Okay, back to Luke 23. Luke chapter
23. In verse 3, Pilate asked the
Lord Jesus Christ, Art thou the King of the Jews? And the Lord plainly says, I
am. I am the King. Is Jesus Christ
the King? Is Jesus Christ God our King? Every believer can say without
hesitation, absolutely yes. God made Him so by God's eternal
unchanging decree. Peter put it this way at Pentecost
in Acts chapter 2. Therefore, let all the house
of Israel know assuredly that God had made that same Jesus
whom you crucified, God had made him both Lord and Christ. He is Lord, not by something
we do. God had made him Lord in that
eternal covenant of grace by God's unchanging, immutable decree. The Lord Jesus Christ, and not
only the King of the Jews, That was the accusation of the high
priest saying that he himself is the king, king of the Jews. But he's not only the king of
the Jews, he's every man's king, every man's lord. He rules and
reigns over all men everywhere with absolute sovereign dominion
absolute sovereign power either to save you by His grace or to
condemn you by His justice. He has all power as King. He
has all power in heaven and earth. He prayed that way, the Father
had given me all authority, all power. that I should give eternal
life to as many as the Father hath given to me, all judgment
is committed unto this one who is the King. This is the one
to whom we have to do. This is the one to whom we will
answer unto. He is Lord. He is Christ. Every
knee is going to bow. Every tongue is going to confess
that Jesus Christ is King. He is Lord. To the glory of God
the Father. So he is our king, every man's
king. As king, it says in scripture,
whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven, earth,
sea, and all deep places. Whatsoever the Lord pleases to
do, that's what he does. That's what a king does. Now
a president doesn't act that way, especially in this country.
He had checks and balances in this country. But a king, back
in days of old, whatever the king in any country said, that's
what it was. And that is a picture of Christ
our Eternal King. Whatsoever our Eternal King does,
He sits in the heavens. He rules and reigns over all
affairs, over all men, and none can stay His hand, and none can
say to Him, Lord God, what are You doing? Why? Because He is
the King. He's seated on the throne as
the King. Hereafter shall the Son of Man
sit on the right hand of the power of God. Why does He sit
there? How does He sit there? As King. As King. It says in Psalm 47,
For God is the King of all the earth. Sing praises with understanding. Now if you have any understanding,
of who the Lord Jesus Christ is as God our Savior, as King,
you'll praise Him. If He's given you an understanding
of who He is, what He's done, you'll praise Him as all of your
salvation. Now, you remember from last week,
or the last time we met together, actually two weeks ago, the two
vital questions that the Pharisees asked the Lord, remember back
in Luke 22, verse 67, They ask him, art thou the Christ?
Tell us. And he said, I am the Christ. Again, in verse 70, they ask
him this question. Aren't thou then the Son of God?
And he says, yes, I am. I am the Christ of God. I am
the Son of God. And then as he answered to Pilate,
when Pilate said, are you the king? And he says, I am. I am
the king. He is King of Kings, and He is
Lord of Lords. He's not only our blessed Savior,
our blessed Redeemer, but I like the way the Apostle Paul calls
Him, God our Savior. God our Savior. If He's not God,
He's no Savior. God our Savior. He's not only
Savior and Redeemer, but He is Lord and King of all men everywhere. Everyone answers to Him. He is
the supreme king as God. His lordship, his right to rule
over us, is one of the main issues that the Lord causes believers
to bow unto and gladly receive him as Lord and Master. You remember what Thomas confessed? Thomas confessed, he's my Lord,
And He's my God. And that's a confession of every
believer. He's my God. He's my Lord. He is my Savior. When we bow to His Lordship,
we own it. We love it. We submit unto it. He is the Lord my shepherd, and
I shall not want. He is the Lord, the light of
my salvation. All through the Psalms, David
said, the Lord is my light, the Lord is my salvation, the Lord
is my shepherd. His Lordship. Now, someone mentioned
to me this morning about Brother Mahan back in the 1950s. Actually, I believe it was April
1950, when Ralph Barnard first came to Ashland, Kentucky and
held that first gospel meeting and preached those first gospel
messages in a church where the gospel had never been preached.
