Tis not that I did choose thee Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Niber. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Our subject for this morning is Barabbas set free. Now you remember Barabbas in
the story of the crucifixion of Christ, how he was supposed
to be the one crucified that morning. and Christ took his
place and he was set free. Now in Barabbas we have a very
powerful statement regarding how God saves sinners. Now I would like to read several
verses in Luke chapter 23 about the story of Barabbas. Beginning in verse 13 of Luke
chapter 23, and Pilate, when he had called together the chief
priests and the rulers of the people, said unto them, You have
brought me this man as one that perverteth the people. Behold,
I, having examined him, have found no fault in this man, touching
those things whereof you accuse him. No, nor yet Herod. For I sent you to him, and lo,
nothing worthy of death is done unto him. I will therefore chastise
him and release him. For of necessity he must release
one unto them at the feast." Now, this was not prescribed
in the law of God. This is something the Roman government
did. Every Passover, they would let the Jews choose a prisoner
that had been imprisoned, and the Roman government would release
them. This was done to placate the
Jews and make them feel better about their condition under Roman
rule. It was not prescribed in the
law, but it was a custom. And Luke tells us it was a necessity. That's a very important word.
We'll see why so in a minute. And they cried all at once, saying,
Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas, who for a certain
sedition made in the city, and for murder was cast into prison.
Pilate, therefore willing to release Jesus, spake again unto
them, but they cried, saying, Crucify him! Crucify him! And he said unto them the third
time, Why, what evil hath he done? I found no cause of death
in him. I will therefore chastise him,
and let him go. And they were instant with their
loud voices, requiring that he might be crucified. And the voices
of them and of the chief priests prevailed. And Pilate gave sentence,
that it should be as they required. And he released unto them him
that for sedition and murder was cast into prison, speaking
of Barabbas, whom they had desired. But he delivered Jesus to their
will. Now, very few events that surround
the death of the Lord and the crucifixion of the Lord are recorded
by all four gospel writers, just two or three. One of them is
the story of Barabbas. He's mentioned by all four gospel
writers. Christ took his place. That middle cross had been reserved
for him that very day, and Christ took his place, and he was set
free. Now, this was not done because
Barabbas asked him to do this. This was done without Barabbas'
knowledge, and Barabbas found out that it had been done. Now, on a Friday morning, three
men were scheduled to be crucified by the Roman government. Crucifixion
was a death that was reserved for the vilest of criminals. What a horrible way to die. Two of the men, we don't know
their names. They were the thieves that ended up being crucified
on either side of the Lord Jesus Christ. But we know that the
middle cross was reserved for a man by the name of Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a wicked man. That's all that can be said of
him. Matthew's account tells us that he was a notable prisoner. Notorious, public enemy number
one. John tells us he was a robber.
That's much more than a petty thief, but he was one who by
violence plundered people. He would be guilty of things
like home invasions. He was a violent man. We read
in verse 19 of the text that he for sedition and insurrection
was cast into prison. He was an out and out rebel and
he was a murderer. He was a menace to society. Would you want this man out on
the streets? Barabbas. Now his name means son of the
father. And he teaches us how a son of
Adam is saved, and he teaches us what a son of God actually
is. Now, can you imagine Barabbas
trying to go to sleep that Thursday night knowing that he was going
to be crucified the very next day? I can't imagine that. And when the day break, he knew
this was the time for him to be crucified. And what all was
going through his mind at this time? Bitterness over the events
that led to this? Remorse over his past life? We don't really know what was
going on in his mind, but I know this. He was dreading the thought
of being nailed to a cross and the pain that was ahead of him
to be crucified. How he must have dreaded that. Here he lays, Mark says, bound
in chains. He could not set himself free,
waiting for the guards to come in. Now, while he lay there,
something else was taking place. And let me read Matthew's account
of this. Verse 15 of Matthew chapter 27. Now, at that feast, the governor
was wont to release unto the people a prisoner, whom they
would. And they had then a notable prisoner,
a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. Therefore, when they were gathered
together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto
you, Babbitt, Barabbas, or Jesus, which is called Christ? Now,
I have no doubt that Pilate thought that they would select Christ
because Barabbas was such a wicked man, a murderer, a notorious
criminal. And he picked out the worst person
there and he thought, surely they'll pick Christ to be released
because they don't want Barabbas out on the streets. He was wrong
in his assumption. He thought they would pick Christ,
but they wanted Barabbas. Now, he was a savvy politician.
