And Lord, as we now come to your word, we remember again that your word does not return void to you. We remember again that your word is inerrant, that it is breathed out by your spirit through the prophets. And we remember that it is sufficient for everything that we need to know about you and about salvation, about spiritual matters. So we pray, oh Lord, that you would use your word to penetrate our hearts today, to fill our minds, and to conform us into the image of Christ. Help us, O Lord, to trust in Him and in Him alone, as we study Your Word. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Well, if you have your Bibles with you, please turn to John chapter 19. We're gonna be looking at John chapter 19 verses 6 to 12 today as we continue our study in John. Next Sunday, Jordan is going to be preaching for you guys. He'll be doing, I believe it's his final sermon on the ordinary means of grace. So be looking forward to that. And the first Sunday of November, we have a very special treat for you guys. Alex is gonna be preaching. his first Sunday morning sermon. If you haven't heard Alex preach, you guys are in for a treat. Alex is a phenomenal preacher, so be looking forward to that, absolutely. But today we're going to be in John chapter 19 verses 6 to 12. You know, this past week I was emailed by a friend in Florida who recently joined a church there, and she said that while she is greatly blessed and edified by the ministry of the church overall, she doesn't quite understand why the pastor never seems to mention hell in his preaching. Instead, he uses words like condemnation and judgment, and those are biblical terms, she understands that, but he never uses the word hell. She wrote to ask me this, she said, quote, how important is preaching on hell from the pulpit? It's an interesting question. She goes on to say, in the months that I visited the church and became a member a few weeks ago, the pastor has probably mentioned hell once. End quote. Now there's no question that there is very much an issue with pastors and preachers toning down the language, softening the language, sugarcoating our language. That is a real issue facing the modern church in our country. I don't know if that's the problem at her church or not. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, I don't know. But I do know that pastors will often tone things down, or try to sugarcoat various doctrines that are likely to offend people. Doctrines which, perhaps if they're preached regularly, may only serve to ensure that only certain types of people, non-believers specifically, won't return. So I don't know if that's why this woman's pastor doesn't mention hell in his preaching. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. There are a number of reasons. that might explain why any given pastor would leave out a subject like that, would omit a word like that from his preaching. But I'd say that those reasons also probably apply to every Christian, because we're all instructed to share the gospel. And so these reasons probably apply to all Christians who want to share the gospel, but don't want to be offensive. So this isn't just an issue with pastors. So maybe it's because there's a lack of understanding between, you know, the distinction between Gehenna and Hades. That's possible. Maybe they don't believe that hell exists. You'd be surprised how many professing Christians don't even believe that hell exists. I'd say more likely, the most likely reason is because they don't want to offend, which is like the biggest crime that you can commit in our day and age is offending somebody. And so they try to soften the language that Scripture uses. Can I just say something real quick? Don't ever apologize for what Scripture says. Don't ever feel the need to soften what Scripture says. Scripture uses language for a reason. Can you imagine a surgeon who is going to be performing heart surgery on somebody and so he asks the nurse for a dull blade because he's afraid it might cut? No, the blade must be sharp because it does cut. And perhaps Scripture uses hard language because it is the only way that the heart will be penetrated. God is the one who draws the blade. Not us. Don't apologize for what Scripture says. You don't have to soften what Scripture says. But the primary reason I believe that people do this, that any Christian, whether it be a pastor or a lay person, although pastors, we incur a stricter judgment. So that's one reason not to be a pastor. If you are afraid of consequences, if you don't want to speak as Scripture speaks, Perhaps being a pastor, perhaps being a preacher isn't for you. But the primary reason that I believe Christians do this is the fear of man. The fear of man. Just not wanting to offend people. Being worried about the consequences of speaking the truth forthrightly. The fear of man. is such a problem. It's a problem for everybody. It's something that we all must confront. It will set us up, however, you must know, it will set us up for incredible, incredible compromise. That's why Proverbs 29, 25 says, the fear of man brings a snare. And it goes on to say, but he who trusts in the Lord will be exalted. You see the contrast there? The implication in that one verse is that the fear of man cannot exist where trust in the Lord