And Pastor Mahan at that time in 1950 was just 24 years old. Brother Henry told me when Roth
Barnard came to Ashland that week, Pastor Henry Mahan came
to Ashland that same week, and they met together. Wasn't that
a coincidence? No, that was the sovereign purpose
of God. You see, he's king. Pastor Mahan was just 24 years
old. Think about that. Now he's 92. But Barnard, here's what he said,
and here was the theme of those messages that he preached in
those early days there in Ashland. Brother Henry said of him, when
Ralph Barnard came to Ashland, Kentucky, he said that town was
never the same. It was never the same. God's
prophet came to that town and it was never the same place.
But Ralph Barnard, he came to That pulpit, and it's interesting,
that church where he came, Pollard Baptist Church in Ashland, Kentucky,
one of the biggest churches in that whole area, over 1,500 members. They packed it out upstairs,
downstairs. You know where that church is
today? Out of business. It dwindled and dwindled and
dwindled and nothing. And last year, they closed the
doors. Went out of business. They rejected the gospel of God's
grace. That's why Brother Mahan and
those men in 1955, that's when they left over the gospel. But Ralph Barnard came and he
said to those people in that day, he said, don't tell me who
your Savior is, tell me who your Lord is. Tell me who your Lord
is. And he said furthermore, he said,
if Jesus Christ is not your Lord, if He's not your King, He's not
your Savior. The issue was the Lordship of
Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God our Savior. If He's not the Lord, the King,
then He's not the Christ of God. But we know that He is the Christ
of God. We know that He is anointed in
all of His offices, prophet, priest, and king. Now, this is
exactly what makes everything the Lord Jesus Christ as God
our Savior. This is exactly what makes everything
He did for us effectual, satisfying, and eternal before God. Now, the ministry of the Lord
Jesus Christ among men, for the most part, was rejected. He didn't
do things to satisfy men, did he? Those Pharisees, those religious
people, they hated him. They plot and planned the best
they could to put him to death. And that's what they're doing
here. But the Lord Jesus Christ, his
ministry and his satisfaction was not unto men. We see that,
don't we? It's before God, it's unto the
Lord. He came to satisfy God's holy
law that we had broken. Now we can clearly see that the
Lord Jesus Christ is not only the Messiah, Son of God, for
He clearly answered and said, when, are you the Christ? Are
you the Son of God? And He said, I am, I am. Now, why did Pilate ask Him whether
or not He was the King? Because if you look at Luke 23,
and the whole multitude of them arose and led him unto Pilate,
and they began to accuse him, saying, We have found this fellow
perverting the nation, forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying
that he himself is a king. And then Pilate, when he heard
that, he said, Are you the king? Are you the king of the Jews? And of course the Lord answered
that I am the King. Now, the Lord plainly confesses
that He is God's King. Now don't turn back to this,
let me just read it to you again. We have it over here in John
18, we read it earlier. And Pilate said to the Lord,
Art thou the King of the Jews? This is John 18, verse 34. Hast thou done? And the Lord
answered, verse 36, 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 unto the Jews. But now is my kingdom not from
hence. And Pilate said unto him, Art
thou a king then? And the Lord answered, Thou sayest
that I am king to this end was I born. For this cause came I
into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.
What is the truth? He is the Son of God, he is the
Christ of God, as such he is king. And everyone that is of
the truth hears my voice. Remember he said my sheep, they
hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me. Now, you think
about I thought about this. Remember, the Lord had been abused
by the chief priest. They mocked him and had beaten
him, had arrested him, and they did that the whole night. They
take him unto the judgment hall before Pilate, and here the Jews
say, well, he says he's a king. And Pilate's looking at this
man, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was a real man, beaten and abused,
bruised and bleeding. He certainly didn't look like
a king, did he? He certainly didn't look like a king. But
truly He is God the King. Revelation of Jesus
Christ in Revelation 19 says of Him that He is King of kings
and Lord of lords. Now what is He doing here as
God's King? Well, listen to this Psalm, Psalm
74, 12. says, For God is my King, working salvation in the midst
of the earth. He came to perform all things
for us as our King, as our Savior, Mediator, to accomplish our salvation. Where does He reign as God's
King? among the inhabitants of heaven and earth, and he does
whatsoever he pleases to do." God is the king of all the earth. You remember, the wise men came
that day to Bethlehem, and they said, where is he that is born
king? They didn't say, where is he
that will be king someday. Where is he that is born king?
