The Howls of Injustice (Part B)

Stop acting like you can do without something and somehow get God's favor when you're passing by the essential thing that you need to not do, to abstain from sin. And so here these men, they want to have these people, not just the men, this element of the Jerusalem society that is so against Christ. They want their religion. They want their Passover.

They just don't want to be righteous at the same time. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the Gospel of Mark.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. The Howls of Injustice is the title of Pastor Rick's message today. He'll be teaching in Mark chapter 15. Verse 4, Then Pilate asked him again, saying, Do you answer nothing? See how many things they testify against you? So again, Pilate trying to have a proper proceeding, following the protocols. But he is surprised again that a prisoner is not interested in what his accusers have to say of him.

The Lord is saying, Why should I answer? He knew that evil again would prevail in their hearts. Isaiah the prophet, almost 900 years before these events took place, speaking about the Messiah in Isaiah 53, said he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened down his mouth. Pilate could look at Christ standing there and tell that he had been abused physically, that they had knocked him around some. And so this is, you know, part of his processes, but we're looking at this and saying, Yeah, because he is afflicted. He is oppressed and he is afflicted, willfully so. He doesn't have to go through this for us, but he does.

I'll repeat this in a moment. Sinners should understand those who have not repented. Christ suffered out of love. He could have just made more people. You know, he could have just bypassed the sinners and let them go to hell, let them suffer, and not suffer in their place.

Just make more people. But he does not. God's plan of redemption is going forward precisely as announced on schedule, whether men know it or not or like it or not. Verse 5, But Jesus still answered nothing, so Pilate marveled. Yet they were all marveling at the lesser things. They were missing the greater things.

They marveled at lesser things because they did not receive the greater things. Christ, John tells us, entered into dialogue with Pilate concerning truth and saying, I am the king, but my servants aren't going to fight for me because this is not my kingdom here, telling Pilate that he has come to announce the truth about God, about men, and about God's plan to reconcile men to himself. And then Pilate, with a smirk, says, what is truth, and doesn't wait for the answer, and people are still doing this to this day. Luke writes this about the people who did marvel at the right things about Christ, and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word was with authority. Well, because all the rabbis, the scribes, the Pharisees, all the others simply repeated each other.

They just, you know, they didn't come up with anything from the heart. John the Baptist certainly did. The prophets did. Christ did with an authority that was unmatched, and we look at the New Testament, and we never hear Jesus say, for example, thus says the Lord. He says, I say, which is a profound, it's a profound revelation coming out of the scripture about who the, the identity of Jesus Christ, because if you get the identity of Christ wrong, what camp does that put you in? All the false religions have the identity of Jesus Christ wrong.

That's what makes them cult, and false, and heretics, etc., false teachers. So the Lord continues to ignore the religious frauds. At this point, Pilate is going to send him to Herod, because he learns, okay, Jesus is from the region of Galilee, that's Herod's territory, so he shuffles him off to Herod, and they become friends, Herod and Pilate, they weren't friends before. And Christ will ignore all of them, when he gets to Herod's court.

Herod, he is the one that killed John the Baptizer, and his father, that rat of a human being, slaughtered the little boys of Bethlehem, because he was afraid somebody else may claim to be king. And so, you know, these are the type of people that Christ is facing. He's given all of them a chance to step up, to find their higher self, and to submit to the truths about him, but none of them did. I mean, how do you be a governor, a ruler, and you're hearing about multitudes telling you about this person healing people, and what he's teaching, and his miracles, and not look into it, and submit to it?

How do you just dismiss it? Well, a wicked heart that wants humanity to prevail, and not the Lord. Well, anyway, after Jesus has finished ignoring Herod and his group, they shuffle him back to Pilate. Verse 6 now, now this is Christ going before Pilate a third time, so he has six hearings, one with the high priest, Annas and the high priest, and the Sanhedrin council, one with Pilate, one with Herod, and a second with Pilate. So three with the Gentiles, three with the Jews, and beatings in both of them. He hasn't gotten the one from the Gentiles.

