke an evil, bear witness of the evil. But
if well, why smitest thou me? Now Annas had sent him bound
unto Caiaphas the high priest. And Simon Peter stood and warned
himself. They said unto him, art not thou
also one of his disciples? He denied it and said, I am not.
One of the servants of the high priest, being his kinsman, whose
ear Peter cut off, saith, did not I see thee in the garden
with him? Peter then denied again, and
immediately the cock crowed. Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas
unto the hall of judgment. And it was early, and they themselves
went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled,
but that they might eat the Passover. Pilate then went out unto them
and said, What accusation bring ye against this man? They answered
and said unto him, If he were not a malefactor, we would not
have delivered him up unto thee. Then said Pilate unto them, take
ye him and judge ye him according to your law. The Jews therefore
said unto him, it is not lawful for us to put a man to death. Now this tells you the end that
they had in mind. He had not yet even been charged. They found no witnesses against
him, none of these things, and yet They wouldn't judge him because
it wasn't lawful for them to put him to death. They were going
to put a man to death that they didn't find anything wrong with.
They didn't have an accusation. They had nothing. Verse 32, that
the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled which he spake signifying
what death he should die. Then Pilate entered into the
judgment hall again and called Jesus and said unto him, art
thou the king of the Jews? Jesus answered him, sayest thou
this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me? Pilate
answered, am I a Jew? Thine own nation and chief priests
have delivered thee unto me. What hast thou done? Jesus answered,
my kingdom is not of this world. 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. Pilate, therefore, said unto
him, Art thou a king? Art thou a king then? Jesus answered,
Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for
this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto
the truth. Everyone that is of the truth
heareth my voice. 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 at all. But you have a custom that I
should release unto you one at the Passover. Will you 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. The trial of Christ, to me and
to many of the writers that I've read and studied in the text
for you this morning, they all say that this trial was a monument
to self-righteous religion. And I believe they're correct.
This is a monument, an everlasting monument. If you want to know
the true heart of self-righteous religion, study this trial. Study
this trial. Study his crucifixion. And the
overriding power in the trial from start to finish is just
dry, cold, calculating legalism and ceremonialism and traditionalism. You find it from the get-go.
You find it from the very beginning. Self-righteous religion can kill
an innocent man, but it cannot devour itself by walking into
a Gentile court. They brought this man in without
so much as a charge. Bound him. Bound him with ropes
or fetters of some kind. Bound him and brought him in
bound before the high priest. When the guard stepped forward
and slapped him, his hands were bound behind his back. He offered
no threat. He put up no struggle. In fact,
Peter's the one who put up the struggle. And when he did, the
Lord reached over and healed the man that Peter resisted. He put up no resistance whatsoever.
They brought him into this court, and this was such a kangaroo
court and such a one-sided thing that here they are with this
man who hadn't so much as been charged with anything. And they
were all together pushed to put this man to death and for once
and for all to get him out of their religion altogether. They
can kill an innocent man. Nobody could find any fault in
him. Nobody could charge him with anything. False witnesses
couldn't bear witness against him because he didn't know anything,
contrary to the law of Moses. And yet they could not go into
this Gentile court where Pilate was holding the trial of this
man they hated so bad they couldn't step into the hall, lest they
be defiled. and wouldn't be able to eat the
Passover. They can watch the Son of God nailed to a cross,
agonizing pain, but then ask if Pilate might be gracious to
them and go break his legs so they can go celebrate the next
day because they couldn't have this man still on this cross
and still protect the Passover. So they begged him to go break
their legs, but when they couldn't break his, he was already dead. They could falsely accuse a perfect
man who never told a lie, and then smack him in the face for
disrespect to the high priest. Self-righteous religion. They
hated him without a cause, the scripture said. And they bound
him without a charge, and they convicted him without a witness.
