Luke The Orderly Account of Truth - We Are Barabbas - Luke 23:18-25

Say, welcome to the roots where it's all about Jesus.

God calls everyone to make their life all about Jesus,

and we want to help you do that too, as

we're attempting to do it. So that's what we do.

Everything's going to be around making our lives all about Jesus.

And I do want to tell you, as we're going

through the text today what God has for us today.

I need you to do me a favor and I

need you to grab your metaphorical, your invisible mouthguard. So

everyone grab their mouthguard, go ahead and put it in.

Grab your head gear, put it on. It's a tough one.

That's a tough one today, So buckle up. It's going

to be good. I think by the end of it,

we're going to be have a sober understanding of some

things got us to teach us, but then also some

encouragement on what we're going to do next. So grab

your Bibles and start turning to Luke chapter twenty three.

And if you don't have a Bible, we have a

bunch at the resource desk. Please grab them. They're awesome.

We want you to have a Bible. We're in a

series called Luke the orderly account of truth. Luke the

orderly account of truth, and we're going through verse by

versus the whole Gospel of Luke. There was this physician

named Luke who did a careful investigation of who Jesus

is and what he taught, and he put everything that

he invested in investigated, excuse me, into an orderly account.

And it's through this orderly account that we can know

a certainty the truth about who Jesus is and what

he taught, and what we're in right now is one

of I think the darkest parts of the gospel story.

We're in the last days of jesus physical life before

he's brutally crucified. He's spent time teaching in Jerusalem. Every

single day, he has one final passover meal with his disciples.

He spends time in anguish praying because he knows what's coming.

He's betrayed by Judas, one of his disciples, with a kiss.

He's arrested, and we saw last week that he was

put on trial. But no matter what accusations that everyone

threw it him, he was found completely innocent. And that's

gonna be extremely important for us to remember as we're

going through our text today, because today we're gonna see

that a perfect and sinless man, Jesus, he's perfect and sinless.

We're gonna see him be condemned as a lawbreaker, and

we're gonna see an imperfect and sinful man, an actual lawbreaker,

be set free. You guys in loke twenty three, do

you give me time to turn there? We're reading verses

eighteen through twenty five, so not a huge text, but

I'm gonna read it, and then we're gonna pray Luke

Chapter twenty three, starting in verse eighteen. But they all

cried out together away with this man and released to

us Barabbas, a man who had been thrown into prison

for an insurrection started in the city and for murder.

Pilot addressed them once more, desiring to release Jesus, but

they kept shouting crucify, crucify him. A third time, he

said to them, why what evil has he done? I

have found in him no guilt deserving death. I will

therefore punish and release him. But they were urgent, demanding

with loud cries that he should be crucified, and their

voices prevailed, so Pilot decided that their demand should be granted.

He released the man who had been thrown into prison

for insurrection and murder for whom they asked, but he

delivered Jesus over to their will. Let's pray, God, we

thank you for your word. We thank you for the

revelation that's brought from it. God give us ears to

hear it today, hearts that are open to receive it.

If things are challenging, God give us the courage to

rise to the occasion, or we need to be convicted.

God convict us. We welcome it because we know that

godly Sorroley's repentance, which leads to everlasting life. So God,

let us see the message you have for us today

in this part of the Gospel story, and let us

apply it to our lives in ways that change us

forever in the future. So we think for all this

in Jesus name. Everybody said, Amen, have you ever taken

a fall for somebody before you know? Something goes down,

something happens and you take the blame for it. And

I'm not talking I'm not saying that that you just

get blamed for something somebody else did. I'm talking about

a conscious decision that something happens and you take the fall.

For somebody else. You guys, ever done that. I have

a story. I call it the fireworks story. Happened a

long time ago, like twenty five years ago. I was

out in Tonino with some friends. These friends are named

Tyler and Jesse. The three of us together, we were called

the three Amigos. We did everything together. So we're out

into nine and we're lighting off fireworks on this farm

property that's out by a river, big open farm area.

It's not the fourth of July at this time. In fact,

it's not even in July at all, so you can

see how this is already starting to not be in

a good setup. But we're lighting off mortars and we're

throwing you guys know what the mortars are, The tubes,

you like the thing dropping. The tube shoots up in

the sky and explosurely big. So we're lighting those and

throwing them like grenades because we're dumb children. This is

twenty five years ago. We're lighting them off the right.

