Because Of Him

By Pastor: Larry W. Wilson

Our text is found in Matthew chapter 27, beginning in verse 15 through verse 19.  "Now at that feast the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner, whom they would.  And they had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas.  Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you?  Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ?  For he knew that for envy they had delivered him.  When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream BECAUSE OF HIM."

Today, we hear a lot about "preaching Jesus".  There are those who will say, "Learn our catechism, accept our sprinkling, make regular confessions to our priest, partake in our masses and sacraments, and observe all of our creeds and ceremonies."  To this group of people, that is what they call "preaching Jesus".  Another group will preach the immorality of society and the reform of man by quitting all the immoral practices and bad habits and conform to all their regulations.  This group calls that "preaching Jesus".  There is yet another group that will spend the vast majority of their time describing the pitfalls of sin and the suffering of sin.  They will go into great detail, so as to touch on every personal, social, and domestic sin.  They will give emotional examples to stir the emotions of everyone in the congregation.  They will then take a few minutes to encourage all poor suffering souls to "make a decision for Jesus".  This group claims that is "preaching Jesus".

Not withstanding, all that is said and all that is preached, we are under the conviction that one has not preached Jesus Christ, as is revealed in the word of God, until they have preached the PERSON and the WORK of The Lord Jesus Christ.  That is, both His finished and His continuous work.  There are many truths in God's Word, and all truths should be preached as much as we are made able to preach them; however, if we say that we are going to preach Christ, we should confine ourselves to preach The Christ of the Bible.

In our text, we shall take the last three words in verse 19 as our subject.  Because of Him.  Notice with us first of all, WHO IS THE HIM IN OUR TEXT?  Pilate's wife said unto her husband, "Have thou nothing to do with that just man."  It is true while He was here upon this earth that The Lord Jesus was a man, but He is not just a man, He is The Lord from Glory.  The HIM in our text is none other than The Lord Jesus Christ Himself.  He was manifest in the flesh as He took upon Himself a human nature.  The nature that He assumed was a sinless nature – He did not sin, for He could not have sinned.  He is God, and God cannot sin.  He did not loose His deity while He became man.  He remained God; thus, He was God here upon this earth.

His name is "Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins."  He is The Lord Jesus.  The word Lord is a title – it is not His name, it describes His position.  He is our Lord, who is The King of kings and The Lord of lords.  Christ is another title that describes His position and His deity.  That is, He is The Christ of God.  He is The Messiah, The Anointed One, The One who was sent and The One who came.  He is also The Word of John 1:1-3 , "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made."  He is The Living Word, The Spoken Word, The Revealed Word, The Creator Word.  He is The Second Person of The Elohiym, mentioned in Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."  Here "God" is in the plural; thus, Christ has always been, and there has never been a time He was not.  He is included in the personal pronouns of Genesis, where we read "let US make man."  He is the Seed of the woman in Genesis 3:15, "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."  Not only so, He is The Immanuel of Isaiah 7:14, "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."  An angel told Joseph in a dream, "Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." (Matthew 1:23)

Abraham was instructed by The Lord to take his son Isaac into the land of Moriah and to offer him for a burnt offering on one of the mountains.  As they were going up the mountain, Isaac said unto his father, "My father: and he said, Here am I, my son.  And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?  And Abraham said, My son, God will provide HIMSELF a lamb for a burnt offering..." (Genesis 22:7-8)  The HIMSELF here is none other than Jesus Christ.  The HIM in our text is Jesus Christ, The Son of God, God The Son, who is The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.  When one does not know the object of their faith, then it is apparent that they have no faith.  Thus, it is clear who the HIM is of our text.

Now notice with us, BECAUSE OF HIM SOME ARE TROUBLE.  In our text, Pilate's wife was troubled because of Him.  "When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: FOR I HAVE SUFFERED MANY THINGS this day in a dream because of him." (Matthew 27:19)  Her "suffering many things in a dream because of Him" does not mean that she had become a believer.  There is no indication in scripture that she ever trusted The Lord for salvation.  Folks are not saved because they suffer or worry over things.

Also, concerning Herod, notice these words.  "When Herod the king had heard these things, HE WAS TROUBLED, and all Jerusalem with him." (Matthew 2:3)  Herod had heard that Jesus was born, then wise men came inquiring of Him that was born King of the Jews.  This troubled Herod.  Not only was Herod troubled, but all of Jerusalem with him – although we do not believe the "all" here means every person in Jerusalem, for there were some looking and waiting for The Lord to come at that time.  Such as Simeon, who was "just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel." (Luke 2:25)  There was also Anna, who "departed not from the temple but served God."  She "looked for redemption in Jerusalem." (Luke 2:37-38)  When folks do not believe and trust on Christ, there are times they are troubled because of Him.  They are troubled when they hear Him preached, as He is declared in the scriptures.