And all of this they did under the pretense of being the defenders
of the true worship and people of God. I say this to you, ritualism
and ceremonialism is man's expression. It's man's expression of his
dissatisfaction with Christ. He'd be satisfied with anything,
no matter how ridiculous it might seem, except Christ. It's man's expression of his
dissatisfaction of Christ. The free grace of God in Christ,
His finished work, and full satisfaction of justice and righteousness
will always stand in opposition and be contrary to any and all
forms of self-righteous religion. Now they might write it off to
this and that. They called him, and not only
him, but also his disciples in the days to come after Pentecost,
would accuse them of being pestilent fellows, troublemakers, seditioners,
and all this kind of stuff. They'll always find some other
charge. But at the root of it is this, what this man preaches
is totally contrary to our religion, and it exposes us for what we
are. The scripture said, if it be of grace, then is it no more
of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. Listen to these scriptures. If
righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. If you can somehow merit righteousness
by something you do or something you don't do, then Christ, His
death, this trial, this agonizing sufferings and His death is totally
in vain. There was no reason for it. If
the inheritance, listen to this, Galatians chapter 3 verse 18,
if the inheritance We're talking about the inheritance of God's
adopted sons, eternal life, everlasting life in the presence of God and
in glory. If the inheritance be of the
law, if you can somehow attain this inheritance and this sonship
by something you do, by something you think, by something you say,
by some action that you take, If the inheritance be of the
law, it is no more a promise. It's not a promise anymore, is
it? It's something you merited, something you deserve. But God
gave it to Abraham by promise. Galatians chapter 5, verse 2,
if you be circumcised, Paul said, just that on the eighth day,
take that male baby in and have him circumcised. If you be circumcised,
Paul said, Christ will profit you nothing. Galatians 5.11,
Paul said, if I yet preach circumcision, why do you suffer persecution?
Why do I suffer persecution? Why am I still being persecuted?
For then is the offense of the cross ceased. If I preach circumcision,
there's no offense, because that's all they want me to do. Just
one thing. Just add one little thing. We
won't carry over the whole priesthood. All we're going to do is bring
in tithing. All we're going to do is bring in this or that or
circumcision or whatever it is. That's all we want. We don't
want anything else. We just want to carry this one
thing over. He said He'll profit you nothing.
Galatians chapter 6 verse 3. If a man think himself to be
something when he is nothing. You think about that statement.
If a man think himself to be something when he is nothing,
he deceiveth himself. Nothing is what we are. In the
trial and crucifixion of Christ, the very heart of self-righteous
religion is exposed. And the heart of it is to get
rid of God's righteousness by replacing him with something
that looks like true righteousness. And that's ceremonialism, ritualism,
traditionalism, some type of worldly religion. These men held
tight to their ceremonies all the way through this. They held
tight to it. They held tight to their customs
and traditions. Tradition taught them not to
step into a Gentile court, and they wasn't about to do it. Couldn't
have this man hanging on the cross. It would defile their
Passover. All of these things. They held
tight to their ceremonies and customs. And they preferred these
things over the Son of God. They preferred these things over
the witnesses of God. And they preferred these things
over the work of Christ. They held these things in high
esteem. That's what I want you to see.
They held these things in high esteem. What is it that causes
men to esteem religion? My boss said one time about this
self-righteous religionist that I worked with, he said his life
stands a testimony to everybody that works here. Well, this man
made sure that everybody knew when he gave something. He made
sure that everybody saw him when he prayed. Nobody could eat their
lunch until he got down on his knees and prayed. This is what
these men do. They do these things to be seen
of men. They do it in order to be recognized
of men and to be held in high esteem of men. They care less
what God thinks. They do it to be seen of men.
That's why they do it. That's what the cross exposes.
They held high, they highly esteemed these things like being defiled
in their self-righteousness and their worthiness. Who in the
world could be worthy to eat the Passover? That's what the
Passover was all about, was to show their unworthiness. He said,
when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. He didn't say, when
I saw your worthiness, to put the blood on there. He said,
when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. It told us about our
unworthiness. That's what it told us about.
But here it is trial. They're holding up in high esteem.
What are they holding up? Their traditions and their ceremonies
of religion. And that's exactly what religion
does today. It holds all of these things
up. Everything is held up except Christ. Except Christ. Any form of religion other than
that which rests alone in Christ crucified, no matter how small
their differences are, Now listen to me, it's a total denial, a
total denial of the Word of God and it makes void the life and
death of Christ. That's what it does. If there were any potential in
man, any possibility for him to rise up out of his fallen
state, any way for him to work himself back into favor with
God, There'd be no need for God to appoint a Savior, would there?