We tried to make a sparkler bomb, you know, and

it ended up just being a giant flamethrowers. We didn't

do it right. I remember, we tried to make our

own homemade firework which was taking a glass jar, round

jar with a cork lid, puts, took apart, a bunch

of fireworks, dumped everything in there, cut a hole in

the top with the wick in there, and then put

a bunch of fuses together and we twisted all them

together so it would burn together. Right, So we lit

this thing and watched the fuse going and a stopping

the last wick. By the grace of God, because that's

the dumbest thing we probably ever could have done. Fireworks

and a glass jar, So thankfully the Lord did not

let that one go off. Yeah, but while we're doing this,

we're lighting off mortars throwing them. There's this guy who

comes floating down the river in a canoe. I'm like, oh, cool,

guys there. Whatever, we're also throwing them in the water

and they're exploding and stuff like that. So the canoe

guy goes on. But all of a sudden, we start

a little while later, we start hearing sirens and we're

out in this big open field. So we look way

off from the distance and we see between the trees,

we see like two cop cars, a fire truck, like

a fired department pick up and ambulance go by and

We're like, oh my gosh, what is going on? Sirens

are just going off. Well, the guy in the canoe

called the cops on us. He called the cops because

rightly so, because we're illegally riding off fireworks and being

very dumb with them. But he calls the cops on us,

and they start coming down and to investigate what's going on. Well,

we turn around and we see my friend's grandma screaming

at us and waving her arms like this from way

off down the field. And so she was screaming telling

us to run to her. So we start grabbing our

stuff kind of grabbing, and start running over to her.

Two of us get to my friend's grandmother and she's

like get in the car. And it's at this moment

realized she was our ghetaway driver. So this grandma's like,

get in the car. She was going to drive us

out of here. So we didn't get in trouble. Grandmas

are literally the best. There's only one problem. Jesse wasn't

with us. We look around. Jesse's not with us, So

we turned back and we see him way back in

the field and he's walking real slow, armful of fireworks.

One shoe on. He's just walking. Well, the whole field

was muddy, so as he's running, he gets stuck in

the mud, loses a shoe, and he's just marching his

slow march back to us, and we're yelling for a

hurry up. He finally gets to the car. We get

in there. We drive by, heads down so we don't

get caught. We pass all the emergency vehicles. We made it,

We got out of there. But they were like, Jesse,

what happened? And he decided, I ran, I got stuck

in the mud. I wasn't gonna make it, so I'm

just gonna take the fall. He's like, I'm gonna tell

everybody it was all my fault. I was the only

one doing it. I'm gonna take the fall. He's such

a bro. He was gonna take the full responsibility. He

was willing to take the blame so we didn't have to.

He was willing to be condemned so we could go free.

And that's just what we read about Jesus, except for

the fact that Jesse was in fact not innocent. He

was all so guilty. But Jesus, the innocent one, the

one who actually doesn't deserve to be condemned, is being condemned.

He didn't do anything that he should deserve condemnation. But Barabbas,

the guilty one who does deserve to be condemned, He's

going free. And this isn't just a picture of what

Jesus did for Barrabas what we just read. This is

a picture of the beautiful exchange that happens in salvation

for every single one of us. We are the guilty

ones who deserve condemnation, and Jesus willingly takes on our

punishment so that we can walk free, the innocent for

the guilty. And what I need is to clearly see today,

and this is also what I've titled the message is

we are Barrabus. We are Barabbas. And kind of as

a side note before we really jump into this, as

a general rule, we shouldn't read ourselves into the story

the Bible. We shouldn't read ourselves into scripture. But on

those rare occasions it usually ends up looking a little

bit more like this. When we think about who we are,

we aren't the ones who are the heroes that the

Bible talks about. We're not the heroes in the Bible.

Jesus is the hero. He's the hero. We aren't David

fighting Goliath Jesus is. No, we're the Israelites hiding in

the back in need of being saved. Or like the

story of the Good Samaritan. You guys, remember the Good

Samaritan story. We aren't the Good Samaritan. We should be

like him, but we're not him. Jesus is the Good Samaritan.

Who are we? We're the guy left bloody on the

side of the road. We aren't the heroes of the

biblical stories. No, we're the ones in need of saving.

We're the criminals. We're the lawbreakers. We are Barabbas told you, guys,

mouthguards and headgear. You guys are ready to jump into this.

