We would turn to the gospel of Mark, we'll be in chapter 15 this morning, Mark chapter 15, starting in verse 1. And as soon as it was morning, the chief priest held a consolation with the elders and scribes in the whole council, and they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate. And Pilate asked him, are you the king of the Jews? And he answered him, you have said so, and the chief priest accused him of many things and Pilate again asked him, have you no answer to make? See how many charges they are bringing against you. But Jesus made no further answer so that Pilate was amazed. Now, at the feast, he used to release for them one prisoner from whom they asked. And among the rebels in prison who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas. And the crowd came up and begged and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them. And he answered them saying, do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews? Or he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priest had delivered him up. But the chief priest stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead. Pilate again said to them, then what shall I do with the man you called the king of the Jews? And they cried out again, crucify him and Pilate said to them, what, why, what evil has he done? They shouted all the more, crucify him. So Pilate wishing to satisfy the crowd, release for them Barabbas, and having scorched Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Let's pray again, Father God, we ask that you would bless the reading, the preaching, the hearing of your scriptures, and ever so more importantly, the living out of your scriptures thereafter. We ask this in the most powerful name we know, Jesus Christ, amen. The passage before us this morning is a very noisy and busy passage, much like our lives. We have so many distractions and things pulling at us from every direction. Here in our passage you have a loud crowd that has been excited by the leaders, by the chief priests. You have Pilate running back and forth from the crowd to Jesus. What I want to do this morning is slow it all down and cause us to focus. I want us to focus this morning on two figures, Barabbas and Jesus. And then we will use Paul's letter to the Romans to help us with application. There's a reason why you don't have an outline this morning. It's because I was all over the place. I have at least three sermons that I wanted to deliver this morning. I promise you I won't do them all. I think I have the one, I trust I have the one that God wants us to hear. It's a simple message that I hope we don't miss. Two points. Who do you identify with this morning? Do you identify with Barabbas? Who as we will see was released and free to sin? Or do you identify with Christ? One who is redeemed and freed from sin? Let me put it another way. Either God will release us, will hand us over to our sinful desires. Or He will redeem us. And we will hand ourselves over completely to Him, for Him to rule and for Him to reign. There's a question that Pilate asks in many different ways. He's being sarcastic when he asks it. He says, are you the king of the Jews? You see he's asking, are you a pretender? Are you a king? Who do you think you are? You're setting yourself up against Caesar? He asked the crowd. Do you want me to release for you the so-called king of the Jews? Do you see what his question is? The assumption is, if Jesus really is your king, then you'll want Him released. So He can rule, right? Why would you not want Him to rule? We'll look at their answer. This is what I want us to focus on this morning. It's amazing how God does this. I love when in your readings He reveals something to you that you've been dealing with or that you're about to teach. For as twice this week in a song, they both started off with this. The Lord reigns. The Lord reigns. My question to us this morning. Is He the king? Does He reign in your heart? Does He reign in your life? Is He the Lord in your life? Or are you begging Him to release you so that you can be the king? So that you can make the decisions. First, let's look at Barabbas. I trust here with Barabbas we have the picture of a simple man. We have a picture of a man of natural man left to himself. We have a picture of what we would look like if not for the grace of God. Now, I have wrestled with this passage all week and specifically with Barabbas. And the reason why I say that is because I've heard many sermons and many teachings and maybe you have to on this passage about Barabbas. And how Barabbas must have ran for joy and served God the rest of his life because Jesus died in his place. Now, yes, Jesus in a sense died in his place. He was the substitute for him. And I do believe that Barabbas ran with joy, but the scriptures don't tell us that he put his trust in Christ. The scriptures don't tell us. They say, yes, physically he was freed. But I'm going to make the argument because scripture doesn't tell us that he was released to serve himself, that he was released to be free to sin. I don't know why, but there's this thought out there that freedom means you can do whatever you want. See, Barabbas was set free, but free to do what? He was set free to sin. I'll make the argument this morning that that just that type of freedom just enslaves us. The best example I could come up with is imagine if you have little children, if you have little grandchildren, you're leaving for the weekend and they're in charge. And you say that you are free, there are no rules. You are free to do whatever you want, just as the reaction from honor shows us this morning. That child would be like, this is great. And I'm sure Barabbas ran off thinking, this is great. What do we know from experience without any rules? What will happen? Honor won't wake up for school. Honor will eat whatever she wants. She won't go to sleep. She will become what? A slave. We will become a slave to our sin. And what we thought was freedom. And that's the great