(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, so this evening, I'll tell you what, when I've been studying and preparing for all the Easter and Passover and all these different lessons and stuff, there's just so many things that I wanted to preach on and touch on that were just kind of continuing even another week beyond. You know, I just did a series called More About Jesus series, and this kind of fits into that as well. And it's on my sermon for tonight is The Just for the Unjust, and we'll be focusing in on this story where there's this option between releasing Barabbas or releasing Jesus, right? And I think it's a very interesting story, and it's brought up in all four of the Gospels, and it's kind of, there's a lot of things we could learn from this. We're going to be looking at this story a little bit closer and just getting, trying to get as much, glean as much meaning and information as we can from this situation where Pilate just, I mean, he doesn't want to condemn Jesus to some extent, at least, right? And he keeps on offering these outs and trying to deal with the people and say, hey, well, hey, I'm supposed to, you know, release someone at the feast anyway, so why not Jesus, basically? And they refused Jesus and chose Barabbas. Now, look down there at verse number 15, the Bible says, now at the feast, at that feast, the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner whom they would. So that's giving us the information that this is a tradition, this is a custom. So essentially, every year at this feast, that it's normal, it'd be traditional for Pilate to just release a prisoner, right? This is a holy day, they're about to celebrate the Passover, very significant holiday, and it's become a tradition for the governor to release somebody and show some grace, show some mercy, and release a prisoner in honor of that holy day. And it says, and they had then a notable prisoner called Barabbas, so when it says he's notable, it means that he was well-known, right, as someone who everybody knew about, right? At any given point, I'm sure you have people in prison that, you know, people might not even realize and don't know that well, but this Barabbas is someone that everybody knew about. Because of the crimes that he commits, everyone knew who Barabbas was. He was a notable prisoner. And keep your place in Matthew 27. If you want to flip through these, you can. I'm going to read a verse from the other gospels, so Mark 15 is a parallel passage in Matthew 27. Mark 15, verse 7, the Bible says, And there was one named Barabbas, which lay bound with them, that had made insurrection with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection. So now we learn a little bit more about why this Barabbas is in prison, right? From this account in the book of Mark, it says he had made an insurrection. So he's kind of behind this group, bringing forth this turmoil and making an insurrection among the people, and he ended up committing murder in the insurrection, right? So he's kind of starting a riot and ends up killing somebody in the insurrection. Luke 23, 18, the Bible says, And they cried out all at once, saying, Away with this man and release unto us Barabbas. And then Luke tells us in verse 19, Who for a certain sedition made in the city and for murder was cast into prison. So we see the same report of him there, essentially, that, you know, he's this notable prisoner. He made this sedition and ended up murdering somebody. At least those were his charges, right? I don't think he's been found guilty yet. Maybe, maybe not. And then verse 40 of John 18, the Bible says, Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. And what's interesting about John is that John says Barabbas was a robber. So this guy's a thief. He's a murderer. He's, you know, he's making these insurrections. Not the guy that you would think would be, that even the people would want to choose to set free. I mean, this is a famous phrase. It's not like someone who's in jail on drug charges or something, like, they're not very violent. They didn't hurt. They did something kind of dumb and, you know, you're going to show leniency or mercy on them. This guy was, I mean, it sounds like he was a bad guy. I mean, it sounds like a pretty bad guy. It sounds like someone that you wouldn't necessarily want to just be released and let go. I mean, a murderer, a thief, and, you know, just causing all these problems, insurrection. But they end up choosing him. Let's read with this in mind of just kind of realizing who Barabbas really is. Let's look at Matthew 27 again, verse number 17, because this is where Pilate is giving them this option, and the reason why he's choosing Barabbas is because he actually wants to free Jesus, and he wants to do so in a way where it's like, I think he's picking probably one of the worst criminals that they had in jail at the time. So he could just be like, okay, do you want me to release this guy unto you, or just, should I just release Jesus unto you, right? Verse 17, the Bible says, therefore, when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them. And Pilate brings this up, because he knows it's time that it's appropriate for him to be releasing someone. Whom will ye that I release unto you, Barabbas or Jesus, which is called Christ? And then it says, for he knew that for envy they had delivered him. Pilate knew. He knew that there was no real charges that should stick against Jesus. He didn't do anything worthy of death. He didn't do anything even worthy of a crime. He didn't commit any crime. And Pilate knows this, and he knows, you know what, they're just jealous. They're