That's coming, the bigger one, that is. Verse 6, now at the feast he was accustomed, that is Pilate, to releasing one prisoner to them, whomever they requested the feast, the celebration of God passing over his people, because they obeyed him, and put the blood on the passageway to their homes, as the angel of death went through Egypt taking the firstborn, but not of those who had the blood on the door, the threshold. So, they were supposed to be, on that night, freed from being slaves, and they were.

They were supposed to be taken to a promised land, we know as Canaan, and there lived free to worship the Lord and be a light to the Gentiles, and they did not do well. God is not impressed with religiosity or rituals. You're going to have to do a lot more than burn candles and throw money into a plate to get God's attention. Even the Proverbs, where you wouldn't expect to such, or maybe you would, such a short profound statement about hypocrisy and in religion, Proverbs 21, 3, because the prophets were all over this, and here Proverbs, to do righteousness and justice, is more acceptable to Yahweh than sacrifice. Stop playing religion.

Stop acting like, you know, you can do without something and somehow get God's favor when you're passing by the essential things that you need to not do to abstain from sin. And so here these men, they want to have, these people, not just the men, this element of the Jerusalem society that is so against Christ, they want their religion. They want their Passover.

They just don't want to be righteous at the same time. This is an appeasing tradition of the Romans. At this feast, we'll let one criminal go free.

I don't find appeasement to work. It's a bad idea, and we're going to see it here because they're going to let Barabbas run free and crucify the innocent. Verse 7, and there was one named Barabbas who was chained with his fellow rebels. They had committed murder in rebellion. The part of rebellion, he's a political prisoner too, but not unjustly so.

He's rebelled against Roman authority. John says Barabbas was a robber. Well, a robber, the difference between a thief and a robber is a thief typically will take from you when you're not looking.

A robber will take it right out of your hand when you're looking or not. They overpower you by force, and that's just to split the hairs there. But again, the guilty one is going to be set free, treated as though he is innocent because Jesus will die in his place. We'll cover that because that's the big part of this section, this latter section of the Gospel of Mark, is the crucifixion of Christ for sinners and the resurrection, and then the book of Acts is, and this is what the believers did with it. Verse 7 still, they had committed murder in rebellion. This again put them in the minds of some of the Jews as patriots, even if they didn't agree with them.

So some viewed Barabbas as a liberation fighter. The fact is we've all sinned, no revelation there. I don't know, have you ever met anybody who honestly says, I've not sinned? I actually met someone who claimed to be a Christian with the twisting from the 1 John letter, you know, insisting that he didn't have sinned. He simply said, you're sinning now by lying.

What are you talking about? You don't have sin. Anyway, we've all sinned, and we've rebelled against the throne of God.

Barabbas rebelled against Rome, sinners rebelled against the throne of God. Sin means I broke something that is very precious to a holy God. That's just a short meaning of sin.

Purity has been stained and therefore made impure before the presence of a pure God. Why should, again, God let me go unpunished when he can just make more people? He can make better people, perhaps. Well, I say that perhaps because there's that free will thing. Free will means that you have to make that choice, and God knew what was going to happen. He has every right to have a people that choose to follow him, even in the midst of a cursed world. People may object to God's processes, to which the Almighty God can say right to them, and he does through his word. Bottom line, I don't care what you think if you are against what I am offering, because you will be judged. This is the hard side of the Gospel.

Galatians 3, verse 22, But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. So when we go out with the Gospel, we find ourselves oftentimes trying to defuse a bomb in someone who wants to just explode on us, and just attack us for being Christians, because they've put mankind ahead of the maker of mankind. And they want their, you know, is there anything more absurd than a woman has the right to murder an unborn child? Well, that's because someone has told them it's not a child. It's something else. The insanity of it, it just shows the ill logic of otherwise frightfully intelligent people. I mean, human beings can do so many incredible things with technology now. It is astounding what humans are doing. Just whether you like it or not, the wind farms offshore are incredible. You've got these 200, over 200 foot towers that are in the ocean, hundreds of them like a farm. And you just see engineering that's going on.

But each one of those people who die rejecting the salvation of Jesus Christ will not go to heaven, regardless of their accomplishments as human beings, because what does it profit a man if he gains the entire world and goes to hell? Same in other fields. I mean, you just, you know, athletics. You can see people just do amazing things.

I mean, I could do better, but I don't want to show off. So, anyway, they may object to God's plan. So, they're still otherwise rational people. So, if you say, if you go to the beach and you kill one of those little turtles that's trying to make it to the ocean, they'll try to put you to the guillotine, because they recognize that in that turtle is life. If you do it to the egg, they'll get you, because in that egg is the potential for life. You just, you can't do this to animals. You can only do it to a human being. It's madness.

It's darkness. And there's so many other crazy things that we see that they're doing. You know, my pronouns are me, he, she, sinner, saved. And you say, well, now you're not getting into pronouns. Well, if they can make up rules, I can too. The problem is with people who believe stupid things is they can repeat them.

Ergo journalism. And it's successful for one lifetime with many. And then the judgment.

So we have to diffuse these time bombs that we're faced with, with people who've bought into this junk. I have found, when I used to have to deal with people that weren't saved, because now mostly I deal with people who claim to be saved and are saved, I found this, you know, sidestep all of those arguments and get right at the heart of the matter. You've got a dirty heart and you know it. You know you're a sinner. You know you do stuff to people that you'd never want done to you. That proves that you're a sinner.

What are you going to do about it? This nonsense about there is no God or making up things about God. Romans chapter 1, because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God. He's talking about the people in ancient Corinth walking around with as much debauchery as they can get their hands on. And Paul is not giving them an excuse saying, well, you know, they don't know better.

He takes it right to them. This is nonsense. People understand what sin is. They just don't want to face it. Because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. In spite of whatever medical, engineering, artistic, athletic accomplishments they may have laid their hands on, their foolish hearts were darkened. And when they die, none of those earthly achievements are going to get them into heaven. And that's where we come in.

It's a very simple, simple message and program. John 3.19, this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. So they kick up the dust to him and how well the Bible's really not true. It's written by men. Well, who's it supposed to be written by? God wrote the Ten Commanders with his own fingers.

A man messed that up. Jesus said, we play a dirge for you, you do not mourn, we play a melody for you and you do not dance. The saying is, we're damned if we do, we're damned if we don't.

We can't win with you because of dishonesty. And that's the kind of people that he is standing before allowing himself to be judged by. A little bit more on this, Romans chapter 2. He says, eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor and immortality, but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, for them indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, for glory, honor and peace to everyone who works what is good to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

I mean, it just gets right to it. It's all about what Christians are supposed to be fighting sin, not only in our lives but in those around us to get people into heaven by the truth. That's why Jesus said to Pilate, I am the king and my kingdom is not this world.

Although I own it. And then he goes on to say, but it is to preach the truth. I have come to announce the truth and we're supposed to be doing the same thing and not be sidetracked by so many insignificant other things without becoming fanatics, losing our balance and becoming so spiritual that we're not even natural as God allows. Verse 8, then the multitude, crying aloud, began to ask him to do just as he had always done for them. Pilate is being asked by the Jews after Pilate brought it up. John tells us in chapter 18, Pilate says, you have a custom and they got away from that and now the Jews have, well, he brought it up. Now they're going to stay on that.

These are likely the Jerusalem Jews mainly and some of the pilgrims from around the world like Egypt, for example, that are going to side against the Christ because the Galilean Christians were the ones that were laying down their garments and taking palm branches and as he rode in on the donkey crying out Hosanna. The scholars debate that. I could save them that debate.

They just need to ask me. Not that I know everything, but I know that. I'm kidding. I'm not that arrogant.

He's not in public. We're all in control when no one's looking. Anyway, the religious elite are aggravating this group of people. Many of them have not seen the miracles of Christ. They're just following the leaders.

John chapter 8 verse 33, Jesus said this about these religious leaders in Jerusalem and their influence, those influenced by them. You seek to kill me because my word has no place in you. This is right, point blank, right to them. You're trying to kill me and why? What have I done to you?

Have you missed a meal because of anything I've done? Verse 9, but Pilate answered them saying, Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews? So he knows they don't like this and Pilate, there's no love lost between the Jewish representatives and Pilate, and so he'll stick it to them any chance he gets. This is the official charge that they charged Christ with, treason, claiming he was king of the Jews.

So he's going to hold them accountable to that. In fact, at the crucifixion on the cross, he puts the indictment over the head of Christ on the cross. Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews, in three languages.

Nobody could miss it, and they said, Oh, take that down. He said he was king of the Jews. He said, I wrote what I wrote.

Now that's that friction between the two. Verse 10, for he knew that the chief priest had handed him over because of envy. Envy is a vicious thing. Pilate, he saw the root cause. He saw the hatred in their faces. He could hear it in their voices.

Every time they spoke, the hatred was so, an overabundance of hatred, saliva would probably pop out of their mouths on everybody. That's why we recommend you don't sit in the front row here. Kidding. I'm going to stop saying kidding and just go ahead and let somebody come up.

You said, I was kidding. Anyway, John chapter 11. This is the Pharisees saying, the elite.

They're elite because they say they are, not because they have earned any such status. Anyway, John 11, verse 48. If we let him alone like this, everyone will believe in him. And the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.

There's the envy. If we let him keep healing people, if we let him keep doing these wonderful things, we're going to lose this sweet gig we've got. And Jesus could perform miracles. They could not. Jesus could hold an audience, listening to every word he said. They could not. Jesus spoke with authority.

They repeated each other. How could he know such things without us? Who gave him permission to heal people? We are the ones that give this permission.

You have to come down, file the application, pay the fee, get a permit. We have regulated righteousness. It must come through us. Well, they never say it that way, but that's what they were doing. John chapter 7, verse 15. And the Jews marveled, saying, how does this man know letters having never studied? Who said he never studied? He didn't study under your formal instruction.

That doesn't mean he didn't study. There's other ways to learn, but they felt they were the keepers of knowledge when it came to God. And so they viewed him as their enemy because he did great things without their permission. When Paul stood in front of Hephaestus and Agrippa, he said, these things that Christ did were not done in the corner somewhere. The things that he did were everybody knew. And he was telling Agrippa, who was one of the leaders in Jerusalem, he says, you know this. You're the leader.

These things don't sneak past you. You know what Christ was doing. And so did they. But not all the Pharisees were so hateful. John chapter 19. These cross-references of scripture, they mean everything to us. This is God's word. And we back up our points by pointing to the scripture, what this Bible says. Now, I can't come out and read all the Bible to you. Well, maybe that's not a bad idea.

You can't do that, so we have to take sections of it and that allows you to go look it up if you'd like. So listen to the cross-references, even if you don't listen to me. I know my jokes were wonderful and beautiful and all of that, but listen to the Bible verses. John chapter 9 verse 16. Therefore, some of the Pharisees said, this man is not from God because he does not keep the Sabbath. How could he be from God and he's healing people in God's house on the Sabbath?

This is insane. Others said, see, that's other Pharisees, said, how can a man who is a sinner do such signs? And there was a division among them. Well, you can bet the higher-ups were going to put the kibosh on any of the Pharisees that showed sympathies to Christ. So we can see if any prophets come from Galilee.

Yeah, well, how about Nahum? I mean, you know, Elijah. I mean, there were prophets. They couldn't even get their own scripture right.

But they had the power. Thanks for tuning in to Cross-Reference Radio for this study in the Book of Mark. Cross-Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. To learn more information about this ministry, visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. Once you're there, you'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross-Reference Radio. You can search for Cross-Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. That's all we have time for today, but we hope you'll join us next time as Pastor Rick continues to teach through the Book of Mark, right here on Cross-Reference Radio.