Huh? God's patient. He's long-suffering. God would have just waited on
man to evolve if it was possible. There'd be no need for Him to
make a covenant of grace ordered in all things and sure in relation
to His salvation. There'd be no need for it, would
there, if there's some potential in man? Be no need for Him to send the
Holy Ghost into the world to convict and convince and regenerate. Be no need to send preachers.
You just wait on man. He'll figure it out. You see
what I'm saying? The one thing that was necessary
to them, they overlooked. Why? Because they didn't look
to Him for salvation. They didn't recognize Him as
the one God set forth. to be the propitiation for their
sins. And what they looked to was these
rituals. They looked to those experiences. They looked to that
walk. They looked to all these different things that they did. In the trial of Christ, there's
four very prominent figures. And in these four figures are
represented all mankind. Here's what's on the mind and
heart of all men. It's exposed at this trial. The
first is Judas Iscariot who represents Satan himself. The second is
the high priest representing all worldly religion. And then
thirdly, you've got Pilate representing all governmental authorities
in the Gentile world. You can read about it over in
I think it's Acts chapter 4. He lumps all these things together
and says exactly what I'm saying to you. And then you've got,
here's a very unexpected witness here. This ought to shock us. You've got Peter. And he said,
I don't know him. I don't know him. Yeah, but I
recognize, you was in the garden with him. No, no, I don't know
him. I don't know him. I read to you the account of
this trial. It stands very clear as to who and what took place
on this day. I'm not going to spend a lot
of time on this, but let's just look briefly at these four prominent
figures, and then you can go home and read about it with this
on your mind. Judas is the first on the scene. And the Lord himself
already testified about this man. He said, if not, I've chosen
you 12, and one of you is a devil. They said, which one of us is
it? He said, it's the one that I give the sock to. And he'll
take the sop. It says, when Judas took the
sop, Satan entered into it. Now, we live in a day of educated
and worldly enlightenment. Creationism's out and evolution's
in. Demon spirits and demonic spirits
and invisible principalities are just all last to scorn. You
start talking about Satan and that, they'll laugh at you. They'll laugh at you. That's
all this superstitious hoax put on the world by ancient religion.
These things are just totally beneath the minds of modern thinkers. Let me tell you something. It
is exactly this spirit and attitude that defines the work of Satan
in men. If you're looking for evidence
of a satanic possession of a man, and most men wouldn't have a
clue, even want to look for it. If you want to see the influence
of Satan in a man, all you have to do is look at how he thinks
and talks and acts. That's what our Lord said to
those Jews. He said, if you were Abraham's
seed, he said, Abraham wouldn't do to me what you're doing to
me. Abraham knew me. You don't even
know me. You're of your father the devil.
The works of your father you will do. Paul wrote to the church
of the Colossians over in Colossians chapter 2, and he warned them
about being foiled by ignorant men from faith in Christ alone. And these men would insist on
these things. Now man's not going to insist
on these things unless he's influenced by the devil who's called the
God of this world, the prince of the power of the air, the
spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. These
men are influence of his power. And here's what they insisted
on. Philosophy. Isn't that what it says? Philosophy
and vain deceit after the tradition of men and after the rudiments.
That word means basic fundamental reasoning of the world. This world, Paul said, at one
time he said you walked according to the course of this world.
according to the Prince of the power of the air. Judas Iscariot
sold out the Son of God for these natural reasons, all these reasons. That's how Satan works in man.
At one time, he saw Christ gaining in prominence and gaining in
power and gaining in recognition, and Judas held tight to it. When
he saw the Son of God going into judgment and going downhill and
the whole thing going downhill, then he come back over to the
other side. That's worldly reasoning. That's what that is. That's satanic
influence. And this whole world walks just
that way. That same spirit that was in
Judas is in all men. It's in all men. Whether he works
in a single man or influencing thousands, his work is always
the same. It's to betray the Son of God
and to prevent him from the end to which God appointed him. Now
here's the second prominent figure at the trial of Christ. It's
the high priest of Israel. This high priest represents all
worldly religion. All worldly religion. And the
head of the Jewish church state was the high priest. Now they're
under bondage. They're under Roman bondage. So you just have to understand
and take what I'm saying at face value. These men were appointed
by the Roman government. Israel's priest, once a priest
came into and was set up as the high priest, he remained high
priest until he died. And here you've got two of them
without going any further than just trial. Here's two. Now,
I read Josephus and some of the Jewish historians, and what they
say was that Annas, they weren't allowed to put a man to death.
