In 'The Most Dangerous Thing You Will Ever Do,' Scott Brown examines Matthew 27:15-26, highlighting the story of Barabbas and Jesus to discuss the concept of substitutionary atonement. Brown argues that the greatest danger to the soul is the human tendency to proclaim one's own innocence, rather than acknowledging guilt and seeking forgiveness through Jesus Christ. The sermon illustrates how the crowd chose to release Barabbas, a notorious sinner, over Jesus, demonstrating the spiritual blindness and depravity of the human heart. Brown emphasizes that the rejection of Jesus by His own people was a fulfillment of prophecy and a vivid picture of humanity's need for salvation. The sermon also explores different types of sinners and sins that contributed to Jesus' crucifixion, including envy, cowardice, and the desire for social approval. Ultimately, Brown calls listeners to humility and repentance, recognizing their own guilt and the innocence of Christ, who bore the penalty for all sins as the Lamb of God.

The sermon text is from Matthew chapter 27 verses 15 to 26. Now at the feast, the governor was accustomed to releasing to the multitude one prisoner whom they wished. And at that time they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. Therefore, when they had gathered together, Pilate said to them, Whom do you want me to release to you? Barabbas or Jesus, who is called the Christ.

For he knew that they had handed him over because of envy. While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, �Have nothing to do with that just man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of him.' But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitudes that They should ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said to them, Which of the two do you want me to release to you? They said Barabbas. Pilate said to them, What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?' They all said to him, Let him be crucified.

Then the governor said, Why? What evil has he done? But they cried out all the more, saying, Let him be crucified. When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person, you see to it. And all the people answered and said, His blood be on us and on our children.

Then He released Barabbas to them, and when He had scourged Jesus, He delivered Him to be crucified. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, We tremble as we read this text of the guilt that is upon us for the blood of your son, Jesus Christ. But the same blood releases us and cleanses us from our sins. Oh Father, we thank you for your word.

I pray Lord that as Scott comes and brings your word to us, I pray that you would enable him, that you would fill him with your Holy Spirit. Lord, that we would hear your words through him. Father, that we would be convicted of our sins, that we would see the sins which we haven't seen before. Lord, that You would reveal new things to us about ourselves and about the forgiveness that we need from You, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.

One of the most common impulses of the human heart is its desperate attempt to proclaim itself to be innocent. We love to flatter ourselves. We like to place ourselves in the very best light. Much of what we do in the world is really to sort of prove or proclaim our own innocence. And what you see in this passage are many people who are in this desperate attempt to proclaim their own innocence.

And it is one of the features of the depravity of the heart of man, to be in this desperate state of proclaiming one's own innocence. And yet that desperate state also could possibly lead to the recognition of the truth of the matter, and that is that there really is only one who is innocent. So this desperate attempt to proclaim one's own innocence and to pretend that they're not guilty can be one of the greatest blessings to the human soul, if indeed it leads that soul to conclude that they're not innocent and that there really is only one innocent, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. What we have here in this text that's before us is a physical picture of one of the great doctrines of the faith, maybe the central doctrine of Christianity. And that is the substitutionary atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And it is a very vivid and visual scene that in all of its physical features, it explains a spiritual reality. There you have Barabbas, guilty of breaking the law, deserving really to be killed under the law. He knew that Jesus was innocent, and he saw an innocent man take his place. This is a physical picture of the substitutionary atonement of Christ. It's a picture of what theologians call the penal substitution of Christ.

Penal meaning that Christ bore the penalty that he took the punishment. The substitution part of it is that he was the substitute. In other words, he took our place. We deserve the punishment, but someone came and stood in our place and took all of the wrath that we deserve. That's the substitutionary aspect of penal substitution.

And this is the very essence of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that there was that Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world. He stood in our place as this substitutionary, atoning lamb. And this really is the center of the Gospel, it's the center of the Bible, that there's a sinless lamb of God who stands in the place of sinners to pardon every kind of sinner, from the most hardened criminal, even somebody like Barabbas, to the average man in the crowd who's crying out just following the crowd. And in this passage you have this great physical picture, but you also have In whole, in all of it, is the rejection of the Son of God. The Lord Jesus Christ has just completed three years of a healing ministry, of a ministry of feeding his disciples and also healing and feeding those who actually don't believe in him.