Verse 18 says, For he knew that for envy they had delivered him.
And when he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent
in to him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just
man, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ? For I have suffered many
things this day in a dream because of him. But the chief priests
and the elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask
Barabbas. and destroyed Jesus. The governor answered and said
unto them, Whither of the twain will ye that I release unto you?
And they said, Barabbas. Pilate said unto them, What shall
I do then with Jesus, which is called Christ? They all say unto
him, Let him be crucified. That was their desire, 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. 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. Then answered all
the people and said, His blood be upon us and our children. Now, all this was going on while
Barabbas was laying there in the prison cell. He didn't know
that this was taking place. And then, as he's laying there,
bound in the prisoner cell, he hears the guards coming and unlocking
the door. And I'm sure he was filled with
a sense of dread and fear as to what was getting ready to
take place. And then he hears these words, you've been set
free. You're released. You're free. How did that happen? Can you
imagine how Barabbas felt, who just a minute before thought
he was getting ready to be crucified, and then he heard that he had
been set free? No doubt he asked why, and he
was told, someone took your place. The reason that Barabbas, this
wicked man, was set free was because someone took his place. Now, I've got four points to
this message. Sovereignty, sin, substitution,
and salvation. Those are the four points to
this message. Would you please listen carefully
because you're gonna learn. If God is pleased to make himself
known to us, we're going to learn how a sinner can be saved. And without question, that's
the most important subject you or I could ever contemplate. And my first point is sovereignty. In Luke 23, verse 17, it says,
for of a necessity, of a necessity, he must release one unto them
at the feast. Now, as I've already said, this
was a custom not prescribed in the law. It was brought on by
the Roman government, but it was a necessity because God willed
it to happen. This was a necessity because
God willed it to happen. You see, the cross, Christ being
nailed to a cross was God's will. It was the Father's will for
him to be nailed to a cross. Now, remember this or understand
this. Christ being nailed to a cross
was not God's response to the fall of man, to clean up the
mess that Adam made. The fall of man was for the cross. You see, Christ is called the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world in Revelation 13,
verse 8. And before the fall, before there
was sin, before there was a sinner, there was the Savior. And Christ
is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The most God-like
thing God has ever done is the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, God is sovereign. Daniel
chapter 4, verses 34 and 35 says, he doeth. according to His will in the
armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and
there's none that stayeth His hand, or sayeth unto Him, What
doest thou? He does according to His will."
