Thank you. Greetings, friends. John's Gospel, Chapter Nineteen. Verse six. When the chief priests, therefore, and officers saw him, Jesus, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, Crucify him. Pilate sat under them, Take ye him, and crucify him. for I find no fault in him. Now this is a very strange verse in some ways. Already in this chapter there is recorded by the Holy Spirit that Pilate took Jesus and scourged him. And Isaiah said in prophecy Of that event that the plowers plowed upon my back they made long their pharaohs. This is part of the leading up to the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. The suffering and the humiliation that was heaped upon the Lord Jesus even before they nailed them to a rugged tree. As a Roman gibbent. Oh, what an awful shame, what an awful blot on the human family. They have scourged them, and then they made a crown of thorns, and they pushed it into his brow and smote them on the head with reeds to drive it further in. And they put on him an old discarded purple robe, a purple robe of mockery, In this case, he made himself a king, so we'll give him a crown. But that crown was a crown of thorns, friend. He made himself a king. We'll give him a purple robe. But it was an old discarded one. It was given in mockery and suffering and humiliation. For the Lord Jesus, these are some of the sufferings that... that we can even mention that the Lord Jesus endured for you and for me. In order that mankind might be redeemed back to God, he's willing to suffer the agonies, even the preceded the cross. When his heart was broken, his heart was like wax that was melted in the midst of his bow. It was gone. Man so cruelly treated, their Creator, that he could say, My heart was all gone. It's like a wax melted in the midst of my bowels. But here, with a bleeding back like a plowed field, the crown of thorns on his head, and a purple robe, then they smote him with their hands, man's impudence to the Creator. My friends, it's a wonder that good Jehovah did not wipe the earth clean of every human being. The insult, the impudence, the horrible suffering that was from the hands of man upon his own Creator. They smote them with their hands. They wanted to cause them. all the ignominy and shame and suffering that they could heap upon them. Think of them slapping his face, the awful impudence of humankind. And then Jesus came forth in verse five wearing this crown of thorns and the purple robe, and Pilate said unto them, Behold the man. Yeah, look at him. seems that Pilate wanted to get away from his crucifixion, thinking perhaps that by scourging him that would satisfy them, satisfy the chief priests and the officers and the people. But no, now he says, behold the man. But when the chief priests in verse six, therefore, and the officers saw him, they cried out their decision. They cried out their demands, saying what? Crucify Him, crucify Him. This is their demand. Crucifixion was a horrible there. Nails through the hands and through the feet, and then raised up to hang on those wounds in the hands and the feet. To hold the body, those wounds off of spite. Yet they cried out the chief priest. Notice, friends, it's the highest echelon of the human family at that time. It wasn't the vagabond. It wasn't the riff-raff of the people. No, it was the highest rank of all, the chief priests and the officers. And then the common people followed on. But it was the leaders of the people that cried out, Crucify him, crucify him. And Pilate said, Well, you take him and crucify him. For I find no fault in him. Again, Pilate, the second, this is the second time that Pilate says, I find no fault in him. Back in the eighteenth chapter, and verse thirty-eight, he said, I find in him no fault at all. No fault at all. And Pilate tried to get away, undoubtedly, from the mob and the crowd, the chief priests and officers, and tried to avoid having to crucify him. And he said, Now take him and crucify him, for I find no fault in him. Thank God for that. There was one who stood up and said, No fault. The Jews answered, We have a law, but, and by our law he ought to die because he made himself the Son of God. Yes, they were going to get them put to death one way or another. And Pilate, when he heard this, that he made himself the son of Gorn, Pilate became more fearful, more fearful. He was the more afraid in verse eight. When Pilate therefore heard that saying he was the more afraid, he had more feeling He had more concern than all the multitude put together, the chief priests and the officers, and all those that were with them, whether they were, whatever nationality, whatever their creed or color. Pilate, when he heard this, he was the more afraid, and then he went in and spake to Jesus. But the Lord Jesus knew the feelings of Pilate's heart, and so he didn't answer when Pilate asked him, when Sartau. Jesus didn't give him any answer because Pilate knew, and the Lord knew that Pilate knew. And then Pilate said, Speakest thou not unto me, knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? But Jesus answered, Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except that were given me from above. Therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin. And Pilate sought to release him right there in verse twelve of John's Gospel chapter nineteen. From henceforth Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, The folk of that day, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend. There were many there. There were many there of all races. Undoubtedly. For this was the center, and they cried out, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend, whosoever make of himself a king speaketh against Caesar. So now they are pleading that he is the king, he is not their king, that Caesar is their king. And so Pilate then was faced with this mob. with the chief priests and officers and all the multitude that came together. He brought Jesus into the judgment hall. Now think of the God, the Creator of heaven and earth, and Creator of all people, and here's the creatures, and they're going to sit in judgment on their Creator. How must the heart of the Lord Jesus been broken? Smitten? Broken? and then melted within his bosom. He came into judgment, and Pilate said, Behold your king. Behold your king. First he said, Behold the man. Now he's convinced he is a king, and he says, Behold your king. But they cried out, Away with this man. Away with him. Crucify him. Pilate says, Shall I crucify your king? The chief priest answered, We have no king but Caesar. Then he delivered them, Jesus, into their hands to be crucified. All of this time with all of this mob and all of those chief priests who were supposed to be the leaders of the people, the spiritual leaders of the people. And here they are crying out against them. My friend, can you think what this must have meant to the heart of the one who is the meek and lowly Jesus, the one who helped man at every turn of the way, the one who's ready to help men today, and women and boys and girls, if they'll only trust him as their Savior. This is some of the suffering he endured when he was going to the cross to suffer and die for your sins and mine. Have you trusted him? Or are you keeping him out? And you are saying, not this man but Barabbas, not this man but Caesar. We have no king but this world. We have no king but ourselves. We do what we want to do. What is it, friend, that keeps you away from the Savior, who loved you so much that he endured the cross, despising the shame? Now he's up in heaven, waiting for you and me to accept him as our Savior. Father, bless thy word, and bless our country and our president. And may many souls find their way to the cross by faith, the one who suffered and bled and died for them, that they might have remission of their sins and be saved for time and eternity. We pray in his name. Amen.