He's spoken words of life. He's spoken the most memorable words in the world that are repeated even to this day and are part of everyday language of so many people. And what we see here is that He came into His own, but His own did not receive Him. It's really a fulfillment. It's a picture of what was right at the beginning of the Gospel of John, where we read in John chapter 1 verse 10, He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.

He came into his own, and his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become the children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." So here before us is the rejection of the Son of God. We also see so vividly displayed here the worldliness of the world. It's so shocking that they would choose Barabbas.

Can you imagine that over the Lord Jesus Christ? And it just demonstrates the bankruptcy of the human soul, the lack of discernment, the lack of understanding and grasp of what's really true and right and what is beautiful and somehow in the midst of this great scar of the worldliness of the world, The world chooses Barabbas. The world calls evil good and good evil. These are the religious people of the day. You also see the fickleness of the crowd, and how you ought to beware of the crowd.

They will love you today and they will hate you tomorrow. And the speed with which public opinion can move, and how this result of the fall causes man to be so subject to the powers and the principalities of the world, and why the Lord Jesus Christ did not entrust Himself to man because He knew what was in man. And then you have the statement of what is perhaps the greatest falsehood ever communicated in the heart of man or even as it was publicly. What is in the heart of every man is spoken through the mouth of Pilate. And it is the greatest falsehood.

And it's also the greatest danger in the world. What Pilate says is without question the greatest danger to any human soul. And that is to say this, I am innocent. I am innocent of the blood of this jesmic person. To proclaim oneself innocent is the most dangerous thing you can do in this world.

You know, we live in a day where there's such a display of people who are doing dangerous things with extreme sports and people jumping off of buildings and doing all kinds of really, really dangerous things. Other people sort of experiment with drugs and they do very dangerous things to their minds and to their chemical constitution. Others do very dangerous things in their moral lives and risk really their whole lives through their immorality. But there is one thing that is so much more dangerous than anything you can do in this world, and that is to say, I am innocent. That's the most dangerous thing to your soul.

So let's go into the text. This is sort of a brief overview of what's here. We'll now go see these things in living color. Verse 15, Jesus is before Pilate in verse 15, and we read now, at the feast the governor was accustomed to releasing to the multitude one prisoner whom they wished. Verse 16, and at that time they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas.

Enter Barabbas, enter the one who is favored by the people. First of all, he's well known. He's notorious, meaning that everybody knows who he is. Barabbas has not been living in a corner at all. He is guilty of at least three crimes that are stated in the text of Scripture.

His first crime is revealed in John 18 verse 40 that he was a thief, literally a robber. He was a plunderer. He was a marauding outlaw. The word here is the same word that you see in the man who fell among the robbers. It's the same word of the robbers who were crucified along with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Who knows? Maybe Barabbas was their leader, we don't know. But this was a big time highway man, that's what he was. And he was aggressive, he was well known, and he ended up in prison. He was notorious in that sense.

His second crime is revealed in Mark chapter 15. He was also an insurrectionist. He was part of a band of rebels, violent rebels, anti-Romans, most likely one of the zealots who is stirring up the riots. It's hard to trace with exactitude whether he was the leader of the zealots, but it's most likely that he was. He was one of those that was, they were called the dagger men.

They had these little daggers in their cloaks and they would pull them out and kill people on the sly at night, wherever they might be. People would just be falling dead and they would be gone. He was an insurrectionist. Thirdly, his third crime is recorded in Luke chapter 23, verse 19, where he's called a murderer. He was arrested for insurrection, most likely in the city, and he murdered in that insurrection.

He probably most likely started a riot and committed murder. Now of course, Pilate hated the insurrectionists. He desecrated the Jewish temple where the Galileans were sacrificing. He hated these insurrectionists. They were a great threat to him.

But this man Barabbas just represents The man who willfully and publicly breaks every law of propriety and of God. And he is the one who is chosen. And he is the one who is actually declared innocent in this story. And then Pilate actually asks for a vote from the people to see who should be the one chosen, verse 17. Therefore, when they had gathered together, Pilate said to them, whom do you want me to release to you?