So, he was king before he got here. God Almighty manifests
in the flesh. He was king when he got here.
He lived as king. Remember, even the wind and the
seas obeyed him. He raised up the dead. He healed
those who were crippled. He lived as king among men, even
the wind and the seas obeyed him. He lived as king, he came
as king, he died as king. Look over here in this same chapter. You remember when they crucified
him, they put a sign over his head. Verse 37, verse 38, and
the superscription also was written over him in letters in Greek,
in Latin, in Hebrew, this is the king of the Jews. He was king when he came here
because he's the eternal God. He lived as king, walked among
men as king, proving beyond all doubt that he is the king. He died for us as the king. He was buried as God's king. He ascended to glory as the king
and seated at the right hand of God as king. as king, died as king, and my
friend he's coming back again, what? As king. He said, I'll go away and prepare
a place for you, and if I go away I'll come again and receive
you to myself. How's he coming back? As king. Every knee will bow, every tongue
will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Although they mocked
him as the king, You remember they planted a crown of thorns,
it says in Matthew 27, and they crushed it down on his brow.
They put a broken reed in his hand. They put a purple robe
about him, that was a robe of royalty, and they bowed the knee
and they mocked him. Hail, king of the Jews. They mocked him as king. My friend,
we worship him as king, don't we? We worship Him as King and
as our Savior. God seeketh such to worship Him
in spirit and in truth. Now, I'm going to tell you something
here that might sound strange to some of you. This ungodly
religious world still mocks him today. As they mocked him, it
says there in verse 11, Herod with his men of war set him at
night and mocked him. This ungodly religious world
still mocks the Lord Jesus Christ as God's king. Preacher, what
do you mean by that? Here's what I mean. How many
times have you heard a religious preacher say, God wants to but
can't unless you let him? God's trying to save you but
you won't let him. What are they doing? They're mocking his lordship,
are they not? God wants to and you stop him? He said, I kill, I make alive.
I the Lord do all these things. Can you stop God from killing
someone? You're on your deathbed. You're
going to say, well, I'm just not going to die. Try that one. See how well it works. God's
going to have his way with you in death and in salvation. He
will have mercy on whom He will have mercy. He will have compassion
on whom He will have compassion. You see what I'm saying? This
religious world still mocks His Lordship. Now we don't. We preach
His Lordship. We exalt Him in His Lordship. He will have mercy upon whom
He will have mercy. It is not of Him that willeth,
nor of Him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. His
mercy is sovereign mercy. He will have mercy on whom He
will. Now, preacher, why do you preach those things? Because
that's what this book teaches you. Now, it just makes, not
only is it biblically and scripturally true, But it even makes common
sense. If He's God and King of all the
earth, can't He do what He wants to do? Who are you, puny creatures
of this earth, to say no? No. His will will be done. He worketh all things after the
counsel of His own will. Now, you can't preach Him too
high, give Him too much glory, too much honor. You can't say
and exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot give Him too much
power, for He has all power. I've never heard any believer
complain that all you preach is Christ, His lordship, His
power, His dominion, His sovereignty, His atonement that's effectual.
I've never heard a believer complain. Notice how I said that. I've
heard some folks complain. I've heard some folks complain that all you preach is Christ."
Well, that's all I have, my friend, is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
notice something here about what they accused the Lord
Jesus Christ of. Verse 2, "...they began to accuse
him, saying, We have found this man to be a pervert." He's a
pervert. perverting the nation, forbidding
to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he is a king. And when Pilate
said, I find no fault in him, verse 4, they were more fierce,
saying, he stirred up the people, teaching throughout all Judea,
beginning from this place. Now, what they said of him when
they began to accuse him of being one who was raising up rebellion
against Caesar, and one who was forbidding to pay taxes, what
they said of the Lord Jesus Christ was not true. They were false
accusations. The Lord Jesus Christ was not
guilty of these petty crimes they accused him of. He was indeed
guilty of declaring the truth. And these religious Jews could
not stand the truth because it exposed their refuge of lies.
They said, we have found him perverting the nation. These
folks were already perverting. They were worried about their
Jewish traditions. Remember the Lord said, for in
vain you do trust those Jewish traditions. The nation of Israel
was already perverted and corrupted. He exposed them. Remember we
studied in Luke 16, 15. Turn back over there. They were
already perverted. He just exposed their perversion.