And how many times is it pointed out that everything that was
done with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ was done that the
Scriptures might be fulfilled. It's almost like they read in
the Scriptures, well, what do we do next? And they read in
the Scriptures and they did it. Everything he experienced was
foretold in the Old Testament Scriptures, and to say he did
this that the Scripture might be fulfilled is another way of
saying he did this that the will of God might be fulfilled. All this was happening because
God willed it. Acts 2.23 says, Him being delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. Christ
wasn't a victim. Christ wouldn't. Just a bad fortune. This was all according to the
will and purpose of God Almighty. Listen to this scripture, Acts
4, verse 27. For a truth against thy holy
child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together
to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. Now, the cross was the will of
God. This necessity arose because
of the absolute sovereignty of God, who has complete control
over the free and uncoerced actions of men and demons. These men,
in their bloodthirsty desire to kill Christ, were performing
the will of God Almighty. The cross is the will of God. You remember the Lord in Gethsemane's
garden, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless,
not my will, but thine be done. So the first thing I want us
to see is the reason that Barabbas was released was because it was
the sovereign will of God for Christ to go in his place and
be nailed to that cross. Now, my second point is sin. Sin. No doubt, Barabbas was a
wicked man, and he'd committed many crimes, and he was bound
in the Roman prison cell, unable to deliver himself. But did you
know that while sin is seen in Barabbas, it's seen more clearly
in the chief priests and the rulers of the people? who desired
Barabbas over Christ. They hated Christ and they desired,
this was their will. The scripture says he delivered
Jesus to their will. These men preferred Barabbas,
that was their choice, and this is the sin that you and I are
guilty of. No love for Christ. Now, most people will say, well,
I love Christ, but they've never really heard of the Christ of
the Bible. They've heard of a false Christ who they are not afraid
of and approve of, and a Christ that they've got in their back
pocket. They can do with Him whatever they want to do. But
I'm talking about the Christ of the Bible who's absolutely
sovereign. who wear salvations in His hands, not yours. It's
up to Him as to whether or not you'll be saved. You know, men
might gnash their teeth at that Christ. And these people, because
He had ruined their efforts at self-salvation and told them
they were no good, they hated Him and they wanted Him dead. They preferred Brabus to the
altogether lovely one, the Lord Jesus Christ, because of the
sinfulness of their nature. He delivered Jesus to their will. Now let me tell you something
about the will of man. It's the seat of sin. It's the most evil thing that
there has ever been. When people believe in free will,
all they prove by that is they have absolutely no idea what
they really are. They're completely blind to the
sinfulness of their own nature. If God taught you who you were,
you wouldn't believe anything as foolish as free will. You'd
know your will is controlled by a sinful, evil nature, and
that would make you cry out for mercy. But these men, their will
proves the wickedness of their nature. Now, you look to the
cross to find out how bad you are. Don't look within your heart.
Don't look at the things you've done or the things that you've
refrained from doing. You look at the cross, and this
is what you and I are when God takes away the restraints. When
he lifts all restraints off and lets us do what we want to do,
this is what we did. We murdered the Son of God. Now, sin. Sin is seen in no love
for the altogether lovely one. Sin is seen in hating the Lord
Jesus Christ. And let me repeat, I'm talking
about the Christ of the Bible. You know, most people don't know
they hate God until they hear of the true character of God.
And they say, well, I don't love that God. I know you don't, but that's
the God of the Bible. This is the Christ of the Bible. And sin is seen in no love for
him. Now the third point, first, sovereignty. This was happening according
to the will of God. Sin, men hating Christ so much
they wanted to nail Him to a tree. But here's the third point, substitution. This is how the glorious God
made a way to be just and justifier, through substitution. Here is
what took place at this time. The guilty, Barabbas, was released. And the innocent one, the Lord
Jesus Christ, was condemned in his place. Now, think with me. What a horrible thing when the
guilty are set free. What if someone who tried to
murder your son or daughter and was put in prison was set free within a year. Maybe
through some kind of, something happened in the courts and all
of a sudden he's set free and he's on the loose again. Your
child is in danger again. How many times have criminals
been set free and wrought havoc at society once again when they've
been set free? Ask the relatives of Barabbas
what they thought about him being set free. I mean, the relatives
of the people he had murdered. It is a horrible thing when the
guilty are set free. And what a horrible thing it
is for the innocent to be condemned. You know, there are people who
have been executed for crimes they did not commit. There are people in our prisons
