No fault, No power, No king, No belief

Good evening We'll be reading in John chapter 18 if you haven't got a Bible not to worry Faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God It is always important to me to define that this is a gospel meeting That means this meeting is not for us to learn how to be better Christians This is not to learn how to please the Lord to how to be a better person anything like that The purpose of this meeting is for it to be clear How you as I have can have the forgiveness of sins and be saved If you've got any questions concerns, if you don't agree, there's concepts that you're struggling with Please approach one of the brethren after and we will be happy Bible in hand to deal with these doubts These topics are far too important to leave for another day and your soul is worth far too much bearing the image of God To allow the possibility Of not being saved John chapter 18 then what I would like to do is Speak of the Lord Jesus Christ John chapter 18 and we're going to read In verse 38 Pilate saith unto him What is true? When he had said this he went out again unto the Jews and said unto them I find in him no fault at all I Find in him no fault We'll be reading a few more verses in a moment, but I'd like to pause here and consider this The Lord Jesus Christ has been brought before Pilate because Pilate is the governing authority in that region The Jews hate him They despise him Goaded on and led by the chief priests and the Pharisees They Want to kill the Lord Jesus Christ they want him out they want him away They want him gone They don't want anything to do with him They don't want him to teach they don't want him to preach and they don't want people to hear what he has to say But they can't kill him Only the authorities can and so they take him and bring him before Pilate and They give to Pilate reasons For which the Lord Jesus Christ is worthy of death and Pilate being In my own imagination, I would dare say an expert judge. It's not for nothing that he's governor. I would like to think and Part of his job is to take these cases and discern and to decide what the punishment should be According to what the crimes are and in his hand In the sense is life and death we're gonna notice that in a moment and After having examined him this is his conclusion I Find in him No fault The other Gospels will help us with this.

He says it multiple times He comes out to the people and he says I find in him. No fault They're saying he did this. They're saying he stirs up the people.

They're saying he does this other thing and they're all lies false witnesses and Pilate truthfully discerningly Sees the case He speaks with the Lord Jesus Christ, and he is convinced of this This man has done nothing wrong This man has done Nothing amiss Nothing wrong Is it right then to sentence the Lord Jesus Christ to death? Of course not He did no sin He knew no sin in Him was no sin. Now if your life and my life were to be brought before everyone We know in our hearts that we have done wrong There is fault in us. There is sin in us We are most definitely guilty Now we could take the list of the Ten Commandments just to start and go through them one by one We could take any number of crimes and sins and go through them one by one And that wouldn't be wrong per se but I dare say it's not necessary Because if the sinner which is you and which is me Is seeking truth It's going to be honest and Is going to not lie If you take just a few moments Take a breath or two and consider Your past my past We know Each and every one of us has a conscience That strange feeling in this area That tells you so very clearly That was wrong and If you don't have that the Bible says That you're a liar First John 1 He has not sinned who does not sin it's a liar makes God a liar There is not one of us that can say either with a straight face or with a clear conscience There is no fault in me It doesn't feel good It doesn't sound good and we don't like it But it's the truth however The Lord Jesus Christ was examined and he was questioned he was interrogated and The conclusion is this I find no fault in him Not even Herod Not from the day he was he came into this world Until this day and forever after no fault when the Lord Jesus Christ was baptized God from heaven Spoke this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased and This I understand to be God's seal of approval over his childhood and his teenage years and his young adult years Which typically is a years in which? Many sins are committed Which is when the young child begins to become aware of the things that could possibly be done and as the body develops and is more capable of sin and and as Responsibilities are given to to adolescents and teens and young adults and now they can move from one place to another without supervision And they don't necessarily have to answer to their parents anymore The Lord Jesus Christ never sinned not once not even a little bit not even close No fault in him not in his childhood not in his teenage years Not in his young adult years never not once That's the beauty of this of this this what pilot says it's not just about this scenario he does specify That I find no fault in him where of the the things where have you accused him? But it applies to his whole life Is that not impressive The if if if we were to investigate our own lives We would only become disenchanted one with another We would only become Disappointed in each other Because we are sinners.

I Am a sinner The Bible says you are a sinner for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God But the more we look at the life of the Lord Jesus Christ the more he shines and the more he stands out Because he is the eternal God He is not subject He is not under sin He has not fallen short I I Find in him no fault This is not true about you and about me There's always shared fault Almost in every case where there is a problem. It's hardly there's hardly ever a person That had nothing to do with it whatsoever This happened just the other day Our son Elias is some there was a kerfuffle among some children and I called him over And as is the custom without accusation just to say why is so-and-so crying? Tell me the details. There's no fault implied.

It's just why is so-and-so crying and Immediately he goes I was standing there like this. I didn't do anything. I stayed out of the fight That is almost never the case It is the case with the Lord Jesus Christ always No fault.

This is important. This is what makes him different from you and from me This is why we preach Christ and him crucified because there is no fault in him There was no fault in his childhood There was no fault in when he was an adult and there will never be a fault with the Lord Jesus Christ We think so. The world is angry at God.