Luke 16, verse 15. You are they which justify yourselves
before men, but God knows your heart, that which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination in the sight of God. He exposed
them for what they are. They were the perverts. They
were the ones who were corrupt. And they accused Him again of
not paying His taxes. Well, we studied that in Luke
20. You remember the Lord said, to render to Caesar the things
that are Caesar, and unto God the things that are God's? He
did pay taxes. Even one time, he told one of
his disciples, go out and catch a fish, and open his mouth, and
you'll find some money in his mouth, and you take that and
you pay our taxes. He did pay taxes. And He did not pervert the nation,
they were already perverted. They brought many false witness
against Him to accuse Him, but we know from the record of Scripture
that the Lord Jesus Christ is the spotless, holy Lamb of God,
without blemish and without spot. He had no sin, He knew no sin,
He did no sin, that's why even Pilate said, not once but three
times in verse 4, I find no fault in this man. And again he said
in verse 14, You have brought this man to me as one that perverteth
the people. Behold, I have examined him before
you and found no fault in this man. Again down in verse 22,
and he said to them the third time, why what evil when they
said crucify him, what evil has he done? I found no cause of
death in him. So, even the Lord in all of his life
had no sin, knew no sin, and did no sin. Listen to these scriptures.
Judas, after he betrayed the Lord and sold Him, he came back
and he said when he gave the money back to the priest, do
you remember what he said? I've betrayed innocent blood. Pilate's own wife warned Pilate
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you remember what she said?
Have nothing to do with this just man. Pilate himself declared
three times, I find no fault in Him. Look over in Luke 23
verse 47, when the Lord was crucified before these Roman soldiers,
and the Lord said, Father, into thy hands commend my spirit,
and he yielded up the spirit, verse 47, when the centurion
saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was
a righteous man. You see, even his enemies testified
that he is a just and righteous man. The Holy Scripture is clear.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the Holy Lamb of God and he had to
be such to be our sacrifice for sin without blemish and without
spot. Such a high priest became us
who was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sin. As such,
he's the only suitable sacrifice for our sin. He appeared once
in the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself. He had no sin of his own, but
he died having our sin charged to his account. He became guilty
for our sin. God laid on him the iniquity
of us all. He appeared once in the end of
the egg to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Now, let
this blessed, blessed truth of the holy humanity of Christ,
who is God our King, give your heart Sweet assurance and hope
of salvation for our forgiveness of our sin in whom we have forgiveness
through His blood according to the riches of His grace. You
see, we have a great high priest. that is passed into the heavens.
When He by Himself purged our sin, He sat down on the right
hand of the throne of God. Yes, He is the spotless, holy
Lamb of God who gave His life for us. We have a great high
priest before the throne of God who ever lived to intercede for
us. We have an atonement for sin, don't we? A full payment
for sin. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanses us from all our sin and sins. And we have a glorious Mediator
between God and men. Who is that glorious Mediator?
The spotless Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the
Christ of God, the Son of God, and He's our King. He's the King
Priest who came to save His people. Charles Spurgeon. Many of you
read many sermons by him, but I found this statement he made.
He said, My hope lives not because I'm not a sinner, but because
I am a sinner for whom Christ died. My trust is not that I
am holy, but that being unholy, He is my righteousness. My faith
rests not upon what I am or feel or know, But in what Christ is
and what he has done, and in what he is doing now, right now,
doing for me right now. What's he doing for us right
now? He ever lives to make intercession for us right now. He intercedes
for us right now as our king. as our Mediator, as our Advocate. My little children, these things
are right unto you that you sin not, but when you do, we have
an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous One. Now, aren't you glad He's King?