exists, and vice versa. These things are incompatible with one another. You will do one or the other. You will either fear man or you will fear God. J.C. Ryle, who was a minister in the 1800s, he wrote this of the fear of man. This, I believe, is the best thing that has been written in the last couple hundred years on the fear of man. He says this, he says, It is terrible to observe the power which it has over most minds, and especially over the minds of the young. Few seem to have any opinions of their own or to think for themselves. Like dead fish, they go with the stream and tide. What others think is right, they think is right. What others call wrong, they call wrong too. There are not many original thinkers in the world. Most men are like sheep. They follow a leader. If it was the fashion of the day to be Roman Catholics, they would be Roman Catholics. If it was to be Islamic, they would be Islamic. They dread the idea of going against the current of the times. In a word, the opinion of the day becomes their religion, their creed, their Bible, and their God." That is all 100% true. This is how we explain things like what happened in Nazi Germany and how so many people, including people who claim to be Christians, were convinced to just stay silent in the face of discrimination first and then eventually genocide. It's how people even in our own city of Seattle became extremely discriminatory as well over the past two and a half years, and they really haven't even acknowledged the fact that they have. Because the spirit of the age is the religion of the day. It's easier to just conform than it is to actually do the hard work of thinking logically, of thinking for yourself and thinking properly. But there's nothing new under the sun. There's nothing new under the sun. As we've been studying the section of John's Gospel which records the events that led up to Jesus's arrest, and his trial, and his crucifixion, we've seen the way that Pontius Pilate has been controlled by the fear of man. He has been absolutely paralyzed by the fear of man. He found no guilt in Jesus, and yet he didn't release Jesus immediately. Why not? Because he was ruled, he was controlled by the fear of man. He wanted to release Jesus. He knew that that was the right thing to do, but he didn't want to anger or offend the Jews who were demanding Jesus's death. So he declares Jesus not guilty. He says, I find no guilt in him. When that did nothing to calm or to assuage the masses, he sent Jesus to stand trial before Herod. And when that only resulted in Jesus being sent back, to Pilate, he gave the masses a choice of setting a prisoner free, either an insurrectionist murderer named Barabbas or Jesus. And of course we know the masses chose Barabbas. Then Pilate, still trying to set Jesus free, still trying to find a way to set Jesus free, he instructs that Jesus be scourged, beaten, hoping again to assuage the bloodthirsty masses by giving them just a taste of Jesus' blood. So in the passage that we come to today, Pilate is going to continue to try to find a way to release Jesus, but to do so without angering or offending the Jews. And the point of this passage is that the fear of man is the result of not properly fearing God. The fear of man is the result of not properly fearing God. The cure for being controlled by the fear of man is to rightly fear God, trusting in His sovereign omnipotence, omniscience, and His goodness unto His own. That's the key that releases the snare that the fear of man is. Again, Proverbs 29.25 says, the fear of man brings a snare, but he who trusts in the Lord will be exalted. And so with that said, Pilate is very much still caught in this snare, trying to free himself of it, while Jesus, who continues to trust in the Father's plan and providence, will be exalted. So we'll start with verses 6 to 8 of John chapter 19. It says, So when the chief priests and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify! Crucify! Pilate said to them, Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him. The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by that law he ought to die, because he made himself out to be the son of God. Therefore, when Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. So in response to the bloodied, scourged Messiah being presented before them, having been mocked ruthlessly, having been beaten ruthlessly by the Roman guards, the Jews are no less eager to have Jesus killed. We've seen that ultimately this is a picture of mankind's natural disposition toward God, that by nature man only hates, man only rebels against God, man only defies God by nature. For the Jews, nothing less than Jesus's death. could really satisfy them here. Pilate knows that Jesus is innocent. He knows that Jesus hasn't done anything wrong. And he was warned by his wife earlier that morning about how he should deal with Jesus, whom she told him was a righteous man. So his response to the masses, who are still rallying, for the execution of Jesus is to say to them, take him yourselves and crucify him for I find no guilt in him. He still sees no guilt in Jesus. But what he challenges them with here is actually, it's kind of a brilliant move. What he's challenging them to do is to go ahead and defy what he has already judged. He's challenging them