Let's look at these first couple verses, verse eighteen. But

they all cried out together, away with this man and

released to us Barabbas, a man who has been thrown

into prison for an insurrection started in the city and

for murder. Listen to this crowd. They hated Jesus. They

hated him. They hate him so much that they turned

into a mob, demanding and crying out to get rid

of him. They wanted to get rid of Jesus and

instead release Barabbas to them, But why are they asking

for this release of a criminal? For me? When I

read this, I was like, what does what do Jesus

and Brabas have anything to do with each other? Barabbas,

this man has been in prison for insurrection and murder.

But this is where the other biblical accounts of the

Gospels is really helpful to us. It'll help teach us

some stuff. If you look at Matthew chapter twenty seven,

don't turn there. I'll put it on the screen, or

a man will put on the screen, because I'm not

pushing any buttons back there. Matthew Chapter twenty seven, Starting

in verse fifteen, he says, now at the feast, the

governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one

prisoner whom they wanted, and they had then a notorious

prisoner called Barabas. So when they had gathered, Pilot said

to them, whom do you want me to release for you?

Barabas or Jesus who was called Christ, For he knew

that it was out of envy that they had delivered

him up. So Roman law allowed for certain leaders who

were in power to pardon prisoners as they saw fit,

and Pilot appears to be one of these leaders who

gets to make that call or make that decision. So

it seems that these Roman governors had started this tradition

of releasing one prisoner that the people wanted during the

passover feast. And I was reading some commentators on this

when I was studying for it, and they say that

it probably was done to appease the Jews. But during

this time, the crowd starts to shout for Barabas to

be released. And you got to remember, Pilot came to

what conclusion about Jesus, because remember he's innocent. Pilot came

to that conclusion that Jesus was innocent, that he had

done nothing deserving of death. So it seems that Pilot

was trying to use this tradition of releasing a prisoner

maybe to solve his problem, because Pilot this think, if

you're in charge, you don't want to condemn an innocent person.

And it's clear when we read this that neither did Pilot.

He wanted to release Jesus, but also he's like, is

there a way that I could maybe agree with the

crowd and be like, sure, he's a bad guy, but

then also keep his hands clean by saying, now, do

you want to release that bad guy? But that's not

what the people wanted, and he knew. Pilot knew that

the religious leaders were inciting the mob, and he knew

that it wasn't because Jesus was evil or a bad guy. Now,

it was because of their envy of him. They're a

hatred of him. And Pilot's own wife was being tormented

in a dream because of what was going on with Jesus.

She told him, how have nothing to do with that

righteous man, for I've suffered much because of him today

in a dream. And that's if you continue to read

Matthew twenty seven, that's where you'll find that. But she

even knew that Jesus was righteous. She didn't just say innocent,

she said righteous. He's a righteous man. So Pilot is

trying to get the people to calm down so we

can release Jesus. But the crowd just will not relent.

They won't let it go. But look at what Pilot

says next in verse twenty, Pilot addressed them once more,

desiring to release Jesus, but they kept shouting crucify, crucify him.

The third time, he said, why what evil has he done,

I have found in him no guilt deserving death. I

will therefore punish and release him. Pilot wants to release Jesus.

I'm not saying he's a good guy, but he wants

to release Jesus. He tries to give him an alternative.

He tries to reason with the crowd. He asks them

what is he done wrong? But they just ignore his question.

And I kind of wrote a little note here in

my notes that their hatred and their anger blinded them

to reason. And how often does our own sin, our

own anger, our own hatred blind us to seeing reason

or logic or truth. Even could be so mad about something,

let ourselves get spun up so much into a fit

of rage or whatever it is, that we will shut

our ears to logic and reason and truth. And this

is what this crowd has done. Three times. Pilot has

tried to get the crowd to agree to let innocent

Jesus go. He's making a very logical thing. He's done

nothing wrong, let's release him. And they will not accept it. No.

Instead they reply like this in verse twenty three. But

they were urgent, urgent, that's some sense of like, let's

get this thing done. They were urgent, demanding with loud cries.

They're shouting, screaming that he should be crucified. And this

is the most heartbreaking part of the whole story in

our text today. And their voices prevailed. Their voices prevailed,

so Pilot decided that their demand should be granted. Pilot

gives in to the demands of the mob. He's a

coward who won't stand up for true justice. Now, I

want to remind you, as I felt like I needed

to be reminded at this point. In the text of

What Acts, chapter two says in verse twenty two, it says,

men of Israel, hear these words Jesus of Nazareth, a

man attested to you by God with mighty works and

wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst.