Everything seems to be God's fault But as we saw on Friday with the children there will come a time in which Christ will reign on this earth for a thousand years and Satan will be bound and there will be no excuse that anything is God's fault because he will heal his sickness He will not allow war and everything will be at perfect. Peace He will reign physically on this earth and execute immediate judgment on sin manifested And even still there will be a rebellion like there never was before So really it's just a false pretense that we human beings have that somehow God is at fault and The Millennium shows us in that in every stage of time The sinner will sin and needs Christ No fault This is why he stands out. This is why we don't preach anyone else and this is why He alone can save you Let's read in John chapter 19, it's the next chapter over and we're gonna read In verse 9 and he went again into the judgment hall and saith unto Jesus Pilate is questioning him again When's art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer.

Then saith Pilate unto him speakest thou not unto me? Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee and have power to release thee Jesus answered thou couldest have no power at all against me except it were given thee from above We've seen that the Lord Jesus Christ has no fault we've spoken about that Want to look at this phrase now no power Now Pilate thought he had the power He comes to the Lord Jesus Christ and he says don't you know that I have power And the Lord Jesus kindly lets him know that you have no power you would have no power at all You do have the power. This authority has been given you but if it were not given to you, you would have no power and This is impressive because we have the Lord of Lords The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords the omnipotent God the Lord Jesus Christ who has all power and He is allowing this sinful man To decide what will happen with him The Lord Jesus Christ has all power Pilate thinks he has no power Normally the prisoners don't what is the prisoner gonna do? What is the prisoner gonna say if Pilate condemns him he's condemned The Lord Jesus Christ did have power and he does have power He had power to free himself he had power to condemn Pilate on the spot He could have displayed Pilate's sins in a in a divine judgment somehow, but he didn't The Lord Jesus Christ had power to lay down his life and to take it again and he did They thought they killed him Scripture makes it clear to us that he laid down his life He had power to lay it down and he had power to take it up again When he rose he said all power is given to me And he's the one who has power to destroy and how having all power Who wouldn't get out of that situation? Who would willingly allow themselves to be taken and to be treated this way and and to die in mockery and shame rejected The Lord Jesus Christ would because he loves you and because he loves me Because he knows That you are a sinner and he knows that I am a sinner In great and terrible need of a Savior. How would we ever get rid of our sin? The wages of sin is death There's no way around that the soul that sins it shall die He did no sin He knew no sin in him was no sin.

And yet he took sin on himself. He was made sin for us That we might be made the righteousness of God in him I have power I Would have used my power against Pilate against the Roman army But the Lord Jesus Christ used his power to lay down his life And to take it up again To rise from the dead John chapter 19 now in verse 14 a Little bit further along it was a preparation of the Passover in about the sixth hour and he saith unto the Jews behold your King But they cried out away with him away with him crucify him Pilate saith unto them shall I crucify your King the chief priests answered we have no King but Caesar Then delivered he him therefore Unto them to be crucified and they took Jesus and led him away No King No fault no power no King These have got to be some of the saddest words in scripture There are many instances of sad words, but to have the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords in front of them in person in the flesh having been declared not to have any fault at all and They willingly deliberately looked at him and said no Could this be you tonight Is this the attitude of perhaps your heart Considering your own fault and your own sin and your own need Considering the Lord Jesus Christ and his sinlessness and how he laid down his life and took it rose again from the dead And you say no We Have no King but Caesar We're not interested in this King. We want this King.

This is the king that we can control to some extent This is the king that will do what we want We don't want the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords no King He is the king Whether they like it or not But he gave each and every one of them the choice to whether he was going to be their king Just like with you and with me he is the king that is not going to change he will come and he will reign But he gives you the decision as he did me the choice whether or not he will be my king To whether or not the sinner will repent and receive him as Savior as King We have no King But Caesar To every human being God has given the choice Adam and Eve They knew they had the choice and God did not intervene until because of their actions History was affected If it hadn't been for them it would have been because of me Nineveh was given the consequence for their actions and because they repented God spared them They had a choice Judas even even Judas Up until the moment he took his own life He had a choice His choice was no We could continue pilot made the choice pilot had the choice The thief on the cross had the choice Lastly I would like to look at Thomas John chapter 20 and verse 25 The other disciples there this is the Lord Jesus Christ has died on the cross now. He's risen again. He has appeared to the disciples Now verse 25 the other disciples therefore said unto him we have seen the Lord but he said unto them except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger in the print of The nails and thrust my hand into his side.

I will not believe No faith no salvation No belief I'm gonna limit it to that I will not believe Just like the people that cried no King no It is an amazing thing that God has allowed us to choose he is all-powerful And the Lord Jesus Christ died not using his power in some spectacular display of glory Using his power to lay down his life and take it back again So that you and that I could have the possibility of salvation Sins forgiven because of the blood that he shed on the cross If it were up to him everyone would be saved if it were up to the devil no one would be saved But it's not up to God he has done everything possible to make that happen And the devil will do as he always has done everything possible so that it doesn't happen But salvation Not the act of being saved it needs to be clear that God is the one who saves He has given each and every one a choice But he will respect that choice As well as The relevant consequences that follow Destruction and perdition Or eternal life the wages of sin is death But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord