Gospel—R. Klassen
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
A brother asked to the Sunday school many years ago, he said, what's the best time to accept Jesus as your Savior? And he said, I, I figured that the answer would be right now. And that's a good answer. But he said to his surprise, a little girl in the room raised her hand and she said the best time to receive Jesus is the first time you hear about him. And then she went on to say, that's what my dad and my mom.
And my brother and I did the first time we heard about Jesus.
We accepted Him as our Savior. Let's turn to Matthew chapter 27. And I'm going to read a number of scriptures tonight and I ask your pardon and if you get tired of following along, just listen. Matthew 27 and verse one. When the morning was hung, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus who put Him to death. When they had bound him, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate, the governor.
Let's skip down to verse 11. And Jesus stood before the governor and the governor asked him, saying, Art thou the King of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, thou sayest. And when he was accused of the chief priest and elders, he answered nothing then said pilot unto him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee? And he answered him to never a word. It's so much that the governor marveled greatly. Now at that feast the governor was want to release under the.
People a prisoner whom they would, and they had then a notable prisoner called Barabbas. Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom we 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. When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have now nothing to do.
With that, just man, for I've suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.
But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said unto them, Whither of the twain will ye 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. 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 am innocent of the blood of this just person. See to it. Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us and on our children. Then released Hebrew Abbas unto them. And when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be.
Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers, and they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had planted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head in a Reed in his right hand.
And they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying Hail King of Jews. And they spit upon him, and took the Reed, and smote him on the head. And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him.
And led him away to crucify him. Verse 37. And he set up over his head his accusation written, This is Jesus the King of the Jews. Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand and the other on the left. And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their hand heads, and saying, Thou that destroy us the temple, and build us it in three days.
Save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down.
From the cross verse 44 The thieves also which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth. Now from the 6th hour there was darkness over all the land unto the 9th hour and about the 9th hour Jesus cried with a loud voice saying Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani.
That is to say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Verse 50 Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And then let's turn to Luke chapter 23. We know that this account is in all four of the gospels, and there are a few points that I do want to pick up at the different ones, Luke chapter 23 and verse 4.
Then said Pilot to the chief priests and to the people, I find no fault.
In this man And they were more fierce, saying, He stirreth up the people, teaching throughout all jewelry, beginning from Galilee to this place. When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked whether the man were a Galilean. And as soon as he knew that he belonged unto Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who himself also was at Jerusalem at that time.
00:05:16
And when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad, for he was desirous to see him of a long season, because he'd heard many things of him, and he hoped to have seen some miracle done by him. Then he questioned Him in many words, but he answered him nothing.
And the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused him. And Herod with his men of war, set him at naughty, and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again to Pilate. Let's read one more verse for right now. In Matthew chapter 12, read a couple verses. Matthew chapter 12 and verse 30. This is the Lord Jesus speaking. He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth, gathereth not with me.
Earth abroad. And then in verse 36. But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the days of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. Well, the person that we want to speak up tonight is the Lord Jesus Christ, and you know.
We read of the day when he was on trial. In this world, I don't know how many of us have been on trial, maybe for a traffic ticket or something.
But I think we know the order. There's a judge, there's the accused, there are those that are prosecuting, those are defending usually, but not in this trial. And the man that was over this trial, the judge was a man named Pilot, a man named Pilot who apparently had a wife that that he valued. You know, when men climb in this world.
They they often have a wife.
I think the scene, I don't know exactly how it goes, but something like behind every successful man is, is a successful woman or a tremendous woman, a woman that helped him get there. And so in this trial, when the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God stood before the this multitude that hated him, he got a message. And perhaps this wasn't uncommon.
In the middle of everything, he was handed a note. A note from his wife.
And we read it, it said have nothing to do with this, with that just man Speaking of Jesus for I've suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. But you know, Pilate, no doubt it followed her counsel because those of us that are married know that our wives are a tremendous help. They have an intuition. They have an insight that we don't have.
We may have logic and and.