to defy Roman law. He rightly interprets their continued insistence on murdering Jesus as disrespect for his verdict. And not only as disrespect for his verdict, but disrespect for his position, his office, his authority. He knows very well that the Jews did not have the authority to crucify Jesus. He knows that as well as anybody. But by defying, by opposing Pilate's authority, the Jews were basically endangering themselves because Pilate's authority was Caesar's authority. And if you defy Caesar's authority, you're in trouble. So he says, go ahead, do what you got to do, and we'll see what the consequences are. But the Jewish religious leaders, counter back and put Pilate back in check. They reply to his challenge, which I believe was probably issued with a great degree of sarcasm, by saying back to him, we have a law and by that law he ought to die because he made himself out to be the son of God. So they caught the satire, they caught the irony in what Pilate had said, and they knew that if they had actually done that, if they actually had gone ahead and executed him, that they'd be in trouble. If they did have the authority to execute Jesus on their own, they would be more than happy to go ahead and do that. And so they defend their outrageous refusal to let Pilate's verdict on Jesus stand by introducing what's really a new piece of evidence that Jesus made himself out to be, or that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. And indeed we know, as the readers, as the students of this, we know that this is what Jesus has been charged with. We know that this is what Jesus has been convicted of at the illegal Jewish proceedings that took place in the middle of the night. They weren't wanting Him dead for claiming to be the King of the Jews. They wanted Him dead because they understood that by Him claiming to be the Son of God, He was claiming to be fully God, truly God, in human flesh. One commentator notes this, he says, quote, it is certain that the Jews understood this in a very peculiar sense when Christ called himself the Son of God. They understood it to imply positive equality to the Supreme Being, end quote. And so this is kind of news as far as Pilate's concerned. He hasn't heard this before. Now there are actually two really rich pieces of irony going on here. First of all there's the irony that the reader is aware of the fact that the Jews absolutely hate the Romans, they don't respect Romans, and yet here they are begging the Romans to do what the Romans are able because they have the authority to do. But secondly, the reader is aware that while Jesus has been tried and convicted for blasphemy, for claiming to be the Son of God, Jesus has repeatedly, throughout John's Gospel, He has repeatedly, over and over again, demonstrated that He is God incarnate, that He truly is the Son of God. And so therefore while he claimed to be the Son of God, and he was found guilty of claiming to be the Son of God, he didn't actually commit blasphemy. Because there's nothing blasphemous about the actual Son of God claiming to be the actual Son of God. He's only telling the truth. Indeed, as we've noted several times throughout our study of John's Gospel, this is the very reason that John recorded his testimony, because Jesus truly is the Son of God. John writes in chapter 20, verse 31, that he wrote this, that he wrote his testimony, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name. And Pilate's response to the Jews reporting that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God is very interesting. He was even more afraid, John tells us. Now what does that already tell us? If it tells us he becomes more afraid, then it tells us that he was already being controlled by fear before. And now, he's even more afraid. It doesn't say he became afraid, it says he's even more afraid. Now we might have expected him to be irritated since this isn't what the Jews had told him when they first brought Jesus to him. Could have saved a little bit of time, so you might expect him to be irritated. We might have expected him to be maybe angry or flustered or frustrated that the Jews wouldn't relent in demanding Jesus's death. But no, he was afraid and now he's even more afraid. Another ironic aspect of this account is the idea that Jesus was, the fact that Jesus was the Son of God actually seems more plausible, if not somewhat likely, to a pagan superstitious Roman like Pilate. than it did to the Jews. He's more willing to consider that accusation, or that title, than they are. The Romans had several gods that they had sort of inherited from Greek mythology, and you know, even more since then. Morris notes in his commentary, he says quote, every Roman of that day knew of stories of the gods or their offspring appearing in human guise, end quote. So the idea of one of the gods or one of the sons of the gods appearing in human flesh wasn't outside of the question for a Roman pagan. It wasn't entirely impossible according to the Roman worldview. But this made the case before Pilate even more difficult, increasingly difficult, because it's made evident that there's a reason that the Jews are so fired up. Pilate understands what that reason is. There's a greater danger in Pilate's mind of offending the Jews by acquitting a man who claimed