Lord, for Lord that could not
be. Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nybert. 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. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nybert. In the story of the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ, we are given a story within the story
that tells us what was going on when our Lord was crucified. And if you and I would understand
the cross, this story within the story is greatly helpful. And I pray that God will bless
this to our understanding. One morning, a man woke up in
a Roman prison cell. He was in chains, bound, and
he woke up knowing that this was the day that he was to be
crucified with two others. His time of execution had come. His name was Barabbas. Barabbas means the son of the
Father. You've heard of the word Abba,
and Bar means son of, the son of the Father, and there's great
typical significance to his name. Truly, he is the type of what
a natural man is, the son of our first father, Adam, But he's
also a type as to what a son of the Heavenly Father is. The
son of the Father. Now, Barabbas was a wicked man. Matthew's account tells us that
he was a notable or notorious prisoner. John tells us he was
a robber, and that doesn't simply mean someone who stole things
or shoplifted. It means someone who plundered
by violence. Have you ever been the victim
of a violent crime? Or do you know anyone who has
been the victim of a violent crime? It's so horrible. These people are never the same.
They live in fear after they experience this, and who knows
how many lives This man ruined Barabbas through violent crime. As a matter of fact, we're told
he was a murderer and he was guilty of insurrection. He was
a rebel against all authority. Barabbas was a wicked man. But who knows what was going
on in his mind that day when he woke up. Was he hardened? Perhaps. Was he feeling remorse
over his wasted life? Perhaps. Was he afraid of being
crucified? Most certainly. Was he afraid
of death, standing before God? You can be sure he was. But there
he lays bound, knowing in a short time he will be crucified. Now let me take you to another
scene. I'd like to read from Matthew chapter 27. This is the
trial of the Lord Jesus. And Jesus stood before the governor,
and the governor asked him, saying, Art thou the king of the Jews?
Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest. 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, Never a
word, insomuch that the governor marveled greatly. Now at the
feast, the governor was wont to release unto the people a
prisoner, whom they would. And this was a custom. During
the Passover, every Passover, he would release a prisoner,
whoever the people desired. And they had then a notable or
notorious prisoner called Barabbas. Barabbas didn't know this was
going on. He was still in his prison cell. But our Lord is
standing before Pilate at this time, Therefore, when they were
gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that
I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus, which is
called Christ? For he knew that for envy they
had delivered him." Pilate was a savvy politician. He knew what
was going on. When he was set down on the judgment
seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to
do with that just man? For I have suffered many things
this day in a dream because of him." And you can be sure that
Pilate was nervous. He was afraid at this time. He
was afraid of the Lord Jesus. He didn't know what to think
of this man. But the chief priests, verse 20, and the elders persuaded
the multitude that they should ask Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said
unto them, Whether of the twain were ye that I were releasing
to you? They said, Barabbas, he's the one we want. Pilate
saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus, which is called
Christ? They all said 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. 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 this just person, you see to it." Somebody once said, he's
still trying to wash his hands in hell, and I believe that's
so. Then answered all the people and said, his blood be on us
and our children. Then released Heber Abbas unto
them, and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be
crucified. Now let's go back to that Roman
prison cell. Barabbas didn't know any of this
was going on. So there he lays, bound in chains. And the guards come and open
the prison door, and he's probably filled with dread and fear. And the guards say to him, you're
released. You're set free. Go your way. Now, here is a time when the
guilty, Barabbas, is set free, and the innocent, the Lord Jesus,
is condemned. Now, I've entitled this message,
A Salvation Story, and the Lord mercifully gives us this real
event that took place to teach us what the cross means. Now,
we find in this story how it is that God saves sinners. Now, I've got four points to
this message. The first point is sovereignty. The second point
is sin. The third point is substitution. And the fourth point is salvation. Now, the first point is sovereignty. Let me read a verse of Scripture
from Luke chapter 23. Verse 16, he says, I will therefore
chastise him, speaking of the Lord Jesus, and release him,
for of necessity he must release one unto them at the feast. Did you catch that word of necessity? It was necessary that he released
one at the feast. That was not prescribed in the
law of Moses. It wasn't necessary in that sense,
but it was necessary. It was necessary because God
willed for it to take place. You see, everything that takes
place is necessary because God is in control of it. God is absolutely
sovereign. Now, what is meant by the sovereignty
of God? Most people say they believe
in the sovereignty of God, but what does it mean? God's sovereignty
means this. First of all, God has a will. Secondly, God has the power to
make sure his will comes to pass. And thirdly, God does indeed
exercise that power and cause His will to come to pass. Everything
that happens, happens because God willed it. God is the first
cause behind all things. God is absolutely sovereign. He doeth according to His will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth,
and none can say His hand or say unto Him, What doest thou?
God is sovereign in creation. He willed this universe into
existence. He had the power to do it, and
He did it. God is sovereign in providence. Providence is everything that
takes place in time. He controls everything. There's
no such thing as luck. There's no such thing as happenstance.