Objective thinking sometimes and we overlook things and so A-Team, A-Team of a man and a wife and this man in the middle of the trial or perhaps at the beginning of it. I don't know when it was got this note have nothing to do with this just man. And you know as we read through here, we see that Pilot tried to follow that advice. He valued his wife's advice, but it was fatal advice. And if you're here tonight and you've more or less.
Had nothing to do with the man that you've been told so much of, the Lord Jesus. Perhaps it's because you want to leave that alone. I'm glad you're here. This was a happy day, wasn't it? And the Lord gives his people happy days. He's so good. But again, my concern tonight is for you. Have you ever yourself personally come to the Lord Jesus Christ?
In regard to your sins and accepted him as your savior.
I'm not asking you if you followed a formula. You know, Pilate, I think if you gave him a formula that day, you would have been so thankful for it. And all the while he tried to avoid having to do with Jesus, but he couldn't, you know, the first time when he heard that he was from Galilee, thought, ah, Herod's here in town and that's his jurisdiction. Herod can settle that answer. And some perhaps if we're children and we were raised in a Christian home, you.
Been told many times that your dad and mom can't believe for you. They've done a lot for you and they love you but they can't believe for you. You personally have to do with the Lord Jesus Christ and you can't get out of it.
You may think you have and maybe today to date this date you feel you have, but you know we read in that in Matthew 12, the Lord Jesus said he that is not with me is against me. When it comes to the Lord Jesus, you can't be neutral. You can't. And it's remarkable that everybody that had to do with the Lord Jesus on that day, they didn't stay neutral.
00:10:24
Every one of them were affected.
When the Lord Jesus went to Herod, which Pilate was so glad to hand him off to Herod, well, Herod was looking forward to seeing him. I don't know why he never saw the Lord Jesus, for we know that the Lord Jesus for three years did many miracles and he covered many miles, but he'd never seen the Lord Jesus. He'd heard about him just like you have, and he was just curious.
He wanted to see the Lord Jesus do a miracle, and so in the Lord Jesus appeared before him.
He began to question him, and the Lord never answered him a word. Can you imagine that scene, a scene where a dignitary and he's asking questions of a person, a man that's accused and he doesn't say a word? I think it would have been kind of hard to be in that room. It would have been most uncomfortable to just see the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, stand and look while you asked him questions.
And not say anything. Why didn't he say anything? Didn't he care about Herod?
Didn't care about him. Herod had had a man tell him about Jesus.
John the Baptist and he'd heard. He'd heard it more than once. And Herod had been told about his wicked life.
And how he needed his savior.
And you know what he did? He silenced that voice in death. He cut off John the Baptist's head. He was unaffected. He was unmoved by what he heard. And the Lord Jesus wasn't going to say anything to him.
That song you know if you're here tonight.
And you're hearing about the Lord Jesus, the one that we sang tonight is the Savior of sinners.
You're accountable for how you accept this message, and you will either reject it or accept you say I'll ignore it. You can't. You can't. You can't remain neutral. Either you're with him or you're against him. But Herod wasn't the only one.
You know when he was at Herod's and the Lord never said anything. Before he left, we read how Herod's soldiers dressed him up in a robe and mocked him.
They mocked the Son of God.
You see, they couldn't remain neutral.
No, and neither can you. And that's what solemn to my own soul tonight, if you're here and you know the message just as well as I do.
But you haven't come. You won't stay static.
You will progress.
You know, it's, it's remarkable to me because even the thieves that were crucified with the Lord Jesus, they weren't unmoved either.
It's hard to imagine men, they're on their way out to die and to die a death that's horrible. I guess the most horrible death that man ever thought up, that's the death he awarded to the Lord Jesus Christ. But why would these men who know they're going to be dead by the end of that day, who are, who are headed?
For torture and suffering, why would they spend any breath?
Turning to cast those same words of mockery and cursing at the Lord Jesus Christ.
Was it because he had done anything?
You know, Pilate said more than once as he examined him and cross examined him, as he listened to all these false accusations. And you know of Pilate, this isn't the first trial he'd had, he marveled. He'd never seen a man who is being falsely accused time after time. And Pilate knew that they were false accusations and he observed the Lord Jesus.