As you yourself know this, Jesus delivered up according to

the definite Plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and

killed by the hands of lawless men. All of this,

this entire story happened according to what the definite Plan

and foreknoledge of God. Is it not on the srihego

back one slide too, please thank you? According to the

definite Plan and foreknowledge of God. Jesus was betrayed according

to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. He was

arrested according to the definite plan and fore knowledge of God.

He was put on trial, found innocent, but treated as

someone who's guilty according to the definite plan and foreknowledge

of God. And yes, even Pilot being a coward and

not standing up for true justice. All of this was

according to God's definite plan and foreknowledge. The people's voices prevailed,

and Pilot gives in we look at the last verse

of our text, verse twenty five. He Pilot released the

man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and

murder for whom they asked, but he delivered Jesus over

to their will. And this is the crux of what

we need to see today, that the prisoner goes free

and the innocent Jesus is delivered over to death. Brabbis

a man who is in prison for insurrection and murder.

You know what insurrection is. Insurrection is a violent uprising

against a government or an authority. So he's someone who

tried to overthrow the governing authorities and in this process

also committed murder. That in and of itself is deserving

of being put to death, and this is who's being

set free. Brabis pretty bad guy, right, And I think

it's easy for us to look at brabas understanding how

terrible he is, that he's the worst of the worst.

And then we see Jesus being delivered unto death in

his place. And what does that do. It grows our

affections for the beauty of the grace of God, and

it should. But if that's all we see from this,

I think we're missing a crucial part. If that's the

only thing we see, which is something we should see,

we should grow our affections for the grace of God.

But if we compare ourselves to Barrabbus and think that

we're not that bad, or we distance ourselves from the

villain and the story, that can't be me. I've never

broken the law like that before. But the problem is

is you're looking at the wrong law. We're looking at

the wrong law. We're looking at the wrong standard for humanity.

We don't stand condemned before God because we sped on

our way here to church today. We don't stand condemned

before God because we stole something from a store and

we were kids, or because we're lighting off fireworks, not

on the fourth of July. Now, God does tell us

to obey all the laws of the land, so that

is something I should clarify. But my point is that

we stand condemned because we have broken God's law. That

we've broken his law. Our offense is first and foremost,

and most importantly, so foremost means is against God before

it's against anybody else. David said it beautifully in Psalm

fifty one. He says, against you, you only have I sinned.

You guys know what Psalm fifty one is about. It's

after his whole thing with Bathsheba. David sees a woman

not his wife, that he thinks is beautiful, calls her

to himself, sleeps with her, gets her pregnant in order

to hide it from her husband, calls her husband to him,

tries to get him to sleep with her. He doesn't

because he's faithful to war, which read the story that

will make sense when you read it. Sends him to

the front lines and says drawback and let him die

on the field of battle. So not only does he

commit adultery with a married woman get her pregnant, he

has that woman's wife killed, and the conclusion he came

to against you, you only have I sinned. Speaking to God,

he understood that the biggest problem wasn't that he had

broken the laws of the land. His biggest problem was

that he has broken the laws against God. And it's

because it's God's standard that we have broken. He gets

to set the consequences. We don't always like that, but

that's how things work. Whoever's in charge gets to set

the standard and the consequences. We do it all the time.

His parents think about it. We're in charge, so we

set the rules. Go clean your room. Favorite thing the

boys will say to me is or what well you

get grounded, or you get a spanking, or you gotta

go pull weeds. Whatever it is, right, there's a consequence.

It's our home. We set the rules. If you break

the rules, we get to set the consequences. All of

creation is God's all of it. He's the creator of

all things. He's made everything. He sets the rules, and

he sets the consequences. The consequence that he set is

Romans six twenty three. The wages of sin is death.

The wages of sin is death because of our sin,

because of our breaking God's law and standard. We deserve death,

and as not just a physical death, it's eternal death.