to be God, who claimed to be the Son of God in a culture, a Jewish culture, where they believe in a monotheistic God. You know, maybe Pilate had even heard their Shema, hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. He knew that they were monotheistic. That's why they didn't like the Jews, because they were monotheistic, whereas the Romans were polytheistic. He thought that he was only trying to calm their rage against a man who claimed or aspired to be their king. Surely it would be impossible to release a man who claimed to be God of a people who held such a non-Roman view of God in his mind. That's what he's thinking. But at the same time, if it's true that Jesus is the Son of God, how would he dare convict Jesus, much less sentence him to die? So Pilate is now firmly stuck between a rock and a hard place, or the rock and a hard place, so to speak. You know, the world will often put us in similar predicaments where we have to make a choice, where we'll be stuck between a rock and a hard place, in which we're forced to choose between proclaiming and accepting what is true or offending people. Because the reality is the truth can offend people, especially spiritual truth. It will offend the pagan mind. People are offended by all sorts of things these days. So greatly does the fallen mind love to find offense. We've even invented ways to be offended in our day and age. Microaggressions, for example, perfect example of this generation's overwhelming desire to find a reason, even an implied reason, even if the person didn't mean it. any reason to be offended. This past week it was the thumbs up emoji. The thumbs up emoji was said to be offensive. And when you look at this stuff, You would think that in our culture it's virtuous to find offense, that it's virtuous to be easily offended. It's not. Just to be clear, there is nothing virtuous about looking for offense. In fact, that is sinful to look for offense. Listen, we should not desire to offend people. That shouldn't be our desire. But at the same time, while we should make every effort within reason to not offend people, to not offend them unnecessarily, we can't be controlled by the fear of offending people. The fear of offending people will silence you if you want to speak the truth of the gospel to them. That's exactly what the fear of offending people will do. It controls us. It silences us. It muzzles us. And so if you are controlled by the fear of man, you're going to have a tough time speaking truth to people. If somebody's offended that you should warn them that the floor beneath them may crumble apart at any moment and that they would fall to their death if that should happen, go ahead and just let them be offended by your warnings. Love would have you warn them. And if they're going to take offense at that, so be it. Let them be offended. Let them hate you. Let them be angry with you. Let them even forsake you. How they respond to truth is not up to you. It's in their hands and you've got to let it be there. Pilate recognizes that he's in a difficult position, that he's stuck between a rock and a hard place. So he starts to question Jesus once again. Let's look at verses 9 to 12. And he entered into the praetorium again and said to Jesus, Where are you from? But Jesus gave no answer. So Pilate said to him, You do not speak to me, you do not know that I have authority to release you and I have authority to crucify you? Jesus answered, You would have no authority over me, unless it had been given you from above. For this reason, he who delivered me to you has the greater sin. As a result of this, Pilate made efforts to release him. But the Jews cried out, saying, If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. Everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar." So trying to find out if it's true that Jesus is the Son of God, Pilate asks Jesus where he comes from, what his origins are, where are you from, he asks. Little did he know, or little did he understand, that the Son of God... I mean, there are a lot of ways to answer this question. He could have said that he was from Nazareth, just as surely as he could have said that he was from Bethlehem, since that's where he was born. He could have answered, I'm from above and beyond even the highest heavens, and that would have been truthful. John has actually already answered this question for us, hasn't he? He's already told us who Jesus is and where Jesus is from. That's how the book starts out. John 1, verses 1 to 3. John writes, In the beginning was the Word, that's Jesus, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. This is where Jesus is from. All things came into being through him and apart from him, nothing came into being that has come into being, including all the places that Pilate could possibly imagine. All things were made by Jesus. So where is Jesus from? He's from eternity past where he was and is fully God. John has already answered this, so we know, but Pilate's wondering. And John tells us here the answer that he gives us at the outset of the book is that Jesus is from eternity past, where he dwelled eternally in unapproachable light, truly God. But none of these answers would have made any sense to Pilate. He had no categories. He had no religious categories for a God who was