Barabbas or Jesus, who is called Christ? Now, this is an astonishing question to ask. You know, who do you, Barabbas or Jesus, are we comparing apples and or- what are we comparing here? You know, it's like, you know, comparing Barabbas and my little grandson. It's just an absolutely insane comparison.

This is the insanity of the heart that's so desperately trying to prove its own innocence. This is the most dangerous thing that a man can do. And it so warps his perception, he can't even really see the realities that are right before his eyes. It is interesting here. Barabbas is, at least in physical terms, the only man that the Lord Jesus Christ takes his place.

Now, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ has taken the place of every penitent sinner. We know that. But just in physical terms, the Lord Jesus Christ is the only one who replaces a man. And Christ changed places with him, and he bore the punishment that Barabbas deserved. And I don't believe that this means that Barabbas was saved.

You know, if you see the films about Barabbas, there are lots of popular films about Barabbas. There's actually a brand new one out. And many of them tell the story that Barabbas was saved. Christ died in his place and he came to his senses and he repented. We don't know.

That's Hollywood. That has nothing to do with the Bible. The Bible doesn't tell us anything about this man's state except that the Lord Jesus Christ at least at minimum symbolically metaphorically stood in his place and actually caused him to be released. And then you see the motive of the Jews in verse 18. Now the onions are being peeled back here.

Now we see what's really been going on all throughout the Gospel. Why are the Jews so against this Jesus Christ who's healing and saving? He's such a beneficial person. Now we know. Verse 18.

This was at the bottom of it. You know, when something bad happens, you often only see the surface. But underneath the surface is usually something, some sin, some cancer that has been working and growing, and here's the cancer. And it really is the cancer, it's one of the great cancers behind many of the great sins that are committed in this world. For he knew that they handed him over because of envy.

It was because of envy. They envied his popularity. They envied the crowds that came to him. And They feared that their power base would be diminished. It was envy.

They wanted what he had. You know, if you have ever wanted what someone else has, you know what this is. If you ever wanted the attention that someone else has, and you find yourself angry over it. Green with envy, they say. The scribes and Pharisees were green, they were so green.

Here's a question for us. How much green is there in this room? Now you can't see it on the outside, can you? You could wear blue or red and actually be green on the inside with envy. And no one will know it.

But you'll know it. This dangerous sin that had been allowed to grow actually brought men to kill the Son of God, to kill the only innocent man that ever lived. This is what envy does. It makes you holy. It makes you deny your guilt, proclaim your own innocence, and condemn another person.

That's what envy does. And so, you know, Everyone who's lived long enough in church life knows that sometimes envy gets so green in some people and it finally destroys them. But it always starts really little. It always starts in the smallest little places. Someone says something that's displeasing or has a look that was untimely or has a way of life that is unseemly.

And the green just gets bigger and bigger and bigger. It would be interesting if the sins of mankind had colors. When someone was full of envy, their speech would be green. The green would come out of them. Or if there was some hatred or loathing, it would be red coming out like that.

Somebody said, if sin were blue, if just sin were blue, then all of our speech would have some blue in it. But here what we find is that the motive was the greenness of envy that had grown to such a great proportion. And in John chapter 11 we see this proclaimed, 1147, then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, what shall we do? I mean, they were so disturbed. This man was getting so much attention.

And he was speaking with authority, not like the scribes and Pharisees. And everybody knew it. So they gathered a council and they said, what should we do? This man works many signs. They said, if we let him alone like this, everyone will believe him and the Romans will come and take away our place and our nation." That was their fear.

And then Caiaphas, who was with them at that time, he was the high priest and he said, you know nothing at all, nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people and not that the whole nation should perish. So this envy had run so mightily. And then in the midst of this disclosure of envy, there's also the disclosure of the inner workings of a woman's heart, Pilate's wife. As she's observing all these things going on. There are things happening in her soul.

She's seeing this whole cacophony before her. And she has a very disturbing dream. In verse 19, while he was sitting in the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, Have nothing to do with that just man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of him." So Now we have Pilate's wife that's concerned. Her dream has been very disturbing and she's counseling her husband, have nothing to do with him. Now she declares him just, but you would think that if deep within her soul she understood what that meant, She would say, have something to do with him.

Help him. Deliver him. Do rightly by him. But that's not what she says. She says have nothing to do with Him.