envious over Jesus, they're envious that he's got these followers, they're envious for whatever reasons they're envious of. And he knows that this is the truth, so he's kind of saying, okay, he's been arrested, he's already been mocked and ridiculed, he's already gone through this trouble, and he's hoping that maybe they'll let it go, they'll drop it, this is enough, and then he could just free Jesus Christ. And it says here in verse number 19, 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. So on top of that, you know, we start to see more motivation for Pilate really wanting to free Jesus Christ. On top of him already realizing he can see through the smoke and mirrors, he can see, you know what, this isn't legitimate charges, but now he's got his wife saying, you know what, don't mess with him. Like, I've had this dream, you know, let him go, don't have anything to do with that just guy, just don't, you know, don't be involved in that. It says in verse 20, But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas and destroy Jesus. So these chief priests and elders are, it doesn't tell us exactly how they persuaded them, but through whatever means, they're persuading the people, the whole multitude, to ask for Barabbas so that Jesus could be killed because they were rabid in trying to murder Jesus Christ anyways. We know that that was a big motivation for them. They've been conspiring and plotting to kill him for a long time at this point. And then it says in verse 21, the governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain will you that I release unto you? 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. So he's asking like, Why should I put him to death? And they're saying, Let him be crucified. Now all of this is important. What this is, the prophecy that's being fulfilled here is when the Bible says that Jesus came unto his own and his own received him not. OK, and this this this is a particular doctrine that I don't know why people get even upset about this or how people don't understand this, but the Bible is very clear about who killed Jesus, and it was the Jews that killed Jesus. OK, and these days we want to label you an anti-Semite and all this other nonsense and say, Well, you're racist. That's what the Bible says. I mean, Pilate was his gentile trying to release him. And look, I'm not just defending because Pilate has his own culpability in this matter, too, because he buckles to the pressure of the people instead of doing what's right and just as a governor ought to do. A governor ought to just say, I don't care how many people are telling me to do something that's wrong and wicked. I'm going to do what's right. And Pilate didn't do that. Pilate, at the end of the day, was still just a stinking politician that is going to go with the flow of, well, whatever the most people are complaining to me about, that's what I'm going to do because I want people still like me. I want to stay in charge and everything else and doesn't care about having integrity. So I'm not just letting Pilate off here, but I'm demonstrating a Bible showing us that he wanted to. And if it weren't for the Jews saying, No, crucify him, let Barabbas go, we want him dead, then he would have just released him because there were no real charges against him. And this shouldn't be even a thing. I don't know why this would be a controversial doctrine, but it is. It's weird today that people don't see that. And they'll call you all kinds of racist names if you even just preach and teach that, no, when the Bible says Jesus came unto his own and his own received him not, they're talking about the Jews not receiving him. They definitely weren't believing on him. By and large, I know there was a remnant. I know the disciples were Jews and everything else. And there was definitely people who believed on him. But by and large, as a nation, as a group, they rejected him and put him to death. But let's keep reading here. The Bible says so they want to release Barabbas. They say for about Jesus, let him be crucified. Verse 23 says, 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 rather a tumult was made. He took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person. See ye to it. And obviously a very famous portion of scripture. But sorry, Pilate, that doesn't absolve you. Sorry, Pilate, you're the judge in this matter. You're the one with the authority. You're the one who gets to say whether or not you're going to release Jesus or not. You are the one making that decision. So he's just trying to say, well, you guys are the one that wants this. So I'm just kind of stepping up. I'm washing my hands of this. His blood's not on my hands, right? That's what he's saying. He's saying, I don't want to have anything to do with it. I don't want this coming back on me. This isn't my judgment. But he's still the one announcing the judgment. But one of the things, and we're going to look at a few different things. We're going to get into a little bit of just kind of politics and political and what we can learn from that. But before we even get into that, the spiritual aspect of this is actually very amazing and just wonderful. Just one more picture of our salvation, this perfect illustration of a sinner who is definitely a big time sinner, worthy of death, a murderer, a thief, despising government and riotous and whatever. And we see this person who, by all means, ought to be put to death. But he's being set free while the just one is the one who takes his place and ends up being put to death. Because they both would have the death penalty hanging on them, right? Jesus, for nothing that