infinite, who was eternal, who was immutable, who was omniscient, who was just spirit, who was omnipotent, who was omnipresent, and so on and so forth. And maybe this is why Jesus doesn't give Pilate an answer, choosing instead to just remain in silence. If Pilate was trying to pry some kind of reason to exonerate Jesus out of Jesus, some excuse to release Him, Jesus wasn't going to give it to him. Now one possible explanation is that Pilate didn't have a category for where Jesus was from, so he wouldn't have understood. But another explanation might be that Jesus didn't want to be released. He knew that it was the Father's will that Jesus would not be released, but for Jesus to present himself as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of his people. Whatever the case, whatever the reason that Jesus doesn't answer this question, Pilate has already had his chance, hasn't he? He's already had his opportunity to release Jesus and be done with Him, and yet he didn't. He had a chance to respond rightly to Jesus, but now Jesus was done answering questions. Now Jesus is done speaking to him, reminding us that it is a very, very dangerous thing to postpone making a decision regarding Jesus. The time may come when he just stops speaking, and the day of salvation has come and gone. Pilate has tried to please people rather than striving to do what was right, striving to please God. He's already been controlled by the fear of people instead of the fear of God for far too long already. But the question that we have to wrestle with It's whether or not that's something that we struggle with as well. Being controlled by the fear of man instead of by the fear of God. Because make no mistake about it, one of those two things is going to take priority in your life. But this is where things get very interesting. Because Pilate is angered by Jesus' silence. He figured that because he was who he was, because he was Pontius Pilate, he deserved an answer from Jesus simply by virtue of his position. So he appeals to Jesus. He appeals to his authority, saying to Jesus, you do not speak to me. Do you not know that I have the authority to release you and I have the authority to crucify you? He sees himself as the highest authority here. This brings up a whole slew of very interesting and very important questions for us. Questions that we, as a church, collectively, and as Christians individually, have had to find answers for over the past couple of years. Who really does have the authority to do what? The biggest question that this raises is whether or not we are always as Christians, to yield ourselves to the civil authorities, to the civil government. Let's make it a little bit more interesting than that though, and ask this, are we always to yield ourselves in obedience to a corrupt government? To a wicked civil government? Over the past couple of years we've seen governors who thought they had the authority, We've seen them impose lockdowns that required churches to stop meeting, or that required all kinds of imposed regulations if we do meet. And many Christians went to the right place to find the answers. They went to Scripture. But they interpreted Romans 13 to be saying that the answer is yes, we should always yield ourselves in obedience to the governing authorities since God is the one who put those authorities in place. Is that what follows? Is that really what Romans chapter 13 says? Listen to it for a second. It says this, verses 1 to 9 in Romans 13, every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. Now if you just stop there, we've got our answer, don't we? But Paul doesn't stop there. He keeps going. Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God, and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid, for it does not bear the sword for nothing. For it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience's sake, For because of this, you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due to them, tax to whom taxes due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another, for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet. And if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Is that truly saying that we should always obey the civil authorities? The answer is no. It is not saying that Christians should unconditionally yield themselves to the authority of the government. The authority that the government has was given to them by God, right? We got that. That's what it says in verse two. There is no authority except from God. But then Paul goes on to show that the government is a minister of God to you for good. Now this is not describing a tyrannical government. That is, this isn't describing a government that is acting outside of its God-ordained jurisdiction by either forbidding what God requires or by requiring that Christians do what God forbids. The government that Paul is describing here in Romans 13 is governing well. They are governing in accordance with God's law. That's why Paul starts referring to the Ten Commandments as an example of the overlap between God's law and man's law, to show that the government forbids things like adultery, murdering, stealing, and so on and so forth, because God's law forbids these things. And they have the authority to enforce these things with the