trick of the enemy. Is he plays it off? You don't want to be, why rules? What are the rules for? Be free. Want to be free. Let's not pick on honor. Let's not pick on the children. I often do we do that as adults. We look at the word of God and we think all of those are stinking rules. I just want to do what I want to do. Just release me so I can be free to do what I want to do. We don't want to be bound by the word of God. And we think somehow, how could it be so wrong if it feels so good? How could it be so wrong if it does bring us joy? If it does bring us pleasure. We don't want to be bound by the word of God. How many people have walked into a marriage with an unbeliever? Because they didn't want bound by the word of God. How many people have walked into an affair? Because they didn't want bound by the word of God. How many have spread gossip? Many have lost it because they don't want bound by the word of God. You see how tricky the enemy is? Freedom. We walk away from the word of God. It's not freedom. It's slavery. We have fallen into that downward spiral of sin. We have fallen into that trap. There's a word that's used throughout our passage and our English translations, it says delivered. In the Greek, it means to hand over. To hand over. This was the word that was used of Judas when he handed over Jesus. He delivered him. This is used then when they hand him over to the Sanhedrin. When they deliver him to be on trial. Then we have here, it's handed over to Pilate. Jesus then tries to hand him over to the crowd and they refuse. Finally, in the end, we see it here at the end of our passage. Pilate will hand over, Jesus will deliver Jesus over to the soldiers to be crucified. Jesus is being handed around. What I want us to see is something very scary this morning. When God hands us over, like he does with the raveness, when he releases us, when he delivers us, when we want to be free, when we don't want to be bound by the word of God, when we want to do what we want to do, in God hands us over. Understand this. There are some things that are a joy to preach. There are some warnings when I can't wait to preach because I can't wait to share. Then there are those messages that are not fun to preach at all. But it's what needs to be said. This is one of those messages. I take you to Romans. Take you to Romans chapter 1 as Paul explains to us. I'll be bouncing all around. It's so good to hear the Scriptures turn. Try to keep up with me. End of verse 18. Paul says to the Romans, these people suppress the truth. What can be known about God is plain. You see it, you understand it, but they push it down. They don't want it to be heard. Listen to what Pilate asked Jesus later. This isn't in the Gospel of Mark, but this is in the Gospel of John. Listen to this. It says, so you are a king, and Jesus answered, you say that I am a king. For this very purpose I was born, and for this very purpose I've come into the world. Listen to this. To bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. And Pilate says, but what is the truth? You see what Pilate's doing? He's pushing it down. He's suppressing the truth. He's pushing it out from his mind. Remember, his wife came to him. He said, I've had this awful dream. Don't mess with that guy. He pushes that down. If Jesus that said, what? I am the way, the truth, and the life. If you abide in my word, and you are my disciples, you will know the truth. You will let the truth transform you, and you will be what? You will be free. See, that's true freedom. To see the truth, to acknowledge the truth, and allow it to transform us, allow it to change us. That's not what's happening here. Paul is saying, look, you know what's right. You know the truth, but you suppress it. And it goes on verse 21. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God, or give thanks to him. This is where we make the connection. Verse 24. God gave them up. It's the same word. God delivered them. God handed them over. And their loss of heart to impurity, to dishonoring of their bodies among themselves. Because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie. Then it goes on, verse 26, for this reason, God gave them up. God delivered them. God handed them over to dishonorable passions for their women exchange natural relations, for those that are contrary to nature, and men likewise do not see this in our society. God is saying, that's what you want. You want freedom. I'm going to hand you over to it. I'm going to let you go ahead. You don't want to be bound by the word. Go ahead. You want to push the truth out? You don't want true freedoms. You want the freedom that the enemy offers? Go ahead. He says, I'll hand you over to it. Since they did not see in verse 28, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God. God gave them over. He delivers them. He hands them over to a debased mind, to do what ought not to be done, and we're filled with all manners of unrighteousness. And then it goes on. Look at the list. You don't want to be bound by the word? You don't want to follow the truth. You want to push it out? Evil, covetedness, malice, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They're gossipers, slanders. Do you see? Go ahead. Hands off. That's what you want. If that's what you think will give you what you want. God just steps back and says, go ahead. It goes on. Gossipers, slanders. Gossipers have got insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil. This obedient to parents. Do you see that, kids? Go ahead. You don't want to listen to Mom and Dad. You don't want the truth that they're trying to instill in you. You don't want to hide it in your heart. You want to push it out? God's going to say, go ahead. He takes his hands off. Folks, I'm telling you, this is a scary place to be. To be released, to be set free, to do as we choose, is God handing us over? Is God delivering us to our sin? I've often shared with the youth that there's four answers that God gives us to prayer. There's