he did wrong, and Barabbas, for everything that he did wrong. But we see here, freedom is given to the sinner. Freedom is given to the murderer. Freedom is given to him in exchange for Jesus Christ. And this is a great picture of salvation because that's what happens with every single one of us. We're sinners. We've broken the law. We're the ones that ought to be condemned to death in hell because of all the sins that we've committed. And if you look at our rap sheets, I'm sure you're going to find plenty of sins on those lists. And the only reason why we even are able to receive forgiveness is because the just was punished for the unjust. The just was the substitution for the unjust. He put himself in that place where we deserve to be. He's the one who ended up going to the cross. He's the one that ended up bearing the burden for the sin. He's the one that, because he was burying our sins, as we read in Matthew 27, said, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? Because he's burying our sins, but he's saying, I didn't do this, but he was being punished the same way that any one of us would be punished, in that not only when he was on the cross burying the sins of the world, when he died on that cross, the Bible says they buried his body in a tomb, but his soul descended into hell for three days and three nights. And I'll tell you what, hell is not a fun place to be. And when it says hell, it's not talking about a warm spot in hell. It's not talking about a cool place in hell. It's not talking about anything other than what we read. Every other time, we read about hell in the Bible. Jesus paid for our sins in full. He shed his blood for us. He lived the perfect life for us. He did everything. He wasn't deserving of that punishment, yet he offered up himself so that we could be set free. Because as a sinner, you're condemned to death. You're condemned to hell. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Bible says in 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 18, for Christ also hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit. Now turn, if you would, to Psalm 94. Psalm 94. And there's so many illustrations that the Bible uses to help us understand salvation, so many. And I was just talking to someone after church service this morning about this, too. The Bible gives us many, many, many examples. But what I love about every single example that the Bible uses is that it's complete. It's done. It's a one-time event of salvation, and it's paid in full by the Lord Jesus Christ. The one example I was using this morning was being born again. The Bible says, first of all, the Bible does not say that everybody on this earth is a child of God. Doesn't say that. Nowhere does it say that. Every human being alive is not a child of God. If that were the case, then John chapter 1 makes no sense where it says, but as many as received him, to them gave you power to become the sons of God, even in them that believe on his name. So if you have to become a son of God, it means you weren't one before. And that happens the moment you believe, which is why the Bible's talking about being born again. You've got a spiritual birth that happens the moment you receive Christ, the moment you put all of your faith in Him. That's when you become a child of God. And that illustration of being a child, just like physical children, right? I have six children sitting back there. Well, no, they're not all sitting back there right now. But each one has one birthday. They don't have 20 birthdays. They weren't born, and then they died, and then they born again, and they died, and they born again, and they died. They have one birthday. They were born into this world. They are my children forever. I mean, they have my DNA. There is a bond there that cannot be broken. The fact that they are my child cannot be changed or altered, regardless of their behavior. Now, their behavior will determine whether or not I'm going to chasten them or chastise them. The Bible says that the Lord chastens every son that he receives, just as every loving father should with their children. We need to correct them. And the whole point, though, of the correction is to change behavior. And see, while we're alive on this earth, it makes sense that we need our behavior corrected. We need to receive disciplining from God to get back on the right path, to stop getting off into sin or whatever, stop being disobedient. But once you die, what's the point of a correction? See, at that point, it's just a punishment of hell for people who are not saved. But a saved person, someone who's born again, they get corrected in this life based on their works, based on their actions, based on their deeds. But because they were born again, they're born into the family. They're a child of God. They're a child of God for eternity. Because the only way they became a child of God is through Jesus Christ, who gives us eternal life. So that eternity, that eternal life is through Christ. And that illustration is a great one. This one, this substitution of, hey, we're guilty, we're damned, we deserve hell, but Jesus came and took our place. Now, here's the thing. Jesus Christ only had to be crucified one time, which means we only have to receive the payment that he made one time. If you receive the payment, but then think you have to receive that repayment over and over and over again because you've sinned again or whatever else, that doesn't make any sense because he already made the payment. And once you have already received it, it's applied to your whole life. Jesus made that payment before you were born. He knew every single sin. When