That's what they told Caesar. We can't put him to death. It's
not lawful for us to do that. That's why Annas wasn't high
priest that year, because he caught two governors. One of
the reigning governors there did something to mess himself
up, and so Caesar took him away and appointed and appointed Pilate
to his place. Well, in between this, Annas
put a man to death for something unlawful, according to Jewish
law. And he did it without permission
from the reigning governor, because there wasn't any. And he thought
he found a loophole. There wasn't any governor, so we just acted
on our own. You're out. Caiaphas is in. But Caiaphas
was his father-in-law. And so the Jews still held these
men, even though they weren't sitting high priests, they still
held them in high esteem and listened to them. And so when
they took Christ to trial, they took him to Annas, who wasn't
even a high priest anymore. And then Annas sent him bound
over to Caiaphas, his father-in-law. But all these men were there
because of the corruptness of this world. Here's what I want
you to see in this, that worldly religion is ever so tightly woven
into the governmental powers of this world. They're intertwined
with it. You can't separate them. And
when he talks about the dragon who is Satan over in the book
of Revelations, or he talks about the beast, or he talks about
the great whore of Babylon, when he's talking about all these
natural religion, and all the satanic influence, and all of
these things that has to do with this revelation of Christ. You'll
find in there each time that he talks about businessmen, and
merchants, and kings, and all of these, and the whole world.
Everybody whose name wasn't written in the land book of life followed
after the beast. They all did, and that's the
truth. The world of religion is just interwoven with them.
They can't do anything. You know, they don't fear these
men. They don't fear God. They don't
fear any of those things. But they do what natural religion
intimidates them to do for the sake of their own gain and for
the sake of their own recognition because they're a big power. Now every year, this governor
down in province there where Jerusalem was, every year he'd
been out. I mean, two years was a long
reign for one. He'd do something wasn't just
right. These Jews were hard to govern. Stubborn, hard-headed,
stiff-necked. Stephen described them to a T.
You couldn't govern them. You can't govern a natural man.
He'd just resist and resist, and he's never satisfied. But
then Pilate come along, and Pilate worked with religion. He worked
with them. And he reigned for 14 years. And so Caiaphas remained high
priest for the whole term that he reigned. And he used religion. And that's all that governmental
powers and things do today. Over in Revelation 17 too, talking
about the great whore of Babylon and worldly religion. He tells
about the associations he has with this world, saying this,
with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and
the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the
wine of her fornication. She entices, intimidates the
kings by offering them what they seek, power, recognition, lawful
obedience, and security. All right, now here's the third
prominent figure. This is the Gentile King, Pilate. And Pilate goes the political
route of least resistance in this trial. He refused to judge
this man, and yet he did judge him. He said, You've got a law,
and I can tell, I don't find any kind of civil disobedience
in this man worthy to put him to death. I can't find anything
in him that's wrong. You've got a law. He's broken
some kind of law that you take him and judge him. I said, we
can't. You have to do it. You have to do it. And Pilate,
just keep imagining. Pilate's going in here talking
to Christ, and then he has to go out here because he's these
religious men won't step foot on his court for fear of being
defiled. Can you imagine how that made
that king in Rome feel? These men wouldn't even step.
They're going to be defiled if they come into his courtroom.
So here he is, and he's getting disgusted with the whole mess.
Finally, he comes out, and this is his way out. He takes the
path of least resistance, and he tells them this. He said,
well, it's a custom during the Passover. to release whoever
you want, to release one to you. And so, will you take this king
of the Jews? Will you take him? And they said,
no, we don't want him. We'll take the robber. We'll
take Barabbas. There's the trial. And that's
the mind of every man. The mind of every man. And you
can find, I don't have time to get into Peter, but Peter stands
as the believer. How often Do you find yourself
warming yourself by the fire? Have you ever found yourself
there? Huh? I don't see anybody shaking their
head this way. Sure you do. You're intimidated. You get in this position, well,
if I say this, I'm never going to be able to have any kind of
fellowship with my brother again, or my sister, or my mom, or my
dad, or my aunt, Whoever it is. If I say this, I can forget about
getting that raised over at work. If I say this, I ain't gonna
be able to buy that set of woods over there, because that man
won't sell it to me. You find yourself there, don't you? Every
day, you find yourself by the fire.