Many are troubled because of what The Lord Jesus preached.  When Christ preached, or displayed the doctrine of election and many other truths, men were troubled because of Him.  As we find in Luke 4:25-28, "But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.  And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.  And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath."  Here, they were troubled because of His teaching.  Some do not seem to accept that whatever The Lord is pleased to do, He can do, because He is God.  If He is pleased to heal one who is afflicted and let ten thousand go unhealed and die, that is His business.  If He desires to save ten from their sin nature and let ten thousand die in their sin nature, again, that belongs to Him.  He is Just and Holy in all His works.  Who is man to say what God should or should not do?  Who is man to become so troubled at the handy works of our Dear Lord, that they are found "filled with wrath".

In Luke chapter six, we find The Lord on a sabbath day in the synagogue teaching.  As He taught, He saw a man whose right hand was withered.  The scribes and Pharisees kept a close watch on Him, to see if He would heal on the sabbath day; they did so that they might find an accusation against Him.  The Lord knows all things, so He knew the thoughts and intents of the scribes and Pharisees.  He called to the man with the withered hand to rise up and stand forth in the midst.  As the man stood forth, The Lord said to His enemies, "Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil?  to save life, or to destroy it?"  Obviously, no one spoke up, so The Lord told the man with the withered hand to stretch out his hand, and, as he did, The Lord healed the hand.  This must have been more than the scribes and Pharisess could handle, for, in verse 11, we find these words, "And they WERE FILLED WITH MADNESS; and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus."  It may be seem strange to those who know and love The Lord that such good deeds would cause such anger.  However, there is nothing that stirs up a man more than his religion and politics; prejudiced ideas and concepts will bring out his anger.  When we preach that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour, and that men are not saved by their works, then there are always some who will be angered by it.  Because of Christ many are angered, because of Christ the wrath of man is kindled, because of Christ many are troubled.  They are fine as long as they can place Him in their system of religion that would suit them, but they are troubled at The Christ of the Bible.

Notice also, BECAUSE OF HIM MEN ARE SAVED.  There was a man called Zacchaeus, who was rich and chief among the publicans.  Zacchaeus had heard that The Lord Jesus was to pass through Jericho, and he wanted to see Him.  He wasn't searching The Lord for salvation.  Apparently, he had heard much about Him and was just curious about the man he had heard so much about.  Now, Zacchaeus was a short man and knew that he could not see through the crowd that had gathered, so he climbed up a sycamore tree to get a better view.  This man had no idea that on that day, while sitting on a limb up that tree, that his entire life was about to change completely.  He was about to see The Lord in a way he had never thought he would see Him.  In Luke 19:5, we find these words, "And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house."  Now notice in verse six, "And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully."  Zacchaeus was called upon by The Lord, and he willingly received Him, for The Lord makes us willing on the day of our salvation.  This man was not saved because he quit cheating and robbing folks of their tax dollars.  He was not saved because he was seeking The Lord for salvation.  There is not one indication of this in the context.  He was saved before he was baptized, so baptism was not the cause of his salvation.

Not only so, the Samaritan woman of John chapter four, who had gone to Jacob's well and met The Lord there, was not saved by anything she did.  All she wanted was water, but she received much more.  One of the sweetest verses in the Bible is found in John 4:4, "And he must needs go through Samaria."  For those of us who are saved by His Grace, just think on this, there was a day when He needed to come where we were.  Had He not come to where we were, we would still be dead in trespasses and sins.  Folks can talk about their free-willism and their humanism, but it is because of Christ Jesus that we are saved.  Just as Christ revealed Himself to this little woman at Jacob's well, He must also reveal Himself to others for salvation.

No one has ever been saved, but that it was The Lord who saved them.  "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9).  The Lord Jesus shed His efficacious blood, He gave His impeccable life to save those who were given to Him by His Father.  "As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him." (John 17:2)  Our Lord came into this world and lived an impeccable life, He died a vicarious death, and He rose victoriously from the grave.  This is what He did to save His own from their sin.  There is nothing left for man to do.  There are those who think that their faith has saved them.  No, ten thousand times no.  Our believing is the result of salvation, not the cause.  We believe because of the saving grace of God, and this can never be reversed.  It is because of The Person and Work of Christ that folks are saved.  "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." (Titus 3:5)  It is because of the transgression of one man, who is Adam, that men are lost.  However, because of Him, who is Christ The Lord, men are saved.

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