he died on that cross, he paid for every single sin that you would commit in your entire life. The sins that you're gonna commit tomorrow, Jesus paid for when he was on that cross. Because God knows everything. God knows the future. God knows the beginning from the end. Every single sin was paid for on that cross of Jesus Christ. So when you accept him, when you accept his payment, when you accept what he did, it covers all of your sin. Which is why you don't need to keep accepting Christ over and over and over again. You don't get born again and again and again and again and again. You get born again. You're saved. You pass from death unto life. My favorite verse in the whole Bible is John 5, 24. Bible says, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life. You have it right away. You don't get it later, you have it. And shall not come into condemnation. It's a promise. You shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. It's over, it's done. You've passed from death unto life. Amen. Good news. And Jesus releasing, having the unjust person released because he was the one that's just that was gonna be paying for your sins. That's the only way that that transaction could be made anyways is because he was just. An unjust person can't pay for anyone else's sins. I can't pay for yours. Even if I chose to die on the cross and go through everything that Jesus Christ went through, it wouldn't be able, I wouldn't be able to pay for your sins. Because if I went through all of that stuff, it would just be what was coming to me anyways because I am a sinner. Because that's what I would deserve. But Jesus didn't deserve any of that. Which is why it's acceptable as a substitute payment. Because he's able to pay it as someone who was not guilty of any of it. Which offers a true, full substitute or atonement for our sins. Psalm 94, verse number 20. Now we're gonna see things get a little bit, focus a little bit more kind of on the political side of things here. Bible says, shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law. So there's a lot of people that will, they frame or create mischief or evil or trouble against someone by a law. Right? And it says they gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous and condemn the innocent blood. This is something that happens and will continue to happen. It's happened throughout history. It's gonna continue to happen where people who hate God and hate the children of God are gonna try to do whatever they can, even using the law against you. Right? Just like they used the law against Jesus Christ. They tried to use the law against Jesus Christ. They made up these false accusations and they were framing mischief and using the law to do so. People did that, probably even a better example is when Daniel, when he had the people trying to vie for his position and he was a righteous guy and he wasn't doing anything wrong and he was a good guy and upstanding and they had to make a law that made it illegal for him to pray to God without asking permission from the government first. And guess what? He kept doing it. Because we ought to obey God rather than man. But when it boils down to it, yes, we should try to, as much as possible, live peaceably with everybody, right? But when it comes down to serving the Lord, nothing's gonna come in between that service. No man is above God. You don't need to get permission of man to serve God. Don't set someone in between. But that's what wicked people do. They're gonna try to frame mischief by a law so that they can condemn the innocent blood. They wanna have to use something against you. And this is what they were trying to do with Jesus Christ as well. Wicked people are willing to do pretty much anything and accept anything as an alternative to someone that is godly. And we're seeing this now more and more in our wicked culture that gets worse and worse and worse that people now are just, you know, it's funny how those that want to preach the tolerance, oh, we need to tolerate everyone and love everyone and accept everyone, if you will promote that the most, they only mean that to everyone who's not Christian. Or at least everyone who's not gonna say what the Bible says. They don't care if you call yourself Christian, but if you're actually gonna stand on what the word of God says, and actually say, no, we're not gonna support filth, we're not gonna support perversion, we're not gonna support wicked, vile behavior, and we're not just going to accept that, we're not just gonna say it's okay, we're not just gonna roll over for you, we're gonna say, no, we need to be holy because God is holy. I want my children to grow up in an environment, in an area where they don't have to just look at perverts walking down the street and just say, oh, well, that's okay, oh, you can't say anything, oh, we're just gonna just pretend like that doesn't exist No, no, it's wicked, it's wrong, it's vile, we're not gonna allow it. I'm not gonna stand for it. And the wicked people, they're gonna continue to try to frame mischief by a law. It's already happening. It's already happening in other countries for sure. There's pastors that can't preach all of God's word in Canada and in other places without getting arrested because they frame mischief by a law by writing this hate speech laws, right? So if you wanna read Leviticus chapter 20 verse 13 about the sodomite, about a man that lies with mankind as he does with a woman, both of them shall be put to death, their blood shall be upon them, you can't say that out loud because that's hateful. Well, you call it what you want but I call it the word of God. It's what