Aren't you glad the Lord has taught you that He is Our King,
He's our King Priest, He's the King of Righteousness, He's the
King of Peace, in Him we have salvation. Now, this is interesting here in verse
8 down through verse 12. When Pilate heard that the Lord
Jesus Christ was from Galilee of Nazareth, And he knew that
Herod was in town trying to get out of, remember Pilate even
washed his hands. He said, I'm innocent of the
blood of this just man. Pilate, he's trying to get out
of this thing politically in every way he can. So he sends
him to Herod and said, let Herod deal with him. Verse 8, and when
Herod saw Jesus, Now he didn't see him as a king, did he? He
didn't see him as God, did he? Now you remember what Herod had
done? Herod is the very man who killed
the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ. He killed the prophet
of God, John the Baptist. Remember what Herod did? He took
off John's head. Herod was no friend of the gospel. But when Herod saw this one whom
he considered just as a prophet, a religious man, Jesus, he was
exceedingly glad. Many people in religion today,
when they hear of Jesus, sweet little Jesus boy, when they hear
of a religious Jesus, a lot of people They're glad, but when
they hear that Jesus Christ is king, that he's gonna do with
you what he will, their gladness turned into sorrow and rebellion
against God. A lot of people have their little
refuge of life, holding on to Jesus as my co-pilot, Jesus this
and Jesus that. But when they run into the Lordship
of Christ the King, their gladness turns into rebellion against
God. For he would desire to see Him
for a long season. But see, he heard many things
about Him. He heard about the feeding of
the 5,000. He heard about these miracles
that the Lord had done. Because it says there in the
last part of verse 8, He hoped to have seen some miracle done
by Him. Isn't that true of our religious
generation in our day? They go to these big rallies,
these big pep rallies, these big crusades, religious crusades,
and they always have this time of what they say is going to
be a time of miracles. Oral Roberts, some of you older
people remember Oral Roberts and these people who were called
faith healers. And with this new guy that's
got the fancy hairdo, Benny, what's his name, Benny Hinn or
something. He's always talking about, we're going to have, it's
always kind of interesting how they rent a big hall over in
some community and they take up a big offering. They have
a big financial campaign. First they raise all the money
up and then we're going to see a miracle. A lot of people want
to see a miracle. They see these signs and wonders
and miracles. And that's what Herod, he just
wanted to see some miracles. He wasn't interested in the salvation
of his soul. He wasn't interested in having
his sin put away. He wasn't interested in the king
praised. He wasn't interested in having
an effectual atonement for his sin. He'd even killed one of
God's prophets, but he seemed not to be too much concerned
about that. He didn't come to the Lord and
say, forgive me, I've killed the prophet of God. He wanted
us to see a miracle. Boy, that's our day, isn't it?
Isn't that our religious day? And he questioned him with many
words, and the Lord didn't even answer him one time. One of what he asked, where did Cain get his wife?
These silly questions that religious people ask, and the Lord didn't
answer him a word. And the chief priest stood, and
the scribes, and they vehemently, viciously accused him, not only
before Pilate, but before Herod as well, saying the same things. And Herod, with his men of war,
set him at naught. You see that? They set him at
naught. Here's God's King. Herod thinks
he's the king. Pilate thinks he's the king.
And here's these peons standing before the most high potentate,
and they set him at naught. You know what they're saying? You're nothing. You are nothing. That's the estimation of every
man's thoughts left to himself before God. The Lord Jesus Christ
is nothing. He's nothing. All but to the
believer, Christ is all and in all. And because they set him
at naught, because they said of him, he's a nothing, he's
a nobody from nowhere, they mocked him. And that's what religious people
do today. They carry on their charade and
they worship the God of their imagination. But when they're
faced with the Lordship of Christ, They mock him. That's exactly
what happened in Ashland, Kentucky in 1950 in that meeting. When Barnard came preaching the
Lordship of Christ, for the most part that congregation and those
religious people, they mocked the prophet of God and the Christ
of God as King and Lord. And you know what happened? That
place split wide open. And now those very people in
that whole congregation where that took place is dead at the
doornail. They locked the doors and walked
away. There's nobody left. I mean,
they dwindled down from 1,500 people to five people. They rejected the gospel. You
see, they mocked, they said it not. This came. by the Mahan and about 150 of
the men, or about 150 of those people out of that 1,500, that's
what split that congregation in 1955 when they walked away. It was the gospel. It was the
issue over the lordship of Christ. The same day Pilate and Herod
were made friends, before they were enemies. They hated each
other. but they came together against the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, they hated each other,
but they hated the Lord Jesus Christ more. Herod and Pontius Pilate and
the Jews were gathered together against the Lord and against
His Christ, as it says in Acts chapter 4, to do whatsoever God's
counsel determined before to be done.