the yes, the one that we love, that's the one we always want. There's the no, that is best for us, but it makes us mad. The later, which is really hard because it tries our patience, and then the really scary one. Okay, but you'll be sorry. If that's what you really want, I've showed you time and time inscriptions. It's not what I want for you. It goes against what is black and white inscriptions, but if you keep pursuing it, I will hand you over to it. I will deliver you, and you can go at it and learn the hard way. See, this is what the people are asking for. Verse 8 in our passage literally says they begged. They demanded that Barabbas would be released. Go back to Pilate's question. Do you want me to release the King of the Jews? In the Gospel of Matthew, he lays it out very clearly, and I want you to begin to put this in your minds. This is what Pilate is putting before the people. Do you want me to release Barabbas or do you want me to release Jesus? Do you want me to release Barabbas, a thief, a robber, a terrorist, a murderer? Or do you want me to release Jesus? Kind, gentle, healing people. Who do you want around your wife? Who do you want around your children? Barabbas or Jesus? It's a no-brainer. We should want Jesus to be around us. We should want Jesus to be released. We should want Jesus to reign. They cry out. They beg. They demand. No, no, no. Release. Barabbas. Listen to this from the Gospel of Luke. They were urgent. They demanded with loud cries that Christ should be crucified and their voices prevailed. So Pilate decided that their demands should be granted. He released the man. He released the man who had been thrown into prison for murder, for whom they asked. But he delivered. He handed over Jesus over to their will. The crowd is screaming out. And God says, okay, but you'll be sorry. If that's what you want. As we look here at Barabbas and we look here at Jesus, I ask you again where we started. Who do you identify with the most? There couldn't be a more important question this morning. Here's the problem that we all know. We're all guilty. We all sin. The wages of that sin is death. Is eternal life in hell. There is a price to pay. Do you see what I'm saying? Barabbas can't just be let go. We can't just be let go. God can't turn away and say, oh, that's fine. You sinned. Go ahead. It's okay. No. We serve a God of justice. There is a price that has to be paid. There's a debt that has to be canceled. That's what Jesus is doing here for us. He is purchasing for us our redemption. B.B. Warfield called the most precious terms in the Christian vocabulary. What do you think they are? There's two of them he said. Redeemer and redemption. Redemption means at the most simplest level to buy out of slavery. And that's what's happening. Jesus is paying the price. He is buying us out of slavery to sin. Do you see what's happening here? This is why I say, who do you identify with the most? If you're identified with Barabbas and you just are running off, you're free to sin. You can do whatever you have freedom. Guess what? There's a price that has to be paid that will be paid eternally in hell. Or do you identify with Christ? Do you know that he was paying the price that you went with and that you were in union with him? That when he died, you died. Do you see how different? You can't have both. It's one or the other. Either you're still running around doing your own thing or you are identifying with Christ. And when he was crucified, you were crucified. When he rose again, you rose again. I want to go back to Romans. And I ask you to go there. Romans 6. So I want us to get this. Romans chapter 6. What's the next question? What should we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? Remember, he's talking to believers and he says, look, should we continue in sin? That grace may abound? Now the beautiful knowing the Greek and understanding the Greek here as much as I possibly can, it goes back. There's a definite hierarchical use here. It goes back to the verse 21. And it says, as sin reign. So when we read chapter 6, when it asks, are we continue to sin? Are we to continue to allow sin to reign in our life? Is sin still king? Is that still who we answer to? Do you see what he's saying? I know means. No, look. What happened on the cross? He broke the bondage of sin. We are no longer sin doesn't reign in our lives no more. Christ now reigns. Do you see that? And it says, are we to continue in sin or we continue to live like sin reigns in our life? Absolutely not. The word here continue is abide to remain, to continue, to persist, to persevere. Are we still supposed to live like we're unsaved? No. If God grabs a hold of you and gives you a new life, are we still supposed to live like we're unbelievers? No. By no means that he goes on to say, why? Because the old life was crucified. Because we're not enslaved to sin anymore. See what happened here? This is the best I could come up with. What happened when Christ died, when Christ was crucified, there was a time that our sinful nature was plugged in. And all we could do was sin. That was all we knew, that was all we could do. When we put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, it's like he pulled that out. Right? Just like a lamp. You keep that lamp plugged in, it's going to light. The minute you pull that out, it ain't got no light. The bondage has been broken. Right? So we don't have to sin. Do you get that? When we want to sin, we plug it back in. Do you see how foolish? He's saying, look, you don't have to continue to live like that anymore. That's been broken, it's been unplugged. The only way you do, the only reason why you would, is if you plug it back in, why would we? How could we? If we knew what price was paid. Do you see where no longer slaves to sin? If we put our faith in Christ. Get that. That should change the way that we live. You know, some of us are convinced that you can't have victory. Some of you are convinced that you will be with