The Howls of Injustice (Part C)

My kingdom is not this world, although I own it. 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. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. 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. And now here's Pastor Rick in Mark chapter 15 with the conclusion of his study called The Howls of Injustice. 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 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 is coming to the world. Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.

So they kick up the dust. 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 and 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.

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. 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, but 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, at least 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 him any chance he gets. This is the official charge that they charge 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 he said, oh, take that down. He said he was king of the Jews. He said, I wrote what I wrote.

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 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 you 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. Verse 11. But the chief priest stirred up the crowd so that he should rather release Barabbas to them. Barabbas, the name means son of the father. Not very creative.

I could have, most men are. All of them, as a matter of fact, but of course the definite article changes everything. He is not son of the father who is in heaven, the true son. But truth is not moving this mob lies because they have an agenda and it is murder. They want to censor, to silence the voice of Christ, the life of Christ, just like any other time.

You know, you look at, I mentioned India just this week, a 16-year-old. They threw acid on him to kill him and then 45 days later he dies. Why? Well, because he was preaching Jesus. Well, what is Jesus teaching you to do?

Go steal hubcaps? I mean, what is so bad about what Jesus says that it merits blood? Well, Satan's influence. He has an agenda. He's very serious. We do not take him lightly.

The fool would. Angels fear to go where fools dare to tread. Verse 12, Pilate answered and said to them again, What then do you want me to do with him whom you call king of the Jews? Now there is standing Jesus Christ listening to all this, watching what's taking place.

He's waiting to be brutalized further and finally to be killed. There he stands. This is what the writer to Hebrews says about Christ. Holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. And there he was just like that. Verse 13, I mean, we know these things we who believe, but we must hear them again and again.

Give the chance. The way I think biblical preaching ideally works is the pastor gets before the Lord. The Lord downloads into him what he wants. He gets into the pulpit. He uploads it to the congregation. Then there's the Holy Spirit of God that takes it from there if the people let him. And it is not the pastor. It is you and God. You sit through a sermon and God says things to you. He may say things like, You have a wonderful pastor.

I mean, because he's got to somehow get back to me. Verse 13, So they cried out again, Crucify him, the jeering mob, demanding the sinless to suffer. Again, this was not going to be a light execution over in a few minutes. James writes this, And sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death. That's part of our message. To go to your grave without sin dealt with brings forth eternal death. How many reject Jesus Christ without even knowing what they're rejecting? I can't stand Christians.

Why? And then they'll say some goofy thing in which it leaves us usually to be able to say, Where did you get that from? That's not what the Bible teaches. You're following somebody using Christ's name.

That's called, you know, fraud. If he's using the Lord's name and just this week, just this week. I read that there's a, I'm not going to say the pastor's name. I might, but I don't know. So he says to his congregation, I need a jet so I don't have to get vaccinated. And I want you to pay. Well, where are you going with this jet? Well, I've got many vacation properties that I'm not taking anybody in the congregation to with me.

To see insanity. I typically don't want to hear people badmouth some pastor because, you know, they get things wrong and it's a tough assignment. And so, you know, you have to dismiss a lot of this stuff. But heresy is another thing. But having people come to church to grab them by their ankles and shake them upside down till the coins fall out. And you can look them up off the floor and go buy yourself something is, to me, disgusting.

Am I the only one? Do I sound self-righteous? Or just right? You can be right without being self-righteous. It's called a righteous indignation. And I think that it is vile. And this particular person, he's loaded.

Coping with the Copelands. Man, who does that? What people are that dumb to come back for more? Well, you got money from his last one. Let's see how much you can get from us today. Gosh, Satan is real.

Have you ever met any of these people? The money that they live for. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one that kills the prophets and stones those who were sent to her. How often I've wanted to gather your children as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you are not willing.

And that's what's going on here. Verse 14, Pilate said to them, why? Why crucify him?

What evil has he done? But they cried out all the more, crucify him. Here's a pagan judge, more sensitive to justice than those entrusted with the word of God. So, when someone says, yeah, well religious people are a problem, some Christians are, yeah, the Bible never hides that.

It comes out and says, yeah, that's exactly what goes on, but that doesn't mean every one of them are this way. You couldn't put Christ in the category with any of these people. The cry became a rhythmic chant, crucify him.

It made no sense then and makes no sense now. If they did this to the innocent, what will they do to other innocent people? Christ says this on the way to the cross. If they do these things in the Greenwood, what will be done in the dry? If they do this to the innocent Messiah, what are they going to do to you? Who's not innocent? Who cannot do the miracles that he can do?