This is like the person who has a sense of the holiness and the goodness, the justice, the beauty of Jesus Christ, that He did come, that He was sacrificed for our sins and He did die and He did rise again. And they say, I don't want to have anything to do with Him. They know in their hearts, but they also recognize that they still want to proclaim their innocence, an innocence of their own making, and so she she's very disturbed, But the depravity of the heart can see the Son of God like this and then want to pull back and say, no, I don't want to have anything to do with that just man. Here's the problem with just men. Just men expose the injustice of all men.

That's the problem. What's the most terrifying news in the world? That the Lord Jesus Christ is just and you are not. That's the problem of the universe. And so man is in a constant desperate attempt to proclaim his own innocence, to mask his guilt, to push it down and say, no, I'm not guilty at all.

It's that man that's guilty. And then after this dream is disclosed, the chief priests and the elders start working the crowd in verse 20. Now the salesmen are hitting the streets here in verse 20, but the chief priests and the elders persuaded the multitudes that they should ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. Now you have to recognize how radical this is. Now they are persuading the multitude to choose Barabbas.

You have, I mean, let's think for a minute what's going on here. They are actually proactively convincing the crowd to actually completely set aside the whole law of God. Because in the law, murderers are to be punished with the like punishment. And They're going through the crowd to persuade the crowd. It's showing their true nature.

They really, in their hearts, have been rejecting the law of God. They've been keeping it outwardly, but not inwardly in their hearts. They've really been law rejecters. They're known to be law keepers, but they're not law keepers at all. They actually hate the law of God while they keep the outward form of it.

They do not love it in their hearts. And The chief priests and the elders are setting aside the law of God. Leviticus 24 verse 16, Exodus 21, Numbers 38 proclaims so clearly, whoever kills a man shall surely be put to death. The man who intentionally murders will be killed. And the law says that to allow a murderer to be unpunished is to actually defile the land.

In Deuteronomy 21, you have this whole picture of the land being defiled because of murder. And in the Old Testament, the Lord so desired that there be accountability for murder that cities of refuge were established and the guilt had to be connected to a city. And so wherever a person was killed closest to the city, it was that city and those city fathers that were responsible. Somebody has to proclaim responsibility. No one is innocent, is the idea.

And here now, the chief priests and the elders, they're going around and they're persuading people to completely reject the law of God. It's astonishing what they're doing. In Numbers 35, we read, You shall not pollute the land. And if a man murders and is not put to death, there's a curse on the land. That's what they've been taught their whole life, and now the scribes and the Pharisees are saying, forget that.

Here's what happens to the legalist. The legalist always gives birth to another animal, and that's the antinomian. That's what the legalist ends up giving birth to in his own life. Antinomianism leads to its own form of legalism And it sets up a law in one's own heart instead of the law of the Word of God. And that's what the Pharisees were doing.

They really did not love the law of God. They just did the outward form of it, which means that in their hearts, they just wanted to do whatever they wanted to do. They really, they were the classic legalists slash antinomians. They come in the same package, by the way. They're blood brothers.

And so they choose a law breaker. They choose a murderer. They convince the people to choose a murderer. It's absolutely amazing what they're doing. And then the governor asks which one to release.

Verse 21, the governor answered and said to them, Which of the two of you want me to release you? And they said, Barabbas. They said Barabbas. Isn't that amazing? You know, the world always loves a Barabbas.

The world chooses Barabbas. The world has a higher regard for evil men. People would rather identify with Barabbas than the Lord Jesus Christ, because He is a just man. People know that. And who are these people?

Who are these people that chose Barabbas? They were the conservatives. They were the religious people in Israel. They were the same crowd that just a few days earlier were crying out, Hosanna, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, when the Lord just a few days earlier was riding in on into Jerusalem on a donkey. And so the donkey.

And so the Holy One of Israel is being repudiated. They were condemning the Word that became flesh. And why? Why would they do such a thing? Here's a theory.

They did that because of the impulse of their hearts to say, I am innocent, and they understood that he was innocent. And in his presence, their sin was exposed. That's the depravity of the human heart. The greatest, most dangerous thing that can happen in the human heart is to say, I am innocent. And all along, at every step of the way, so far, this is what these are proclaiming, I am innocent, I am innocent.

The guilt is there, the guilt is there. This is the most dangerous thing you can do. It's the most dangerous thing you can do in your work, it is absolutely devastatingly dangerous to do it before Almighty God. And then Pilate asks what to do with him. Pilate said to them, What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?

They all said to him, Let him be crucified." These four words sum up the entire dilemma of humanity. That Instead of recognizing the guilt of their own hearts, they condemn an innocent man. This is the greatest sin that has ever been committed in the history of mankind, right here. These words represent the worst thing that has ever happened. And here we are, we're in this passage of Scripture.

We are in the place where the Son of God is being renounced by his own people. He came into his own, but his own did not receive him. And this is the dilemma of all men and women, and at all times. What do you do with the Son of God? Do you say, No, I'm innocent?

Or do you say, Oh Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me, the sinner? That is the greatest hinge point of every life that has ever been born into the world? Is how you view yourself, do you view yourself as innocent, or do you view the Son of God as innocent? That's the most important question. We are in the face of the most important question that has ever been asked and the most important answer.

And this answer was just such a terrifyingly wicked answer, Let him be crucified. And then Pilate asks why. Because Pilate knows that he is innocent. Verse 23, Then the governor said, why? Why?

What evil has he done? But they cried out all the more, saying, let him be crucified. How could they say that? How could they say that after all that they have seen? There's only one explanation to me.

It's found all over Scripture. John 12, 40, He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they should see with their eyes, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them. Romans 11, 7, What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks, but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded." They were blinded. Second Corinthians 4, 4, whose minds the God of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel, of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them." There's the blindness of the human soul that the crowd was absolutely possessed with.

They were blind, they could not see, and God had blinded their eyes. And this brings us to the great dilemma of mankind. Not only does man stand there and proclaim his own innocence, but he does so because he's blinded. And his only hope is that God opens his eyes and shows him his sin, because he can't see his sin quite rightly until God opens His eyes. And so it just bears witness to the great need of mankind, the great dependence that all men stand in the face of, that if God does not open their eyes, they're hopeless.

They will still stand there with the crowd and say, crucify Him, crucify Him, I am innocent, crucify Him, I am innocent. Until God opens their eyes, they will continue with that cry. And this is the horrible condition of sinful mankind, and why we ought to cry out to God that He would save us, that He would open up our eyes, that the blindness would go away, that the scales from our eyes would fall off like the Apostle Paul. And who is sufficient to do this? Who can make your your eyes open and see the light?

Only one. The Lord Jesus Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit and the drawing of the Father to Christ. That's the only way that you can see. That's the only way that you can know Him. It's the only way that you can actually recognize, no, I am not innocent at all.

I am guilty of the blood of this man. And The cry of every person who thinks they're innocent, who thinks things are all so well with them, is, Oh Lord, open my eyes. Oh, open my eyes, please, Lord. Lord, my heart is hard. Oh, Lord, I don't see The sin that is in my heart, I am self-righteous.

Lord, show me my sin. Open my eyes. Help me to see my depravity. Help me to see your holiness, your innocence. Oh Lord, impute your innocence upon me.

Pour it out upon me. Your blood shed, cleansing me from all of my unrighteousness, separating my sin as far as the east is from the west, plunging it to the bottom of the sea, oh God help me, have mercy on me." That's our only hope. And that was this crowd's only hope. You can sit here and criticize this crowd and say, what a stupid people they are. And yet, they were in darkness.

Their eyes had not been opened. Cry out to God if you're in this state, to open your eyes. The Bible says that He hears the prayers of His saints. He loves to hear the prayers of the repentant. But the depravity of man's heart continues to say, �I'm innocent.� And that's what the crowd continued to say.

And then finally, in verse 24, Pilate washes his hands, proclaiming himself innocent again. Again, we find this desperate attempt of sinful humanity to say that they're innocent. And Pilate washes his hands, and Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising. He took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person. You see to it.

Pilate is like every person before and after him who pretends to be innocent, and they use their own little mechanisms, their own little rituals, their own little self-talk, their own little political expediency, whatever it might be, their own exclusion, their own exception, their own excuse. They just use whatever excuse they can possibly grasp, and they wash their hands of it. And they say, I'm not innocent at all. This was his greatest moment of danger. And then the people in verse 25, they answered and said, His blood be on us and on our children.