the sin until you die. But I read this, and it says, it's unplugged. The reason why you feel like that is because you keep plugging it in. Stop it. He's saying, look, you're not in bondage no more. He doesn't reign no more. The enemy doesn't reign anymore. Christ does. Don't keep plugging in. Don't keep running. I read this. And I think as Christians, we have the same power over our sin, over our evil nature that we have and listen to this, that we have over the radio and over the TV. Get what I'm saying. If you are there and you're watching TV, and something comes on that you know doesn't agree with your spirit, did you know you should not be watching? What do you do? What do you do? Shame on you if you're like this. Turn the thing off. We have that power. He gave us that power to shut it off. How many of us aren't? Aren't hitting the stop button. Aren't unplugging and we're just like, shame on us. We have that same power to shut that off. We have that same power against our sinful nature because he's given it to us. It's what he accomplished at the cross. I've heard you with something this morning, all this talk about being handed over and Jesus is being handed around. I couldn't help but think about Christ at the cross. His last words. His last words from the cross. He calls out, Scripture tells us, in a loud voice, I commit my spirit. What he's doing here is he's quoting King David's song. This is the song that we read earlier. This is what David's saying. Into your hands, I commit my spirit. You have redeemed me. O Lord, faithful God. This is what Jesus says from the cross. Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit. I hand over. I deliver. I entrust my spirit to you. If you noticed here, he didn't sing it the way that David did. David said, I commit my hands to you because you redeemed me. He didn't say you redeemed me. He didn't say that from the cross because he is the one that redeems us because he is the one doing the redeeming. Here is the most beautiful part. When Jesus commends his spirit into the hands of the Father, when he hands over his spirit, when he delivers his spirit to God the Father, he also presents our spirits. You see that? He also commends us. If you are a believer in Christ, if you have put your faith in Him, we were in union with Him. When he was crucified, our old flesh was crucified. It was unplugged. When he committed his spirit, he committed our spirit. He said, here, take them. Take them into your hands. When he rose again, we rose again. Do you see that? If I go back, we will keep it simple. Barabbas are Jesus. You haven't put your trust in Christ. Heck are you waiting for Him? You know the gospel. You hear the gospel. You see the difference in people's lives. You know there's a price to pay. If you don't look to the cross, if you don't trust Christ, you will pay that price for all eternity. Don't be like Barabbas. He was so close. He was so close. He's seen it. He missed it. He was just set off, handed off, to do what he wanted to do. Those of us who have been redeemed, let's live like it. Quick plugging in to that simple nature. Quick letting that simple self breathe. Let Him remain dead, unplugged. Here's... I know you're going to be mad at me, but that was the ending. And then I can't help myself. I have... It's quickly become one of my favorite times of the week. I have a little Bible study on Thursdays. And it's just a sweet time. And we read this in John 15. Don't turn there because I'm going to... I promise I'm ending. But I want you to see, Paul said in his letter, don't abide. Don't keep plugging in to your simple nature. What are we supposed to do? Listen to this. Abide in me. Plug in to me. Plug in to Him. And I in you, it goes on. Whoever abides in me and I in Him, you will bear much fruit. Listen to the promises coming from Scripture. Just don't abide in your simple nature. Don't be plugging into that junk. Keep that unplugged. You have victory over that. Plug in to His Scripture and you'll bear much fruit. But apart from me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he's throwing away like a branch in withers. Listen, if you abide in me and my word abides in you, glorify it. You'll bear much fruit and prove to be my disciples. Abide in my love. This is where I wanted to get. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you, that your joy may be full. Do you see His promise? Abide in His Scriptures. They'll be fruit. There will be joy. That is true freedom. To be in His Scriptures, I'll let Him grow. I'll let that fruit to come out. The enemy wants to deceive you. And say, don't be in there. Abide in the simple nature. Keep plugging in to that. The only thing you're going to grow is dead fruit. Remember that list? covet this obedient appearance. That long list of nasties. That won't produce anything. That won't produce any fruit. True freedom is being bound by His Scriptures. It's following Him and abiding in Him. Let me pray for us. Father God, thank You for Your Scriptures. It is convicting because it's so easy to plug back in. It's so easy to do what comes natural. It's so easy for us to forget that we're no longer slaves to sin, that we're no longer bound by the enemy. You have released us from that. We are free. There's freedom to not sin. There's freedom to follow You. Father, help us with that. Help us to abide in You. Help us to search out Your Scriptures, to be in Your Scriptures, to cry out to You. Father, with great expectation, we would see much fruit, because You promise it, that we would see fruit grow everywhere. Father, help us with that. Help us to seek Your face. Thank You so much for redemption. Thank You so much for Christ. Thank You that He paid that price. That it cost Him dearly. And He did it for us. He did it so we could be freed from our sin, so that we can be free to serve You. Free to praise You. Free to worship You. Free to show Christ to those around us. Help us with that. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.