In this sermon, the preacher talks about a father and son who went up a mountain together. The obedient son laid himself on a piece of wood, and God extended his hands to nail and tie him to the wood. The preacher emphasizes that Jesus willingly and lovingly received the sword of divine judgment and endured three hours of darkness on the cross. He highlights the significance of Jesus' sacrifice and urges listeners to understand the depth of God's love for the world. The preacher also warns sinners to accept Jesus now as the day of salvation is at hand.

A reading from Matthew chapter 27, the 27th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. We begin with verse 15. Matthew 27, verse 15. Now at that feast, the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner whom they desired. There had been a notable prisoner called Barabbas. Therefore, when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom are you that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus, who is called Christ. For he knew that for envy they had delivered him. When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife said unto him, Say, have thou nothing to do with that just man, who hath suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain were you that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas. Pilate said unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus who is called Christ? They all said unto him, Let him be crucified. And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more saying, Let him be crucified. Even the casual reader of the word of God, if you read it regularly enough, you cannot possibly but help being attracted to a variety of questions, I should say, and very interesting and thought-provoking questions. For example, in Job 14, the Bible asks the question, If a man die, shall he live again? In Mark 8 is another question, What shall it profit a man that he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? In Hebrews 2 and verse 3 is that unanswerable question, How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? These questions, I believe, are enough to make any person really give some serious thought as regards their relationship to an upcoming eternity. But there is one question in the Bible that transcends all of these in its importance, and I do believe perhaps it is the most important question in the entire Bible. It is the question asked by Pilate here to the multitude, Who preferred a robber to the Lord Jesus Christ? Notice in verse 22, when they had chosen Barabbas, Pilate said to them, What shall I do then with Jesus, who is called the Christ? I would like to suggest to you that there are two reasons why I personally consider this to be the most important question in the entire Bible. Number one, it concerns the most important person, not only in the Bible, but in the whole world. Jesus, the eternal, preexistent Son of God. In John chapter 1 and verse 1, we read that in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. In verse 14, the Word declares the Bible that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We veil its glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Yes, this one of whom Pilate asks the question, What shall I do then with Jesus, who is called the Christ? It is a question which you as an individual today should ask, What shall I do then with Jesus, who is called the Christ? Because he is, without any argument, the eternal, preexistent Son of God. In Colossians 2 and verse 9, the Bible declares that in Christ all the fullness of deity lives and bodily forms. In Colossians 1.15, he is declared to be the very image of the invisible God, the creator and the sustainer of the universe, as in John chapter 1 and in verse 3. For your Bible says that all things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. I'd like to read you a few verses. You needn't turn to them because I've got them already taken down. In Colossians chapter 1, verses 16 and 17, for by him, speaking of the Lord Jesus, it says, For all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and before him and for him, and he is before all things, and by him all things consist, or the word is for less. That means not only did Jesus Christ make everything, and everything was made by him and for him, but he also holds all things together. In Hebrews chapter 1, we read that he again is a brightness of God's glory, that is, the exact representation of God's being, and he upholds all things by the word of his power. And I love this statement, it says of him that when he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. Jesus Christ, my beloved friends, is God in the body of human flesh. And when the spirit of God, here, through this man Pilate, raised a description, he would have you ask yourself the same, What shall I do then with Jesus, who is called Christ? Who is the pre-existent eternal son of the living God? He is the creator and the sustainer of the universe, the heir of this entire world and the purger of our sins. In Romans chapter 1, he is declared to be the son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. And upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ testifies to the fact that he was the son of God. His resurrection also, bearing evidence and testifying to God's acceptance of the sacrifice of Christ, also declares that everyone shall be resurrected from the dead. Those who have received him to stand before the judgment seat of Christ, those who have rejected him to stand before the judgment of the grace of Christ. So first of all, this is the most important question you'll ever be called upon to answer, the most important decision you'll ever have to make, because it concerns the most important person in the world, and secondly, because it concerns the most important decision you'll ever be faced with, and that's mainly because there is no neutral ground. It is an absolutely inescapable decision. There are other decisions you may well avoid, but this one you must confront. The Lord Jesus Christ said, he that is not for me is against me. And remember that it's not only the most important decision because it is an inescapable one, but because all other decisions you ever have made or ever will make in your lifetime have to do with things that last only for a brief period of time. It may affect your health, it may affect your wealth, but this decision, my friend, will determine your eternity, whether you will spend it in hell or whether you will spend it in heaven with the Lord Jesus Christ. Every decision you ever made or ever have made, let me repeat, in this life will affect you only as it relates to the temporal nature of your physical being. But this question here, and this decision, consequent or subsequent to this question here, is going to determine your eternal destiny, whether you shall spend it, save by the grace of God, conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ in the state of eternal bliss with all saved sinners, or whether you shall spend it in the eternal abyss of the damned where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. What shall I do then with Jesus who is called the Christ? And may I remind you of this, my friend, that you ought to notice that it is a personal question. Now, I have seen some people that seem to have an unusual amount of concern about heathens who have no concern about themselves whatsoever. Now, I can assure you this morning that if you die and go to hell, all your professed concern