it is. We're not just gonna lose the righteous judgment that God has given us in his word. God's not just saying, oh, this is all okay now. Not a chance. But when people harbor, and these ones that wanna be tolerant, they harbor the most hatred towards God than anyone else and when people get to that point, they will accept anything as an alternative to someone who is righteous and holy which is exactly the state of the people then, those Pharisees that were getting everyone against Jesus Christ, they had so much hatred in their heart for Jesus Christ, they didn't care who the alternative was. Anyone was better than them, than Jesus. They don't care that he was a murderer, that he was a thief, that'll probably just go off and do more of his crimes and criminal actions against people, they don't care about that because anybody is better than Jesus Christ because when they have it in their hearts to just destroy and to knock down righteous people, then that's what they're gonna do. That's what the children of the devil do. And that's why you see how implacable and unmerciful they are which is how Romans one describes these people because they'll stop at nothing. This is why you see when you watch the news, you see people rabidly going after anyone who would speak out at all against the LGBTQ XYZ community because they'll go after them and then they want their jobs, they wanna make sure they never work again, they wanna make sure that they destroy these people because they're saying anything about the wicked perversion and filth that's going on in this world. And that's how they act. There's nothing new under the sun. And these people were so, this always blows my mind from Matthew 27 when Pilate washes his hand and says, hey, I'm clear of this matter. How did the Jews respond to him? They said in verse 25, Matthew 27, then answered all the people and said, his blood be on us and on our children. Unfortunately, they weren't talking about them being covered by the blood of Christ the way that we would say, hey, I want the blood of Jesus on me because it washes me of all my sins. That's not the way that they wanted to have Jesus' blood and they said, no, we're responsible for the blood of Jesus Christ. Yeah, let his blood be on us and on our children. Man, you release the murderer and you put that righteous man to death and you know what? Yeah, we'll take responsibility for that death. Wow. Some bold statements, some bold actions there. Don't even want to know what it's like for them now. Because it's not good. Verse 26 says, then released He brought us unto them and when He had scourged Jesus, He delivered them to be crucified. So we're getting on Pilate a little bit. Alternate gospel, Mark 15, verse 15, Bible says, and so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them and delivered Jesus when He had scourged Him to be crucified. And I brought this up in our Wednesday night series in Isaiah that you can't trust in political leadership to be the answer, to be the answer to your problems. A politician, he didn't do what was right. He did what was done just to content the people. Well, these people are making this big problem of this, so I'm just gonna do what they say. A righteous politician is gonna say, I don't care. How many people are gonna complain I'm gonna do what's right? And you know what? Maybe there was a day where people did that and had integrity, but we're far from that day right now. But even on the Wednesday night series, we can see when there was righteous kings in place, the people were still living extremely wicked and God's sending forth His messages of judgment coming against the people, because that political savior wasn't gonna save them. People need to get right with God. That's the only way society can continue. This also is a perfect illustration of democracy in action. It's true. I mean, you hear it all the time, but don't be deceived by just hearing phrases over and over. Oh, our great democracy, our democracy, our democracy, our democracy, our democracy, our democracy. First of all, we don't operate under just a direct democracy. The form of government that we operate under is a democratic republic. Republic meaning that there's other people elected to make decisions for you, that they're representative of you, and then the democratic part comes from the voting of those people who are gonna represent you to do government. A pure democracy is just majority rule, or mob rule. And this is an instance of what you get when you have majority rule. Well, all these people are saying, well, condemn Jesus. Rabbits or Jesus? Well, the majority's saying crucify Jesus. So I guess that's just the right thing, right? I mean, that's what you get with democracy, isn't it? That is what you get with democracy. It's two wolves and a lamb deciding what's for dinner. So everyone's gonna be motivated by their self-interest, and if you get a big enough group of people together to say, okay, yeah, well, this is what we should do, that doesn't make it right. That doesn't make it right. That's why God's rule of government, that's a kingdom, a monarchy, not with a human king, where God is king. And you've got some judges of God's law with integrity that care about the law of the Lord, that care about the word of God, that can judge between righteousness and unrighteousness, that know enough about the scripture to be able to say, this is right and this is wrong because God said so and God is the lawgiver, and that's the righteous government. We don't have that. We're far from it. We need to remember that the majority is almost always wrong. The vast majority of time, the majority's