sword. As such, they are a minister of God. But a minister of God will never forbid you to do what God instructs or requires, and a minister of God will never require that you do what God forbids. That's not what a minister of God will do. That's what a minister of Satan will do. What does God require? He requires obedience. He requires that we gather weekly to worship Him and that we live in obedience to Him. His Word prescribes this for us. If God requires that, let me ask you this, if God requires that we gather regularly, what earthly government has the authority to forbid that we gather? That's an easy one. None. Not a single person on the entire earth in all of history has the authority to prevent Christians from gathering to worship. And this is why the underground church exists around the world, because they recognize that. The underground church exists because there isn't a government in the entire world, throughout all of human history, that has the authority to contradict God. Nobody has the authority to contradict God. Last year, we kind of had our finger on the trigger. We were ready to be an underground church if that's what we had to do. We had the civil authorities demanding that we require face masks and that we demand or that we require social distancing. But Scripture never allows us to put conditions on somebody if they want to hear the gospel preached. We don't have the authority to turn somebody away from hearing the gospel because God never allows that type of thing. There have been plagues throughout human history that were over a hundred times worse, a hundred times more deadly than COVID-19. And do you know how many of those plagues convinced Christians to stop obediently gathering? And yes, I've done my research and homework on this. Do you know how many plagues throughout human history have caused Christians to stop meeting? Zero. never happened. The church never stopped meeting because of plagues that were much deadlier than COVID-19. Because the church has always understood that faith is necessary for salvation and that faith comes by hearing. We must hear the gospel preached. The church has always understood that it profits us nothing to gain the whole world at the cost of losing our souls. So being healthy over being spiritually nourished, spiritually saved, no way. The church has always understood that to live is Christ and to die is gain. The church has always understood that God is the one who is sovereign over life and death. We can't add a single day to our lives. Every one of us has an appointed second that we will enter into eternity and we can't extend our lives even one second. God is the one who's sovereign over life and death. And so we continue to gather. As Christians who understand that God is the one who put the civil government in a position of authority over us. Let me say this, and let me be very clear about this. We should all, individually and corporately, we should all be very eager to obey the government. That should be our desire. We want to be model citizens. We want to be people who don't cause any kinds of disruptions. Scripture tells us that we're to pray for the king because what we want is a peaceful life. We want a peaceful life in which we can just gather and do our thing, preach the gospel and go on with things. So we should be eager to obey the government. There's no question about that. We shouldn't be known as a people who are less than eager to submit ourselves to the governing authorities because we aren't rebels. We aren't. We recognize that the government is there because God has put that there. Put the government there. He has put the government in authority over us. That is the way God designs things. So we should be model citizens if possible. But if the government exceeds her authority, if the government steers out of her lane, that is, if the governing authorities mandate something that contradicts God, that contradicts what God has instructed in His word, then we must disobey. The same thing goes for kids, think of it that way. Kids, you should be eager to obey your mom and dad. You know kids that God is the one who put your mom and dad over you? He's the one who established their authority over you? So yeah, children should be eager to honor and to obey their parents. But what if mom or dad instructs them to steal? What if mom or dad instructs them to lie or to break any of God's laws? Are they to comply with mom and dad then? No, absolutely not. All authority comes from God. All authority comes from God. That's exactly what Jesus reminds Pilate of in his response. He says, you would have no authority over me unless it had been given you from above. Now, if this statement is true, and it is, Would God give the government authority to enforce the defiance, the disobedience of God? Of course he wouldn't. No, he wouldn't. As Richard Phillips notes in his commentary, he writes, quote, since God is a higher authority than Pilate or any other human governing body, Christians must refuse to obey civil rulers when our obedience to God's Word is at stake, end quote. That is a very important principle for us to grasp. Nevertheless, so many churches last year either closed or required face masks and social distancing. Some churches even required that people be vaccinated