And to see that he never said anything then either.
And yet he well knew that his life was on the line. Pilate asked the Lord. Can't you hear what they're saying about you?
But you know the Lord Jesus.
He'd been the night before in the Garden of Gethsemane, and he knew what was before him.
And he knew the awfulness of it. Sometimes we dread something that's in front of us, but we don't really know.
00:15:03
What all it will involve, we're just afraid of it. But the Lord Jesus knew what was ahead of him as he went to the cross. And that night, that night, with all of that weighing upon him, he bowed to God.
And said nevertheless not my will be done with thine.
And so as he goes, Isaiah says he went like a sheep to the slaughter. You know, sheep, they just follow the one in front of them. The Lord Jesus didn't go as a sheep to the slaughter and ignorance, but he went as a sheep to the slaughter in willingness, in submission. If you think of that day, how many times he was, I don't want to say drug, because he wasn't drug, He followed them, but how he went to, first of all, the high priest.
Palace and there was abused you know they put a blindfold over his eyes and then they hit him as hard as they could I'm sure on the side of his face and then they said prophecy who struck thee. I think it was because they couldn't look in his eyes but again these.
These thieves, why? Why would they bother? Why wasn't there any sympathy with them to say?
You know he's in the same boat as we are.
Poor man.
But it shows who he was. It shows that you can't remain neutral. And thank God one of those thieves he turned, but at first he cast the same at his teeth.
But I think he got in on the the little visit that Pilate and the Lord Jesus had. And I say that because of what he said. But you know what we read about the passers by in verse 30. They that pass by reviled him wagging their heads. You know, if somebody's just passing by, I usually don't bother with what's going on around him. They may have been talk walking along visiting.
Engrossed in what they were doing.
But as they came to that scene of the Lord Jesus on the cross, they couldn't pass by.
Without chiming in, isn't that remarkable?
They.
Too and seeing thou that destroy us, the temple and build us in three days. Save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. And perhaps they went on their way. And so you see tonight, dear one, you can't remain neutral. You will make a decision then all don't be, don't listen to pilots wife have nothing to do with this righteous man, this just man.
You have to do with him. We heard about it last night.
All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
We sing sometimes, this hymn. I see the crowd in Pilot's Hall. Their furious cries I hear.
Their shouts of crucify appall their cursing fills mine ear. And in that, yeah, I'm sorry. And in that den a voice is rude. I recognize my own. I've skipped a line. But then it says I see the scourgers Wren the flesh of God's beloved Son, and as thy smite.
I feel afresh that I of them AM 1.
I see that throng around the cross.
That mock the sufferers groan, yet still my voice. It seems to me as if I mocked alone. I crucified the Christ of God. I joined the mockery.
You know, it's a wonderful moment. It's a solemn moment.
When I come to the realization that went on that day, the crucifixion.
The judgment, the condemnation of a man who how many times was it said, and it was said from an array of people, different perspectives. The man that betrayed him said I betrayed innocent blood. And that's something the one that betrayed him to death, his testimony and he walked with the Lord Jesus for three years, 3 1/2 years, He said I betrayed innocent blood.
Pilots, wife said, have nothing to do with that, just a righteous man.
00:20:03
Pilate himself as he examined the Lord Jesus said I find no fault and the other translation says whatever and him.
Isn't that remarkable? Have you ever known anyone that no one could find any fault with him?
Wouldn't that make a wonderful savior?
One that's absolutely pure and holy.
One who when he was here went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed. Why was he on trial then? You know the thief said this man, the one that turned to the Lord Jesus at last he said, this man hath done nothing amiss. Could that be said of anyone else in this world? You know it couldn't. Why then was he crucified? You know it says in Isaiah.
That he was taken from judgment. He was taken from prison and from judgment.
What does that mean?
Well, we know what it means. He was taken from judgment because we've been speaking about that. They brought in false accusers. But the testimony from that array of people, a criminal, from a man that walked with him, from the judge himself, all to testify is to his.