gonna be wrong. I mean, think about it this way. The Bible tells us very clearly that the word of the Lord or the Bible is a spiritual book and it's spiritually discerned, that the natural man receiveth not the things of God. Right, is that correct? It's true. But the Bible also says that the majority of people are unsaved, meaning they're the natural man. The Bible says in Matthew 7, 13, enter ye at the straight gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in there at. There's many people headed towards destruction. There's many people going to hell because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it. Few there be that find it. Eternal life. The most easy thing to receive because it's a free gift but you know what, there's only one way. It's only through Jesus Christ. That's why the way is narrow because it's only through Christ. It's not through Buddha. It's not through any other God. It's not through any other religion. It's not through anything else. It's not through your good works. It's through Christ. So that way is very narrow. It's only one way. It's only through that one door. It's easy but it's narrow and unfortunately, people wanna choose everything else but that way. By and large, the majority, which means that you're gonna have many people going to destruction and few that are not and when you already have a majority of people that aren't receiving the things of God, I don't want the majority of people deciding what's right and wrong, right? Bible says in Luke 6 26, woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you. For so did their fathers to the false prophets. When you're living a godly, righteous life, people are gonna hate you and chew on this for a little while, you know. Again, this concept of Christianity today, people have a tendency to think, Christians have a tendency to think that if Jesus Christ were alive today that like everyone would love him. He'd be so loving and peaceful and just there'd be no problems and he'd bring everybody together. That didn't happen the first time. Why do you think that would happen the second time? They crucified him because his deeds were righteous and his other people were wicked and there's a lot of wicked people around today. Just like there's a lot of wicked people around in his day. There's a lot of people who love darkness rather than light and they don't want their deeds exposed. They don't want their deeds brought to the light but you know what, that's what God does. That's what the word of God does. It exposes sin, it exposes wickedness. It's a light, it's a big light that shines on the darkness of this world. Wicked people never want to have that exposed. So the more people live Christ-like, you're gonna end up facing problems in this world, from the world. Bible says, ye and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. An appeal to the majority is also found in John chapter seven. You can turn if you want to Exodus chapter 23. Shorter sermon tonight but John chapter seven verse 47, the Bible reads, then answered them the Pharisees are ye also deceived. So this is when these people were sent to arrest Jesus Christ and they didn't do it, right? And they came back and they said, well look, never man spake like this man spake. And that was their report to the Pharisees and the Pharisees were like, so what? Are you also deceived? Are you the disciples now? And in their response to these people, to these people who were supposed to arrest Jesus, they say, have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him? But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed. So they're saying, well, have any of us believed him? Because they thought that they were the authority and if we're not believing on them, then of course you guys who don't know anything can believe on it, you know. You people are just all cursed. These wicked Pharisees, these hypocrites that said they believed the law and they didn't, they said they believed these things and they would say one thing and do another. Total hypocrites. And full of pride and arrogance saying, oh, well, this appeal to authority of what's right and what's wrong. Look, we don't need to know. It doesn't matter who puts their stamp of approval as far as any man is concerned on what's right and what's wrong. What matters is what the word of God says. Another conversation I had recently was just talking about looking at history and everything else and I was trying to explain that I don't need to study what every believer or any so-called believer or any so-called Christian believed hundreds of years ago or thousands of years ago that whatever doctrine they came up with when I have the Bible, when I have the word of God. And if I believe something that's contrary to what somebody else believed hundreds of years ago that was some famous Christian or whatever, it doesn't matter. Because I don't need any man's stamp of approval on my doctrine. I just need to be right with God and the word of God. So this, well, if any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed on him, so what? If I have a doctrine I believe today and you wanna say, oh, but has this great Baptist or that great, have they believed this? It doesn't matter if they have, it doesn't matter. And I'm not even saying a Pharisee, right? I'm just saying to some other hero of the faith, whoever your hero is, it doesn't matter if someone else doesn't believe the same way. What matters is what's right because we have the word of God and we have the truth. We don't look to a multitude, we don't look to these individuals that just tell us what to believe. We've got the word of