about heathens who have never heard the gospel will not for one moment alleviate your suffering in the lake of fire. It is a personal question. It is not what will my neighbor do with Jesus Christ. It is not what that man or that woman will do with Jesus Christ. Not what my husband or my wife will do with him. But it's a personal question, and I challenge you today to make it a personal one. What shall I do then with Jesus who is called the Christ? Now, by way of introduction and now to the meat of our message, I would like to just, first of all, ask a question and answer from the word of God. What did God do with him? Secondly, what did the Lord Jesus Christ do with himself? And thirdly, what sinners do with Jesus Christ in this world in which you and I are living today? Now, when the first question arrives is, what did God do with the Lord Jesus? I don't know about you, but straightway that comes to my mind, John 3, 16. For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God committed his love toward us, and while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And what a joyous privilege it is to be able to stand before you this morning and tell you this, that God loves you, and that God expressed his love by giving the Lord Jesus Christ to die for the sins of the whole world. We ought to remember the character of the love of God for this word giving. I've noticed that there are two words generally, although there are others, translated by the word give or giving or gave in the New Testament. One of these means to heal or to give reluctantly as when one is forced to get in by a superior power. This is not the word used in John 3, 16. The other word is to offer, to give cheerfully and willingly. Now, in the word of God, the Bible says that God loves a cheerful giver. Look that word up, you know what it means? God loves a hilarious giver. And my friends, I say it very respectfully, but God lovingly, willingly, cheerfully, in John 3, 16, and then go on and then create it and bless you and me, and I've complicated this thing called salvation. The word of God declares that he that believes on the Son has everlasting life, and he that believes not on the Son shall not feel on him, but he will on the Lord Jesus Christ. My friends, remember that. And when the Bible says we can smile at the earth, I do the same. I say, it is total and limitless death as payment for your sins. God gave death of depravity as to think that God made me. They gave it upon me. In your race, speaking of the Lord, he who lives and dies on trees that have been cut down in three hours, abducted by some effortless Christ, opened his wounds. I wonder, my friends, if you've ever tried to imagine what a... And I'll tell you this. And you listen carefully. And if you've died in confinement, a good change in the life... My friend, let me tell you that God loves you, and God gave you this, and God made it a new sin so you wouldn't have to pay for your sins, and God forsook him so that you wouldn't have to be forsaken forever in hell, to be alone. Well, my friends, this must be something of what he had in his mind when he cried out upon the cross from the 69th Psalm, again speaking prophetic, and again in verse 20, he says, Now, you see, that brings us to the second question. What can you do with himself? Never forget, my dear, apart from the fulfilling of the scriptures, some of you poor sinners have been coming months and years, you know, as a day of salvation, the whole knowledge of sinners being with the Lord Jesus. Well, now, there are some that are great, great, great fools, people I would say, lackey and interesting, not their rejection, but they politely, like Felix, the Roman governor, pretending to be saved some day, you read, and then he gets the atrocity. It says he's troubled, and to talk, so you're going your way, running your own business. Jesus Christ is not in all your thoughts, your life, your business, your home, or nothing. There are some who sell the Lord Jesus Christ, like Judas Iscariot, but I tell you, when I compare it to this man, at least he got 30 pieces of silver. Sinners who sell the Lord Jesus Christ because they're afraid they're getting a little persecution. Many have received him, for them he gave the right to become a children, and I'm a poor, weary, sin-burdened soul that has quit all this ignorant nonsense of putting out being saved, and get on the business. Sinners on your way to hell out there this morning that's aiming to go to hell, you're aiming to go to heaven. You sit there in your seat, and as long as you live in that land of indecision, that state of indecision, that what you're going to hit is nothing, but most likely you'll bust hell wide open because you just thought you had a little longer, and you wait, and you take it easy. I tell you, look, you'd better quit this business of thinking this thing over. You'd better do it. You've thought it over long enough. Some of you businessmen out there, if you thought over your decisions in business as long as you thought it was being saved, you wouldn't have made a dollar less for simply making a statement of limitations regarding your ability to understand spiritual things. What do you say he that understands must believe and receive Jesus Christ. And my friend, I ask you, what will you do with Christ? What will you do with him? Will you say no, I don't want to. Will you reject him? Well, may I ask you this, when you get to hell, will it be worth the price to receive? I have a dear friend of mine, years ago was preaching his message to an audience, and he said the people were quite concerned along the way because of the meeting, and he said, and I looked back in the audience, and I said this, I saw a young man, I said, young man, what will you do with Jesus? He was called a Christ. He said, look on this side, and I saw a young lady who seemed to be concerned. I said, then he said, come, look, come, and the young man stood up on his feet and appeared to me down on his feet, and he looked me right in the face, and he said, please, sir, I think you don't mind, I think I'll just take him home there. And I said, well, you take my friend, how many Sundays you've been here, and you've taken home with you what? A head of heart and a guilty conscience. And you can leave the two of them here this morning and take the Lord Jesus home with you in that place. You get it? If you're just coming, sir, what, what will you do with Jesus? Father, we thank you this morning for our work so faithfully telling us of your love for us and what Christ suffered for us, and in the light of it, we've read and considered together, Father, not only do we believe you're justified in sending rejecting sinners to hell, Father, but we don't know of the many else you could do that are like to us. If we turn down such love as this, oh, God, Lord, we confess salvation is of the Lord. Oh, Spirit of the living God, right now, right now, for Jesus' sake. Oh, God, that he might be glorified in the light. Bring sinners to faith in Christ. Amen. Verse 2, number 226. You know, I love this song. Sometimes it's almost worn out. But I like it because it's so true, and I want you to know it shows me words that will you please just as I am. Now, that doesn't mean to wait until you feel like you need to be saved. Doesn't mean to wait until you think you're fit to be saved. Okay? Say it just like I am, just as I am right now. You got it? Make sure you have it written, just as I am. Would you like to? God will send.