in order to attend worship services on top of those things. What are we to think of them? Well, I'm not going to go so far as to say they're not Christians, but I am going to go so far as to say, where does Scripture instruct us to put obstacles between somebody wanting to hear the gospel and them actually hearing the gospel? The answer is nowhere. Then is it disobedient? Is it sinful to put some kind of obstacle in the way of somebody coming to hear the gospel preached? Yes, it is. Yes it is. Maybe they were doing these things out of a fear of getting sick. Maybe it was because of the fear of man. Either way, the proper response, the cure is a proper fear of God. If I fear God rightly, then I'm not afraid of an illness. He's sovereign even over illnesses. He's sovereign over whether I live or die. It's in His hands, not mine. Yes, I want to be a good steward of my body, but I recognize that there are more important things than my body. And if we fear God rightly, then we don't fear what man may do to us when we choose to obey God instead of man. You know, last year I was fully aware of the fact that our defiance to the governor's illegal and unbiblical mandates might mean that I would spend some time in jail. And I was prepared for jail ministry, if that's what it came to. We even agreed that we needed a legal defense fund added to our budget to bail me out if necessary, or to seek legal counsel if necessary. I'm thankful that it never came to that, but friends, you had better know, especially as our culture continues to become increasingly antagonistic toward biblical Christianity, you need to know that Christians always have to be willing to violate the laws and mandates and expectations of man when those laws and mandates and expectations conflict with what God instructs. Listen, if you are controlled by the fear of man, that's going to be really, really hard for you. That's going to be really difficult for you to do, if not impossible. You must free yourself from that snare ahead of time. And the way to free yourself from the snare that fearing man is, is to be controlled instead by a healthy fear of the Lord. Think again of Nazi Germany and how so many Christians went along with the laws that required that if anyone knew the whereabouts of Jews who were in hiding, they were to report those Jews. What should they have done? they should have disobeyed. One Christian who did disobey was thrown in jail. A Christian friend who had decided to obey the governing authorities came to visit him in jail and pleaded his case with his friend who was in jail, begging him to submit to the civil authorities and to stay silent about the abuses of the Nazis. And he concluded by saying, so why are you in jail? And the jailed friend responded, why aren't you in jail? See, we have the duty to comply with the civil authorities, with the governing authorities, until doing so requires disobedience toward God. And let it be known that all of this was true 200 years before COVID, as true as it is today, as true as it'll be 200 years, it's always true. This isn't just true because we just went through COVID, rather we had to explore these topics and come to a deeper understanding of these topics because of COVID, but let it be known that all of this was just as true before COVID as it is now. This is what the people of God have always done and believed. Which is why we see instances of the people of God defying the civil authorities in the Old Testament. Daniel chapter 3, for example, Nebuchadnezzar wants everybody to bow to this giant golden statue. You know the story. Because they would not yield to God, Daniel's three friends end up going into the furnace. Jesus concludes by adding, for this reason he who delivered me to you has the greater sin. This reminds us that while all sins are bad, all sins are indeed heinous and worthy of God's wrath, there are nevertheless varying degrees of sin. Some sins are worse than others. In this case, assuming he's talking about the Jews handing Jesus over to Pilate, The Jews who had rejected Jesus as the Son of God were guilty of a greater sin than Pilate was. After all, he hasn't rejected Jesus as the Son of God, at least not yet. But let us never forget that the sin of rejecting Jesus as the Son of God, rejecting who He is, rejecting His authority, rejecting His Lordship, that is the worst of all sins. We read in verse 12, as a result of this, Pilate made efforts to release him. But the Jews cried out, saying, if you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. Everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar. So Pilate's problem wasn't solved. Pilate's problem didn't go away. He was looking for a way out of this problem without offending people. What was his problem ultimately? Ultimately his problem was that he feared man more than he feared God. And eventually the time would come when he would have to yield. He would have to make a decision based on what he feared the most. So Pilate was shaken by the Jewish opposition to his verdicts. That's the only thing that explains his failure to do the right thing and release Jesus, knowing that the greater sin was rejecting Jesus as the Son of God. He wanted this all to just be over and done with, but he knew that if he gained the reputation of not being