They're going to persecute you too. Verse 15, so Pilate, wanting to gratify the crowd, released Barabbas to them and delivered Jesus after he had scourged him to be crucified. Yeah, appeasement makes matters worse. Well, I'll satisfy the crowd.

Pilate was a crowd pleaser. He caved to their agenda. And we know what that looks like when politicians cave to an agenda, usually of a minority, even a small number.

I mean it that way, not ethnically. That too sometimes doesn't matter. Caving into wrong is wrong. And these gangster slick religious leaders had boxed him in and he knew it. Because if he didn't now, at this point, pronounce the judgment, Pilate is thinking, then Rome is going to say, how did you let a treasonous person go free?

And he could have stood up. I found him innocent. He could have said that to Rome, but he does not.

He's playing the politician and his efforts to have a clean court have gone out the window. He says it released Barabbas to them. The guilty goes free and the innocent one is slain in his place. The guilty people who committed these injustices don't care about Christ dying until they die.

Then it's too late. This is the doctrine of substitution. You know I don't like to use those words, atonement, substitution, propitiation, because I think they get lost with us. I'd rather just, you know, here's one of the ones I really don't like to use, eschatological. Why can't I just say end times?

It's easier to spell. And it's just why, why don't you, let me show you what I've been reading. Let's just get to the point with these things. But this is the doctrine, the teaching of substitution. Punishment on Jesus instead of sinners. Because it happened to Christ, it need not happen to me.

That's what this teaching is. Christ died for my sins. I need not die for my sins if I accept his substitution. It is atonement.

It satisfies the righteous requirement of a holy God that payment has to be made. And Barabbas, that cross had his name on it and Christ put his name over the name of Barabbas. Christ died in the place of Barabbas as Barabbas. And that's what he does for sinners. Whether the sinner accepts it or not is another thing.

So you have three of them, three outlaws. One of them will reject Christ full out and not back down. We know he goes to hell for that. The other one asks the Lord to enter into paradise. That outlaw on the cross goes to heaven. Barabbas dies with a Christian mark over his head. We don't know if he ever looked back and said to himself, hey, you know, Christ died in my place, the innocent for the guilty, or if he just was, you know, that kind of person where he's just so into himself he could care less.

We don't know. But it is provocative thought when we hurl it before an unbeliever and say, let me tell you about three people. Two of them died on the cross. One didn't. Someone died in his place.

These are sermons for unbelievers by believers and not just for pastors. And he delivered Jesus. Contrary to his verdict, I find no fault in the man. He is innocent.

Take him outside, beat him severely, and then nail him to a tree. It says, and after he scourged him, flogged, whipped, lashed. Luke says this, Christ talking about what's coming. They will scourge him and kill him, Christ is speaking of himself.

And the third day he will rise again. He knew this was coming, of course, but when they scourged him, they had to be careful not to over-scourge him. There were degrees of scourgings. Now, all the commentators that I've ever read, they just sort of sensationalize this, I think, to the point where it's, you know, it's now not becoming practical. Because if they beat Christ too much, he wouldn't be able to walk or stand unless he did a miracle, and that would be kind of absurd to inject a miracle. So, I'm not going to sensationalize his suffering. Is suffering enough?

Hollywood is not my study bible. I look at just this, I try to be as realistic as I can as a Christian. In fact, others have suffered worse on a cross. Christ died early on the cross. So much so, and we'll get that in verse 44, Pilate was shocked, he's dead already? They usually linger.

I mean, unless we kill them, they're going to linger for a day or two. So, it's not the physical punishment that wins our hearts. It's the darkness he endured in the spiritual realm, the wrath of God.

For someone like Jesus Christ to say, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me, is an indication something terribly wrong has taken place that produced something amazingly correct. And so, his enduring the wrath of God was far more horrific than any Hollywood director could illustrate. You could, it's unrecorded how he suffered. You can't catalog it. You can't write it down and say, let me tell you how he suffered.

You just can get us in the ballpark. It is the spiritual. That's where the dregs of spiritual darkness resided, and he drank it all. And when we preach Christ, we preach the spirit. I'll close with this verse. First Timothy, Paul looking back on these things, writing to a pastor, knowing that the pastor's got a congregation that is, all pastors have a congregation that is difficult to keep between the lines, just because we're all sinners. And it's hard for the pastor to keep himself between the lines. We don't automatically flow into righteousness, none of us.

It takes hard work. And so, he's writing to this pastor, and he says, I urge you in the sight of God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus. And he just has this flash, Paul does. Who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate. He's writing 30 years later, at least, and he's just still moved by Christ before Pilate. He doesn't back down, our Lord, and we're not to back down.

And then he says that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless, until our Lord Jesus Christ appearing. Just a beautiful use of the scripture, of the facts, and in building and edifying the church. 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.