God and the Holy Ghost to do that. Now, obviously, people who are well read and studied and can prove doctrine from scripture, of course, we're gonna listen and we're gonna hear out and hear what people have to say and discuss and reason together and look and prove what's right. But there's a big difference between that and just believing someone because they said so or because of their name or because of who, because of how many doctorate degrees they have. I don't care. If you're here for this morning sermon, it's the same type of thing. I don't care how many master's degree some scientist has if they're gonna tell me that this world just exploded from nothing and God wasn't involved, then you're a fool. I don't care how many times you went to school. I don't care how big your college debt is. It doesn't matter to me, right? I don't care if you spent a million dollars going to university. That in itself isn't very smart. That's another story. Bible says in Exodus 23, verse one, thou shalt not raise a false report, put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil, neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to rest judgment, neither shalt thou countenance a poor man's cause. So Bible's saying there that we're not supposed to follow a multitude to do evil. Just because everyone else is doing it doesn't mean that you should do it. Just because there's this whole movement of people doing something and they're trying to either intimidate you or persuade you to go and do something, look, don't do it. If it's not right, don't do evil. You got a bunch of people going out and saying, oh, we're gonna riot and we're gonna loot and we're, you know. Don't get sucked into that. Don't get drawn into doing evil because evil was done. And I mean, I don't know what's going on. I'm not gonna ask now. It's not the time to just discuss this, but I know there's been those trials lately on one of those cases where the guy was killed by the cops or whatever. I don't know if it's over. Is it over yet or no? Like, is the trial still ongoing? Does anyone know? Still ongoing? So I mean, I pay attention a little bit to some of this stuff, but I'm so sick. I'm so sick of the powers that be trying to divide everybody in the country. And you see these agendas and you see people pushing forward the narrative without even having all the evidences up, but there's getting people worked up and riled up and causing a bunch of chaos where there's nothing there. Now, I don't know all the facts of this case, okay? But I've seen enough of these cases where it's like, you know, everyone, they're getting people worked up and then there's all these riots and everything else going on. And then at the end of the day, when you find out, it's like, well, what about all this other information that's not even broadcast at all? It kind of changes the way you feel about it and what's right and what's wrong and understanding the whole truthfulness of the matter. I'm not saying that there aren't wicked people. I'm not saying that there's no racism that exists today. I'm not saying that, but my point is that there is an agenda behind the media controllers that are just trying to pit people against each other. Absolutely. And I don't want to get sucked in to all of that. And I definitely don't want to end up following a multitude to do evil. Because the Christian thing to do, you know what, if an injustice is done, you know what, we don't need to go out and get vengeance. We're not going to overcome evil with evil. We're not going to go out and start looting and vandalizing and causing damage to people who had nothing to do with the situation anyways and just ruin and destroy businesses where people are just trying to earn a living because you're upset, because you're mad and throw a tantrum like a little child. And I don't care how many people are going to do it. I'm not going to go follow a multitude to do evil and harm someone else. The Christian's supposed to go to the Lord who's the revenger of all these injustices. Because God will judge. We are not to bring vengeance on ourself. You can pursue legal avenues, right? We're going to pray to God for any of the wrongs to be right, but it's not up to us to just go and just go and commit other crimes. In other words, the Bible says, overcome evil with good. Following a multitude to do evil. Unfortunately, with a lot of political action, you end up following a multitude that ends up doing evil. We need to do things the right way. Biblical way. And always be careful in what you hear and what you receive. Wait against what scripture says first and foremost because we know that's true. We know this is true. There's a lot of liars in this world that's going to try to give you bad information, but you know what? The word of God is true unequivocally. It's without question. Last place we're going to look at, 2 Corinthians chapter 12. And this is a little bit of a side rail from kind of the main thrust of the sermon here. We started off looking at Barabbas and Jesus and how the majority of the people wanted this wicked Barabbas. It symbolized our salvation because hey, here's someone who's unjust that's undeserving of being released, of being forgiven, being forgiven, we are unjust, we are not deserving of being forgiven. We received that as a free gift because Jesus went to be punished for us. So we got that great illustration there, but at the same time, we have also this picture of these wicked people that they'll do anything to silence and to stop a righteous person because they don't like their unrighteous deeds being brought to light. And unfortunately, oftentimes, you're