There's no such thing as bad luck or good luck. God is in
control of everything. He upholds all things by the
word of His power. By Him, all things consist. There's nothing that happens
without Him. Now, this is interesting. Men will agree that He's sovereign
in creation, and most men will even agree that He's sovereign
in providence. They say, well, everything works together for
good somehow. There must be a reason for this.
But God is also sovereign in salvation. That means He is in
control of who will be saved. Everybody that's saved, He wills
their salvation. He has the power to make sure
they're saved, and He does, in fact, save them. Salvation is
of the Lord. What about man's will? Man's
will doesn't have anything to do with it. It's God's will. Man's will is evil, but God wills
the salvation of all of his people. God is sovereign, and the reason
this event took place, the reason it was necessary, is because
God decreed it, God purposed it, and whatever God purposes
must come to pass. The death of Christ. Every part
of it was according to God's purpose. Him being delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. You have
taken and with wicked hands have crucified and slain. Everything
that happened in His death happened according to His purpose. How
many times in all the Gospel accounts do we read that this
happened or that happened that the Scriptures might be fulfilled?
Remember the soldiers casting lots for His garments? Well,
Scripture says that it would in Psalm 22. when he was pierced
in the side. Zechariah and Psalms says that
that's what's going to happen to him. Everything that took
place happened exactly as God said it would take place. So
this story of Barabbas was a divine necessity. The custom was made
for this one purpose. They're going to release this
man at the Passover to teach us the gospel. So that's my first
point. Sovereignty. This release of
Barabbas was all according to the purpose of God Almighty. And the second point is sin. Barabbas was a very sinful man,
obviously a plunderer by violence, a murderer, a thief. and a rebel,
one who stood against authority, and he typifies what all men
are by nature, choice, and practice. Brabus gives us a look at what
we really are. Brabus was bound he was powerless
to deliver himself, but I believe the chief priest's desire for
Barabbas give us a look at the true nature of sin. Now let me
read from Luke chapter 23 beginning verse 15. Pilate is seeking to
have Christ set free. He's afraid of what's going on.
I believe he's afraid of the Lord Jesus Christ. He knew there
was something about him. When he claimed to be the Son
of God, Pilate was the more afraid, the Scripture said. But listen
to this, beginning of verse 15. Pilate says, Harod, nor yet Harod or
I, for I sent him to you, 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. And they cried out 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 to 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 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 the prison whom
they had desired, but he delivered Jesus to their will." Now, understand
this. If God left me or you to ourselves,
it would be our will to get rid of God, to get rid of His throne,
and to get rid of the Lord Jesus Christ. He delivered Jesus to
their will. Their will was the death of Christ. Now, here's man's will. People
talk about free will, man having a free will, that's foolishness.
Man has a will that's chained to an evil nature, and his evil
nature controls his will. There's no such thing as free
will. It's not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. You can't be saved because you
decide to be saved, because your will, my will, this is where
our greatest guilt is. The fact that if left to ourselves,
our desire, we would put Christ out of business. Now, maybe not
a Christ of our imagination, that we feel comfortable with
it, we're okay with that Jesus, but I'm talking about the Jesus
Christ of Scripture. The Jesus Christ as He's revealed
in the Word. That Christ we don't want to
have any part of. He delivered Jesus to their will. Now, here is the total and complete
depravity of all men by nature. Every one of us are guilty of
this. If God left us to our will, we would murder His Son. That's how bad everybody is,
me and you. My second point is sin. First, sovereignty. God is in
control of all this. But here we see the enormity
of human guilt. Now my third point is substitution. The guilty is released and the
innocent is punished. And the reason the guilty is
released is because the innocent is punished. Now what a horrible
thing when the guilty are set free. You know, I've been following
in the papers recently where that man who was let out of prison,
who was a sex offender, he'd been guilty of rape, and they
let him out of prison. And he captured an 11-year-old
girl, and just recently they found that girl who had been
living in his backyard in tents, suffering all kinds of atrocities
at his hand for 18 years. They found her when she was 29
years old. She had two children from this
man. And this man committed such crimes
against this woman. And this is what happens when
the guilty go free. They let Barabbas out. Oh, what a horrible thing when
the guilty is set free. What if someone murdered one
of your children and our judicial system said, well, we're going
to let him go? Well, we couldn't have that, could we? We couldn't
have a society like that. What a terrible thing it is when
the guilty go free. And what a horrible thing it
is when the innocent are condemned. I wonder how many times throughout
history someone who knew in their heart they were not guilty of
the crime they were accused of was put to death. How many people
have been strapped to an electric chair? How many people have had
the noose tied around their neck? How many people have had the
lethal injection knowing that they were not guilty of what
they've been accused of? Wouldn't that be awful? The innocent
being accused. Now, the only way that guilty
could be released is if the innocent was condemned. And that's what
happened that day. Barabbas got what Christ deserved. And Christ got what Barabbas
deserved. But like all illustrations, it
does not give us a complete picture. You see, if you committed a crime,
and I said, I'll do the time for you, That'd be nice of thee,
wouldn't it? You'd be grateful. But would
justice be served? No. The only way justice can
be served is if the one who committed the crime suffers the punishment. I love my daughter. I've got
one daughter. And I love her dearly. And if she committed
a crime that called for her death, I know that I would gladly die
in her place if I could. But would justice be served? The answer to that is no. Justice
is only served if the guilty is punished. If I'm innocent
of the crime and I'm punished for it, there's no justice in
that. Justice is only served if the
one who is guilty of the crime dies. Now, here's the gospel. God is just. He wouldn't do something
like that. As a matter of fact, there's
a scripture in Proverbs chapter 17. I want to read this to you,
verse 15. Proverbs 17, 15. He that justifieth
the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are
abomination to the Lord. The Lord is absolutely just,
and He would never let the guilty go free. He said, I'll by no
means clear the guilty, and He would never condemn the innocent. Now, how can God be just and
justify the ungodly? How can that be? It says He won't
clear the guilty. How can God be just and justify
me? Now, understand this. On the
cross, Christ wasn't innocent. It's not like the Father said,
Son, I'm punishing you. I know these sins were not yours.