This though sounding on the surface to be an admission of guilt is, I don't believe it is at all. I believe it's a proclamation of innocence. It's a self-righteous religious body of people who cannot see the sinfulness of sin that's before them. Interestingly enough, by choosing Barabbas, they're not just choosing their spiritual destruction, They're also choosing their destruction at the hands of Rome, and Rome will finally do the final deed in 70 AD. So there you have it.

When considering this matter of substitutionary atonement that's in this passage, There are two profiles that run through this passage. As you look at the contours of it and see how the action continues, there are two things happening. First of all, there is the sinner. There are various kinds of sinners. And secondly, there are various kinds of sins that are exposed, you know, revealed.

And whenever you read the Bible, you almost always run across a revelation of sin and a revelation of holiness, or various kinds of people. The Bible is full of every kind of person you can imagine, from the highest to the lowest among men, to the most depraved, to the sweetest on the surface. The Bible just gives you every imaginable example so that you can understand who you are in the story. Now, there are several categories of sinners that appear. First of all, there's the notorious, well-known sinner.

This is Barabbas, the notorious sinner whose sin is known to everyone. He's bold. He's on the covers of popular magazines. He's sinful and he's proud of it. And he wants everybody to know about him.

That's one kind of sinner that appears here. First, it just does not care what anyone knows about their sin. In fact, the more they know, the better. That's one kind of sinner. Then there's another kind.

There's the religious self-righteous sinner that composes the masses in this narrative. These are the religious Jews. These are not rank sinners. They're really not anything like Barabbas, at least not in the outward way. But, you know, many of these, they've been following Jesus, they've been watching Him, they've been in the crowd of 5, 000 to be fed, or 4, 000.

They're part of the multitudes that have gathered in the marketplaces and observed the Lord Jesus. Many of them were there at the triumphal entry. They're the common people. They heard Him gladly. And now it just doesn't make any sense to them.

And now they they're an angry mob, really bearing witness to who they really were, because many are called but few are chosen, because many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? These are the many, this is the religious self-righteous masses. And under the mask of their own self-righteousness, they stand there and they condemn the only innocent man who ever lived. These are the religious self-righteous masses. And then there are the professional noble elite.

That's Pilate. The worldly political and social climber. Pilate knows of Jesus' innocence. But his knowledge of that innocence is completely eclipsed by his fear of man. He only cares about his position and his popularity.

Fear of man is his driving influence. It's the source of everything that he does. He really only cares about what people think of him. And when this grips the soul of a man, it causes many defilements. To fear man is one of the most dangerous things that you can do in this life.

When you want people to think of you a certain way and you're constantly trying to manage your image, your own innocence, your own righteousness, your own professionalism, your own truthfulness, whatever it might be. We all have these idols of the heart that we want people to bow down to. And it's really all about us. And we, many of the things that we say are so blue, they betray those things that are there. The fear of man.

If fear, the fear of man were a color, what would it be? Yellow. What if yellow came out when you were fearing man? And then there's the religious hypocritical professional. These are the chief priests, those who love the respectful greetings in the marketplaces.

They've been plotting for a long time. They determined a long time ago to kill him. Now they have their day. And now they get their Barabbas set free. These were the professional professing Jews.

Carnal, unregenerate. This was the apostate religious establishment. Romans 8 said that they had been given a spirit of stupor. They are unregenerate and they can be impressed by anything worldly. Their friendship with the world is so clearly seen here.

They were blind guys. They rejected the Messiah. They welcomed him into the city maybe only a few days ago, some of them did. And now, and now they're rejecting him. And then there's the insightful but distant observer, that's Pilate's wife.

She's disturbed, She knows something bad is going to happen. She knows that there's something good about this man. But she's distant. She's reluctant. She wants to nullify the memory of this man.

Her soul is disturbed, but she doesn't want anything to do with him. She wants to get as far away from Jesus and His people as she can. You know, that can happen to church people as well. They are among the people of God, but they just cannot wait to get away from them. And they definitely don't want to be identified with them.