going to end up seeing them as the majority or at least swaying the majority, I should say. I'm not saying all the majority is wicked, but that's what the chief priests were doing. They were convincing the majority to go and say, oh no, crucify Jesus, right? They were the instigators. They were the ones using their propaganda or whatever they were doing to then garner the whole majority to just reject Jesus Christ. They were the influencers. But such is the Christian life. See, here's Jesus. He came unto his own. He came unto his own to heal. He came unto his own in love. He came unto his own to save, to seek and to save that which was lost. That was his goal. That was his mission. Nothing but love. But he was rejected. And what happens is, the more we can truly live or attempt to live Christ-like, we're going to get the persecution from the people who don't like that you're doing something that you're doing good. The children of the devil out there are going to try to stop what you're doing. But on top of that, you'll still oftentimes run into people. They may not just be wicked people, but you're going to do good, you're going to love them, but you're not really going to get that love in return. It's not going to be reciprocated. I mean, it definitely wasn't for Jesus. 2 Corinthians 12 states this. The apostle Paul states this really well in verse 14. The Bible says, Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be burdensome to you, for I seek not yours but you. For the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. So he's referring to these people. I mean, they're spiritual children, right? The Church of Corinth, he's saying, you know, this third time I want to come unto you, I'm not seeking yours but you. I care about you. And he says, you know, the children ought not to lay up. You don't have to lay up anything for me. You know what? I'm laying up for you. Right? This is what a good parent does. They want to give everything to their children. They don't want their children to have to give everything to them. They want to support and help their children, right? And be there to minister to them, not the other way around. So he brings that up, and then in verse 15 he says, And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you. That's what loving parents do. So you know what? I'm gonna spend and I'll be spent for you because I love you. He says, though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. And that's just a fact of life. And you know, we have to learn how to be able to deal with that as well. You may invest a lot in people. You may love people and do things and try to minister and serve and end up getting nothing in return. And you know what? That's fine. Don't let yourself get discouraged by that. Stay the course. Overcome evil with good. If people aren't always recognizing what you do, you know what? That's okay because again, in the end, we've got a God that's a judge that sees all. And we have a God that's a rewarder of the good deeds that you do in the end. You said before, your salvation's a free gift. That has nothing to do with your works. But you know what? After you're saved, the amount of works you do, they're gonna be judged as the judgment seat of Christ. And the more good you do, don't get weary and faint because people aren't very appreciative of the work you're doing. Stay with it. I mean, Jesus, Jesus had all of his, even his disciples forsook him in the Garden of Gethsemane when he got arrested. They all fled from him. After everything that he had done for them, they all turned their back on him. But he stayed the course. Now thankfully, they all return. But still, you may find yourself in a position where, man, I've been loving this person and doing all this stuff for them, and they just turn their back on me, have nothing to do with me. You know what? Then you're in good company because that's what happened to Jesus. That's what the apostle Paul was explaining here. You know what? Sometimes the more abundantly you love someone, the less you be loved. But so be it. Don't let that change how you minister and serve. Continue to love. Continue to lay up for your children as apostle Paul said he was doing here. I'll gladly spend and be spent for you. And I believe you continue to do that, even though they may not appreciate him that much anymore. You know he's still gonna do it because that's what's right. So we do what's right because it's right. Not like Pilate, just because a bunch of people are gonna say it's right or wrong or we're worried about what people might think or say. We're gonna do what's right because it's right. As far as that word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for your word and for the lessons that we can learn from Barabbas and Jesus. Lord, we thank you that that substitutionary death of Jesus Christ just fully pays for all of our sins, Lord, and that once we accept that payment, we don't have to open up to crucify our sins. We don't have to open up to crucify Jesus again to an open shame, dear Lord, but that it covers all of our sins for all time. Lord, we thank you so much for sending your son to die for us on the cross and for giving us a gift of eternal life. I pray that you please help us to do what's right, help us to keep the right focus, dear Lord, help us not to get distracted in other causes and definitely not to follow multitude to do evil, Lord, but that you would just help us to be a good example of the believers and that you would continue to teach us and help us to increase in our wisdom and knowledge. Lord, we love you. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.