right now sitting in prison for crimes they did not commit. What a horrible thing when the
innocent are charged with guilt and punished. Now on that day,
Barabbas got what was due the spotless Son of God. complete
freedom, he was released, and Christ, the innocent Son of God
who never sinned, was given what was coming to Barabbas, crucifixion. Now I want to read you a verse
of Scripture from Proverbs chapter 17, verse 15. It says, He that
justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even
they both are an abomination to the Lord. It's an abomination
to the Lord for the innocent to be condemned. It's an abomination
to the Lord for the guilty to be set free. This is said by
the one who said, I will by no means clear the guilty. Now, if I'm set free when I'm
guilty, is it just? If you did something wrong and
I said, I'll take your place and I'll take the punishment,
that might be nice of me, but would it be just? The answer
is no. It wouldn't be just for me to
be punished for your sin, nor would it be just for me to be
set free if I'm guilty. Now here is the glory of the
gospel. God has made a way to be just
and to by no means clear the guilty. and justify people who
indeed are guilty. Now did you hear that? That's
the most glorious thing there is. God has made a way to be
just, absolutely just, and yet justify people who are unjust. How did he do this? The cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ. For he hath made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Now Christ bore the sins of the
elect. They became his sins so that
he actually became God. guilty of them. And when he was
hanging on the cross, being forsaken by God, it's because that's exactly
what he deserved. My sin became his sin, who his
own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree. He took my sins and my sorrows
and made them his very own. He bore the burden to Calvary
and suffered and died alone. Now my sin became his sin, and
he was guilty, and he was punished in my place as the great sin
bearer. And just as truly as my sin became
his sin, his righteousness becomes my righteousness. So what really
happened on the cross was not the innocent being condemned,
it was the guilty being condemned. What was really going on when
I was set free, it was the innocent being set free because of the
great work of Christ on the cross. Now, somebody may be saying,
how can this be right? Well, it's right, first of all,
because God did it. And if He did it, that makes
it right. Is anything too hard for the Lord? He's the one who
did this. Christ Jesus went through this
voluntarily. This wasn't forced upon him.
He volunteered. He said, no man takes my life
from me. I have power to lay it down. I have power to take
it up. This commandment have I received of my father. He did
this voluntarily. He did this because he wanted
to. He went to the cross with his full consent. This wasn't
something that was forced on him. He said, I delight to do
thy will, oh God. And Christ did this because he
loved his bride. Every person he died for is his
precious bride, the bride of Christ. And he was doing this
for his bride. And listen to this. We're saved. If we're saved,
we're saved the same way we were ruined. Now, I was ruined when
Adam fell. I was in him. I was guilty of
what he did, but I was ruined by what somebody else did, and
I'm saved by what somebody else did. That is the gospel. On the cross, the guilty was
condemned and the innocent was set free. This is the great mystery
of justification. It's how that publican in the
temple went down to his house justified, not merely forgiven,
but justified. Now the last point is salvation. There was one singular reason
why Barabbas was set free. It was not because he was sorry.
It was not because he made restitution or even because he asked for
mercy. This is the one reason he was
set free. Christ took his place. The only reason that this sinner
talking to you right now will be saved is because Christ took
my place and died for me. Now, I would be remiss, I would
be wrong if I said to everybody listening, Christ died for you. I don't know if he did. I know
that he died for everyone whose names are written in the Lamb's
Book of Life. I know he died For all the elect, I know He
died for those who believe. So somebody may be thinking,
how can I know if He died for me? Acts 13, 48 says, as many
as were ordained to eternal life believed. Now listen to me real
carefully. You don't need to worry about
whether or not you're one of the elect. You don't even need
to worry about whether or not Christ died for you. Here's what
you're called upon to do. You're called upon to believe
the gospel. To believe that who He is and what He did is all
that's needed to make you perfectly acceptable and righteous before
God. It's to believe He is the Son
of God and whatever He does must be successful. Faith is the evidence
of things not seen. How can I know if my name is
written in the Lamb's Book of Life? If I believe the Gospel. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust Him. Trust Him to save
you. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. We have this message on CD and
DVD. If you write the church, call
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Nyberg praying that
God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. That's our prayer. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to messages at todsroadgracechurch.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.