They're the sins of your people, but I'm going to treat you and
punish you in their place. But I know you're not guilty.
No, that's not what took place at all. When Christ was on the
cross, He didn't have the satisfaction of knowing at least I'm not guilty
of these sins. I'm doing this for somebody.
No. There wasn't anybody around the
cross saying, oh, we know you're doing this for us and we're thankful.
No, Christ was guilty of the sins that were placed upon Him. He never sinned in His person,
but yet when my sin became His, He actually bore the guilt of
it. It became His so that He was
guilty. And when God poured His wrath
upon Him, it's because He deserved it. You see, God is never going
to condemn an innocent man. When my sin became Christ, it
became Christ, so that he became guilty of it, and he bore the
shame of it. He never sinned in his person,
perished the blasphemous thought. He never sinned in his person,
but it's worse. The Scripture says he was made
sin. God forsook him. Now, the Scripture
says, David said, I've been young and now I'm old, and I've never
seen the righteous forsaken. Christ was forsaken because on
the cross He was made sin, and that's what God does to sinners.
God will never clear the wicked. He gives them exactly what they
deserve. God will never condemn the righteous. Now, just as truly as the righteousness
of Christ becomes mine, and my sin becomes His, God acts in
absolute justice. He gave Christ what He deserves,
and He gives me what I deserve, perfect righteousness. Now, in
Romans chapter 3, I want to read a passage of Scripture to you.
Romans chapter 3, verse 19, Now we know that what thing soever
the law sayeth, it sayeth to them who are under the law, that
every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty
before God. There's our stake before God,
guilty. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin." Now, is there anything we can do to
get out of this? No! All the law does is condemn
us. But, that doesn't mean there's
no hope. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested.
Being witnessed by the law and the prophets, this is what the
Old Testament scriptures have always taught. Even the righteousness
of God, which is by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all and
upon all in the belief, for there is no difference. For all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified
freely. by His grace, through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation. Now, that's a big word. It means
an appeasement. God has removed His reason for
anger. My sin was lifted off of me,
placed upon Christ. God's anger and wrath came upon
Him. His righteousness is given to me. He has no reason to be
mad at me. I'm justified. I'm just before
God. whom God has set forth to be
of propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his
righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed." Notice
it didn't say to declare his mercy or his forgiveness or his
grace, but his righteousness is declared in the remission
of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare,
I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. You see, my sin became
His. The Lord laid on Him our iniquity,
the iniquity of every believer who by, who his own self, bear
our sins in his own body on the tree. Now understand this. You
can't understand it. It can't be explained. This is
a mystery, a mystery so profound that to explain it is to explain
it away. It's to be declared and believed. Christ was made sin, and everybody
He died for is made the very righteousness of God in Him. And my last point is salvation. How clearly I see this. The one
reason for the release of Barabbas was Christ took His place. And
the one reason for my release, and that's a beautiful word,
release. Barabbas heard these words, you've been released.
You've been set free. You've been liberated. This is
how the word is translated. You've been forgiven. It means
depart, send away, dismiss, case dismissed. Barabbas was set free. And that describes God's salvation.
Because Christ took my place, I've been set free. Now, in this story, I see God's
absolute justice. God is just. No sin will go unpunished. But I also see God's love. Oh, the love of God for sinners. And I see God's glory. What glory
that God has made a way to be just, and yet justify the ungodly. And I see that which captivates
my heart. As Isaac Watts said so many years
ago, love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my
all. Now, we're not told what happened
to Barabbas after this, but I like to think that somebody told him
what Christ did for him. And in hearing that, he heard
the gospel and believed. Now, I don't know if he did,
but I like to think that he did. If Christ took your place, you
must be saved. Now, we have this message on
DVD, CD, or cassette. If you call the church or write
the email on the screen, or write to church, 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. Amen. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to messages at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.