a friend of Caesar, that is of being an insurrectionist, it would not only mean the end of his political career, but it would very likely have meant the end of his life. The emperor at this time was Tiberius Caesar. who was known for always being a man who was extremely, extremely paranoid. Always being suspicious toward those who were under him and around him. Always worried that they weren't as loyal as they claimed to be. This was somebody, you were walking on eggshells around Tiberius Caesar anytime you were around him. And so when all is said and done, Pilate's got a choice to make. Is he gonna serve man? Or is he gonna serve God? And just as Pilate would serve the one which he feared the most, make no mistake about it, friends, the same is true for you as well. You will serve the one you fear the most. If you fear man more than you fear God, you will end up serving man. Unlike Pilate, who feared man so greatly, Jesus shows us a picture of what it looks like to just confidently trust in God no matter what the cost may be. So He sets an example for us to follow as He continued to trust in the Father's plan and providence. He's always doing what is pleasing to the Father. As Christians, the fear of man is such a dangerous, dangerous snare. The fear of man is the result of not properly fearing God, but the cure. The cure for being controlled by the fear of man is to rightly fear God. To trust in his sovereign omnipotence, his omniscience, and goodness unto his own. That's the key that releases the snare that the fear of man is. Think about it. What grace it is that God would free all who believe in Jesus from enslavement to the fear of man. The only thing that I can think of that's worse than being a slave to the fear of man is hell. Is hell. To free ourselves from the fear of man, we must ultimately focus on yielding and aligning our will with God's will. This is where Pilate lost any ground to stand on. Would it not have been better for Him to have saved his soul than to have saved his life, than to have saved his political career by caving in to the desires of man? Of course it would have been. And the same is true for us as well. Will we suffer? Will we go to jail? Will we lose our jobs? Will we be hated? Will we lose friends if we refuse to align our will with the will of man? Maybe. Maybe. Will we be imprisoned? Will we maybe be fined into poverty if we persist in aligning our will with God's instead of man's? It's possible, and we need to be prepared for that. But know this, if you have repented and if you have believed in Christ, if you strive to align your will with God's, you have something better than this world has to offer. You not only secure an eternal place in heaven, but you can be sure that Christ himself will walk with you throughout your journey in this world. But it starts with the call to take up your cross. and to follow Jesus. Jesus never said that it would be easy to be a Christian. What he taught was that it was worth it. Count the cost, yes. But if you count the cost wisely, you will take up your cross. As John MacArthur writes, he says, to take up one's cross is simply to be willing to pay any price for Christ's sake. It is the willingness to endure shame, embarrassment, reproach, rejection, persecution, and even martyrdom for His sake. Does that describe you? The only thing that will prevent you from being willing to do that is either your own stubborn pride, or the fear of man. What we ultimately must see is that it is far better, no matter what the cost may be, to be a friend of Jesus than it is to be a friend of Caesar. May God grant us the grace to love, serve, and live for Him rightly. And whatever may come, that He will give us the grace to persevere. Trust that He will give us the grace to persevere and yield our will to God. I know I'm going late here, but I've got one more thing to share with you. It's very quick. I just want to note that if we should even be persecuted unto death. Here's a promise that scripture gives us. Not only will we be in good company as so many saints before us have chosen martyrdom over disobedience to God, but Revelation chapter 12 verses 11 and 12 tells us that this will be spoken of us in heaven. And they overcame Him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony. And they did not love their life even when faced with death. For this reason, rejoice, O heavens. and you who dwell in them. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the way that Your Word instructs us. We thank You for the way that Your Word indeed corners us and forces us to evaluate ourselves and to make a decision about Jesus. To live for Him or to live for ourselves to fear Him, to fear you, or to fear man. Oh Father, we are so inclined to fear man instead of fearing you rightly. And we recognize then that what grace, what grace it is that we would ever choose to fear you. And we know that your grace is always sufficient. So as we see the world proverbially crumbling around us, oh God, we pray for the grace to stand. We pray for the grace to fear you rather than fearing man. So we ask, oh Lord, for the conviction to fear you rather than fear man and to be controlled by a desire to love and serve you rather than a desire to serve man. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.