But here is where we'll be tempted again to compare

ourselves against others who's sin or against other sinners, or

against the wrong standard. But the truth is, every single

one of us is a sinner. We're sinners by nature

because we're born in Adam. And I like to say,

just to prove this point, you don't have to teach

a kid to lie. Right, you have a kid face

covered in cookies, and you say, did you eat the

cookie I told you not to eat? Their face is

covered in cookies. I don't have to teach my boys

to lie. You don't have to teach them to take

something that doesn't belong to them. You don't have to

teach them to hit in response to someone taking the

toy they didn't want them to take. We're all born

in Adam. We're sinners by nature. But it's not just that,

because even if you want to deny that we're sinners

by choice, we all know there's things that we ought

not to do and we chose to do them, or

things that we ought to do and we will fully

choose not to do them, so not a single one

of us can say that we don't have sin. And

First John one, verse eight says, if we say we

have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is

not in us. If we confess our sins, he is

faithful and justin forgive us of our sins and to

cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Praise God, Thank you. If

we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar,

and his word is not in us. Man, if we

say we don't have sin, not only are we lying

to ourselves, That's what this is verse thing, not only

lying to ourselves, but we're calling God a liar too.

I don't recommend that, but just kind of like driving

this home, a quick and easy exercise that I like

to do, and I stole this from somebody else. But

have you ever told a lie? How many lies have

you told? And what do you call someone who is

told an uncount uncountable amount of lies? A liar? You're

a liar, hawsme, Welcome to the club. We're all liars,

even the smallest little white lie. The wages of sin

is what death you steal something. The wages of sin

is you lust after someone who isn't your spouse. The

wages of sin is you cove it with what someone

else has. The wages of sin is you murder someone?

The wages of sin is no matter what the sin is,

it doesn't matter. It's all the same wages. The wages

of sin is death. The work of sin. You get

paid in death. But that's not fair. And again I

will say, God is the creator of all things. This

is his house. He gets to set the rules and

the consequences and something that might be painful to hear.

But who are you to judge the living God? Not

a single one of us in this entire room would

ever admit that that's what we're doing. But that is

exactly what we're doing. I would never say I would

never judge God. But what am I saying when I say, God,

what you set up is wrong? You didn't do it right,

not the way I would have done it. Who am

I to judge the living God? To tell him that

what he has set up is wrong? And there was

an older video of rc Sproll that I happened to

come across God's timing. He brought it back to my face.

But there's a question that was given to him during

a panel discussion, and the person was asking why the

consequence was so severe for Adam and Eve when they

sind in the garden, when they ate the fruit, and

his response was full of complete frustration with the question.

He literally shouted, what's wrong with you people? I'm not

gonna yell you, but he shouted, what's wrong with you people?

What do you mean too severe? One of the biggest

problems that we will face today in the church, in

our own hearts, is we forget the holiness of God.

We forget the holiness of God. We have brought God

so far down to our level that we forgot what

it means to be holy God, the infinite, the infinitely holy, perfect, pure,

all powerful Creator. That's who we're defying when we sin.

That's who Adam and Eve defied in the garden. God

would have been completely just if he decided to wipe

out Adam and Eve right there on the spot. But

is that what he did. That's not what he did.

He chose to show mercy and grace. He told them,

he said, you eat of this and you will surely die.

But instead of them dropping dead the second they took

a bite, God showed them mercy and grace, and we

all deserve the same fate because of our rebellion against God.

We all deserve nothing but death. Jackson's very familiar with that,

because I have these like questions. I asked my boys

at night. We got three of them so far. Jackson,

what do we deserve nothing but death? Sounds so morbid.

But then the second question is, how do we have

anything through the great How do we have anything through

the grace of God and Jesus Christ. And the third

one is we're working on reading our Bibles better at home.

So what's what's the Bible? The Bible's God's word are

spiritual food. But the point is the first one, what

do we deserve nothing but death? You guys starting to

get the picture. We are bar rabbits. This whole long

kind of feels a little bit like a rabbit trail.

Is for the point for us to understand that we

are barabbas. We are the criminals. We are the lawbreakers,

the sinners, the liars, the murderers, the thieves, the insurrectionists.

We are rising up violently against the ultimate authority and government,

which is God. We're insurrectionists. Welcome to the club. It's

not a good club to be in. Every single sin

is an act of defiance against a holy God, we

who were made from dirt. Whenever we sin, we are

standing and we are shaking our fists in rebellion against God.

And this offense is an eternal offense. Why, because God

is eternal. You can't wait around for God to die,

so the debt just disappears because God isn't gonna die.

God is eternal, so the offense is eternal. The debt

that we owe is eternal because the one we owe

it to is still waiting. That's why the consequences are

what they are. And we don't view sin as a

big deal because we don't understand who God is or

we've forgotten. We've forgotten that he's the essence of pure

and holiness. He is light. Sin is darkness. Can light

and darkness exist in the same space? When the light

turns on, where does the darkness go? It's gone and evaporates. So, yes,

we are as bad as Barabbas. And that's what makes

what the innocent Jesus did so incredible. As Duncan Pastor

Duncan told us last week that Jesus didn't break any laws.