And then there's the crowd. Religious, manipulable, fickle. So those are the sinners. Those are different kinds of sinners. But there are also different kinds of sins that are displayed here in vivid color.

You know, it was sin that sent the Lord Jesus to the cross. And so here in this passage, there are a number of sins that were part of this equation of sending the Lord Jesus Christ to the cross. And I think it's worthwhile to try to itemize some of them and take a good look at them, because they might not be what you think they would be, the things that would send him to the cross. First of all, there's envy, jealousy. Here what happens so easily in the heart, so subtly, is a sin that sends the Lord Jesus Christ to the cross.

It's the littlest thing, isn't it? You're just a little bit upset with your brother, or You're just a little bit out of sorts, you know, toward your pastor. It's just such a little thing. And he did such a little thing, and it's really just not such a big thing in your heart, but it grows. Then there's the sin of expediency.

To do what you do because it's advantageous or practical, it will give you the result you're looking for. That was Pilate. His first concern was to have the advantage. It didn't really matter what was moral. It didn't matter what was lawful.

Whatever political gamesmanship needed to be brought into the matter, bring it in. Favor for the people is all that really matters. However I can get it, I will get it. I will even get it by delivering over an innocent man. It doesn't really matter.

The only thing that matters is me. Me and my reputation. You know, whenever you are just so wanting to guard your sterling reputation, that's the sin right here. Then there's the favor of man, the longing for the favor of man. There's the fear of loss.

This was Pilate's sin. Then there is cowardice. And then there's bearing false witness. All of these were the sins of the day that were exposed publicly there in that crowd. That all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

And here in the midst of all of these sins, is the one who committed no sin. First Peter 2, 22 says, He who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth, who when he was reviled he did not revile in return, when he suffered he did not threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously, who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls." This is the substitutionary atonement of Christ, the penal substitution, the penalty being laid upon the innocent and the innocent becoming a substitute. Charles Spurgeon speaks of it this way so beautifully. He says, This was the crowning, The crucifixion of Christ was the crowning sin of our race.

In His death we shall find all the sins of mankind uniting in foul conspiracy. Envy and pride and hate are all there with covetousness, falsehood and blasphemy, eager to rush on to cruelty, revenge, and murder. The devil awakened around the seed of the woman, the iniquities of us all. They compassed the Lord about. Yes, they compassed about him like bees.

All the evils of human hearts of all ages were concentrated around the cross. Even as all the rivers run into the sea and all the clouds empty themselves upon the earth, so did all the crimes of man gather to the slaying of the Son of God? It seemed as if hell held a formal reception, and all the various forms of sin came flocking to the rendezvous. Army upon army they hastened to the battle." And yet there is a lamb without blemish who was slain, who took the place. And so this whole narrative here, it exposes these remarkable realities about the human heart, the desperate desire of the human heart to proclaim itself innocent, to try to hide its innocence.

It's the greatest danger. It's the greatest danger in your heart, in your home, and in your church. Today just happens to be a day when there will be a man who will stand before this church and say the most difficult things about himself he has ever said. Things that nobody knew. Things that were in his heart and he'll speak of them.

And he'll tell what happened to him as a result of it. In the afternoon, if you are here, you will hear that. And you will hear how the desire to proclaim oneself innocent is so damaging, and yet, and yet God In His mercy, who sent His Son, His blameless Son, to be blameless for the sinner. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace, which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence. He who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works." And so here we have before us this dramatic picture of exactly that taking place.

And it's why we gather today. It's how we can be a family here together. And I'm so grateful that we have gathered together for these purposes and that God would help us to know more about His grace and His mercy. How His innocence covers for all of our guilt, all of it, every bit of it, all of the red and the yellow and the blue and the magenta and everything, He bore our sorrows. He was wounded for our transgressions.

And that's the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Would you pray with me? Oh Lord, you've reminded us of the most despicable parts of our hearts. You've shown us the perfection, the innocence of Your Son. You've shown us our desperate quest to proclaim our own innocence.

Oh Lord, deliver us from such a dangerous thing. In this church, oh Lord, I pray that You would make it a humble church, that You would make us a humble people who are not always just trying to proclaim our innocence and our goodness and our beauty and how just so well we are. But Lord, that you would humble us in the light of your innocence. Amen.