He didn't break Roman law, he didn't break Jewish law,

even the weird ones they set up, especially not God's law.

He didn't break any laws. He was completely innocent, And

even though he didn't deserve it, he would willingly choose

to be condemned, willingly choose to take the punishment so

that US criminals could go free. That Jesus would substitute

himself for us, but we deserve if he stood in

that place, he would be the substitutionary atonement for us.

And I think that Second Corinthians five, verse twenty one

is a very important verse for us. Yeah, let's turn there.

Why not, it'll be on the screen. But let's turn

Second Corinthians five. I'm just gonna make this up and

say it's your memory verse for the week. It's not

too long. It's a good one. Second Corinthians five to

twenty one. For our sake, he made him to be sin,

who knew no sin, so that in him we might

become the righteousness of God. For our sake, he made

him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that

in him we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus

takes our sin on him, and we receive his righteousness.

That's amazing. The nasty, dirty pieces of me that make

me deserving of death he took out of me and

took upon himself. And what do I get? His righteousness?

And it's just like to him, how deep the father's love?

I loved this him? Why should I gain from his reward?

I cannot give an answer, but this I know with

all my heart. His wounds have paid my ransom. That

should blow our minds, blow our minds that we will

receive from his reward the life that Jesus lived. His

reward is freedom. And what did he get instead? Condemnation?

What do we deserve for the life of sin that

we've lived? Condemnation? Death? And what are we getting in return? Life? Freedom?

Us undeserving sinners, us barabuses. Why would he ever choose

to do that for us? It's not because we did

anything awesome. It's not because we are awesome. It's because

of his amazing grace, his unbelievable and inexpressible mercy and grace.

And I think it's almost impossible to truly fully fathom it.

Kind have the worship team come up, please, But I

do want to make something very clear because talking about

this amazing grace of God through Jesus Christ, this grace

is not applied to everyone. The only way that Jesus

condemnation and sacrifices applied to you is if you believe

in him. We read scripture and this is clearly what

it teaches us. If you put faith in Jesus and

trust in him only for salvation. If you don't put

faith in Jesus, then your condemnation, that debt that you owe,

it still falls on you. If you're sitting in here saying,

like I know all this is the gospel, we need

to be reminded of it. Just because we receive the

gospel when we first heard it doesn't mean it doesn't

apply anymore. We need constant reminders to know who we

are in Christ, because if you don't put faith in Jesus,

the condemnation still falls on you. You are still guilty

before God and deserving of eternal death. Jesus only takes

the punishment those who are in him. The brutal yet

beautiful exchange of Christ's life for mine only happens by

the grace of God through faith in Jesus. Through faith

in Jesus, So my plea to you today is if

you haven't done that, if you haven't put faith in Jesus,

would be to repent of your sins and believe in Jesus.

And I know this is a heavier message. I mean

the tone of the text. We can't really stray from that.

But if God is like messing you up right now,

come talk to one of the pastors after service. We

would love to talk to you about that. If God

just messing you up on the inside, you don't even know,

can't explain what you're feeling or what's going on. Let

us talk to you about that. Now. For those of

us who have already put faith in Jesus, first things First,

give God, praise, thank him that you are no longer

a sin stained criminal. That is great news. Praise Him

and thank him for his incredible mercy and grace upon you.

To never forget that we were barrabbis, how wretched we

were because of our sins against a holy God, so

thankful that he chose to willingly die in our place

so that we could go free. So thank him. That's

the first thing. The second thing is stop sinning. Stop him,

stop sinning. Don't go back to being like Barabbas. We

were freed from that. Don't go back to acting like

the criminal. Remember what Paul reminded the church in Corinth.

He says that we are no longer our own. We

were bought with a price. Do you know what that

price was? The precious blood of Jesus Christ. We were

bought with the prist. So glorify God in your body.

Or Peter's reminders the exiled believers in First Peter that

we need to not be conformed to the passions of

your former ignorance. What that means, don't go back to

the old you, but instead we are to be holy

as God is holy. I want to read a good

like a big chunk of texts from Romans, and we're

just gonna move through it at a pretty quick pace

because I think this really kind of pushes pushes us

toward this idea. But it's in Romans chapter five. So

turn there and remember that this text Romans chapter five

is Paul speaking to believers, not unbelievers. It's important when

to read the Bible to understand who's being spoken to

or written to. Romans chapter five are going to be

Starting in verse eighteen, he is there sweet. Therefore, as

one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one

act of righteousness led to justification and life for all men.

For as by the one man's disobedience, the many were

made sinners, so by the one man's obedience, the many

will be made righteous. As talking about Adam and Jesus,

everyone in Adam is a sinner, and everyone who's in

Christ is righteous Verse twenty. Now, the law came in

to increase the trespass, But where sin increased, grace abounded

all the more. God's law makes us aware of our sin.

That's the standard we know that we cannot meet. It

shows us how sinful we are, and that we can't

help but sin Verse twenty one. So that as sin

reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness, leading

to eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. What shall

we say, then, are we to continue in sin that

grace may abound? Say it loud, say it louder than that,

by no means stop sinning? How can we who die

to sin still live in it? Do you not know

that all of us who have been baptized into Christ

Jesus were baptized into His death. We were buried therefore

with him by baptism into death, in order that, just

as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory

of the Father, we two might walk in what newness

of life. We are no longer our old dead creation.

Praise God. We are a new creature in Christ. So

walk in that newness of life. Verse five. For if

we have been united with Him in a death like his,

it's a big if. In there, we shall certainly be

united with him in a resurrection like his. We have

a future hope of glory in a resurrection that should

make it make us much more confident as we walk through,

no matter what trial we're walking through, because we have

a beautiful, eternal future to look forward to. Verse six.

We know that our old self is crucified with him

in order that the body of sin might be brought

to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved

to what. For one who has died has been set

free from sin. We no longer have to obey our

old master we used to have to. We've been freed

from slavery to sin. Verse eight. Now, if we've died

with Christ, we believe that we will also live with

him we know that Christ, being raised from the dead,

will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him.

He's defeated death Verse ten. For the death he died,

he died to sin once for all, but the life

he lives, he lives to God Verse eleventh. Key here,

so you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and

alive to God. In Christ. Jesus therefore reign in your

mortal body to make you obey its passions. Stop sinning.

Do not present your members to sin as an instrument

for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who

have been brought from death to life, and your members

to God as instruments of righteousness. Do you see all

this like you used to be dead, but now you're alive.

This is how you used to be, but this is

what you should be. You used to sin a lot,

and now stop sinning. Do you guys see that it's

all through this text we practice holiness Verse fourteen. For

sin will have no dominion over you, since you are

not under law but under grace. What then are we

to sin? Because we are not under law but under grace.

Say it loud by no means, stop sinning. Do you

not know that if you present yourself to anyone as

obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey,

either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience,

which leads to righteousness. But thanks be to God that you,

who are once slaves of sin, have become obedient from

the heart to the standard of teaching to which you

were committed, and having been set free from sin, have

become slaves of righteousness. A men and a men, we

are no longer slaves to sin, but we are slaves

to righteousness. So stop going back to the old you,

the old dead you, the old barabbas. Stop sinning. Take

a self assessment. I think this is healthy for us

to do. What sin do I need to cut off?

I really look in the mirror. What sin do I

need to cut off? How am I still walking in

the ways of Barrabbis the criminal? Where do I need

to start walking in the way of the Lord Jesus?

Where am I failing to obey all that He commanded?

And need to repent? Brothers and sisters in Christ. So

I'm talking to you right now. We got to stop sinning.

We need to stop having fits of rage, stop seeking

revenge or giving people what they deserve. And you stop

slandering others and he's talking bad about them. Stop lusting

after people who aren't your spouse. Stop feeding our minds

with explicit things, explicit content. To stop tearing others down

with our words. To stop lying even the little harmless ones.

To stop being lazy and not leading our family. It's

a little more direct towards our fellas. To stop yelling

at your kids, your spouse. To stop putting yourself before others.

We need to stop sinning. We are no longer slaves

to sin. We are slaves to righteousness. The innocent Jesus willingly,

willingly took our place for the joy set before him.

He endured the cross. No one takes his life, he

lays it down willingly. He willingly took our place. He

willingly took our punishment so that us lawbreakers and criminals

go free. So praise him for his beautiful, amazing mercy

and grace, and walk forward in this newness of life

as his children, to walk forward in righteousness a man,

Can you guys, please stand your feet and