Well, in Matthew 27, we're still
approaching the day of the cross. Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ,
Jesus of Nazareth being brought up on trial. And it says in verse
one of Matthew 27, when the morning was come, all the chief priests
and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put
him to death. You talk about the issue of premeditated
murder. That's exactly what this is from
their point of view. We know that they did not take
Christ by force. He voluntarily allowed them to
take him. And, you know, he told Peter,
you know, when Peter drew that sword and cut that fellow's ear
off, he said, don't you know I could have called 12 legions
of angels? I mean, you know, this is nothing
I'm forced to do. In the eyes of the religious
majority there, it was flat out premeditated murder. And you
see the breaking of the law, you see the depravity I put on
your lesson the absolute wickedness of men. And I always make this
point. Men who appeared outwardly righteous
to other men. These are the religious leaders.
And you see that they're inwardly full of sin, full of hatred towards
the Lord of glory. To the point that it wasn't just
killing him, they took counsel of how they could go about this.
And you know how false religion does. They always justify themselves. They called him a blasphemer.
Caiaphas, you remember when he rent his clothes, you know, when
he heard Christ claim to be the Messiah, God manifest in the
flesh. You know, that offended him so
much that he rent his clothes. And that's what religion does.
It has the outcroppings of repentance and faith, but no true heart
salvation. So here they are. We always have
to remember throughout this whole process that Christ is going
through that humankind, and I'll say humankind. I think a lot of people, they
look back on these historical events and they say, well, those
dirty, rotten Jews, you know, or whatever, you know, look at
what they, no, we're responsible too now. And even God's elect,
it was, remember, it's our sins that nailed him to that cross.
Our sins imputed to him. And so that's why we have to
keep it in mind. This is the state of man by nature. And so if we can separate ourselves
today from those who premeditatively murdered Christ, it's only by
the grace of God. And that's it. Only by the grace
of God. So I want to make the point here. Look at verse two, it says, and
when they had bound him, they led him away and delivered him
to Pontius Pilate, the governor. And you know, Pilate was the
Roman governor who presided over the country of Judea in the name
of Caesar. So as they meant it for evil,
God meant it for good. Because the death of Christ on
that cross is the complete salvation of all of his people whose names
were written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the world began.
It was a necessity. In John chapter 16, he told his
disciples, he said, it is expedient that I go away. That means it
was necessary. Well, where was he going? He
was going to the cross to die. He's going to the grave, and
then he was gonna be resurrected. And he told him, he said, it's
expedient for you that I do this. It was necessary, because if
he didn't do that, there'd be no salvation. He told him in
that particular passage in John 16, if I don't go away, if I
don't go to the cross and die and go unto the Father as the
resurrected Lord of glory, the Holy Spirit would not come and
do his great work in the new birth, because why? If Christ
didn't die, and be raised from the dead, there'd be no life
to give. No spiritual life. So the Holy
Spirit wouldn't come. But he said, but if I go away,
he will come and he'll convince the world of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment. And that world there is not everybody
without exception. That's talking about the world
of his elect. God's people all over this world. So his death
was the satisfaction that we need to God's law and justice
for our salvation. And his death was the establishment
of the only righteousness by which God justifies the ungodly. Christ, as our surety, based
upon one thing now, and that's the sins of God's elect charged,
imputed to him. Not any sin infused, not any
corruption imparted, but only sin imputed, and he suffered
within his soul. And now here they delivered him
to Pilate. And this is actually a fulfillment
of a prophecy that's recorded in Matthew 20, verse 19. I've
got that in your lesson. It says, they shall deliver him
to the Gentiles to mock and discourage and crucify him, and the third
day he shall rise again. So that Gentile was Pontius Pilate
to the Roman government. Under Roman rule, they wouldn't
let the Sanhedrin, the Jewish court, sentence anyone to death. And so if they're gonna murder
him, if they're gonna put him on the cross, they had to go
to Pontius Pius. Of course, the cross, that was
a Roman punishment. That wasn't a Jewish punishment.
The Jewish punishment was what, you remember? Stoning. They would've stoned him. But
no, the Roman punishment was going to the cross. that was all according to God's
plan and purpose for his glory and the salvation of his people.
So here he is before Pontius Pilate. We'll look at verses
three and four. Then Judas, which had betrayed him when he saw
that he was condemned, repented himself and brought again the
30 pieces of silver to the chief priest and elders saying, I have
sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they
said, what is that to us? See thou to that. You take care
of that. Don't bother us with it. Now,
a lot of people, you know, they misunderstand what Judas is going
through here. Judas had, you know, the natural
man can experience a kind of repentance Feeling guilty, feeling
ashamed, repentance over getting caught, things like that. Even repentance over knowing
that you've done wrong. But Judas experienced the kind
of repentance that comes with the natural man. It's not godly,
Holy Spirit wrought repentance because if it's godly, Holy Spirit
wrought repentance, it'll always lead that sinner to Christ for
salvation. And that John 16 passage that
I was referring to, Christ said, the spirit will convince them
of sin because they believe not on Christ. And what that means
is, he will convince us that without Christ, it's all sin. No matter what we do, it all
falls short. If I don't have Christ, his blood
to wash away my sins, his righteousness to justify me, then the only
thing I have to present to God is my sins. And I'm not talking
about what men call immorality, even my religion. Think about
it, Matthew 7, we refer to that passage so much because it is
so vital that we understand. Lord, Lord, haven't we preached
in your name? Haven't we done many wonderful
works? Haven't we cast out demons? There's
nothing immoral about those acts But if you come to God pleading
them as making up your righteousness or your ground of salvation,
it's iniquity. And that's what he said, depart
from me, I never knew you. He knew who they were, he knew
their names, he knew their hearts. But he didn't know them savingly
like he knows his children. This is life eternal, they might
know thee, the only true God. He says he said I know my sheep
and am known of mine. Well these these he said I never
knew you Depart from me you that work iniquity What you're pleading
what he was telling them what you're pleading as your ground
of righteousness and salvation doesn't measure up You fall short
Well how in the world can any sinner not fall short in Christ
and Look to Christ. Rest in Christ. Those are easy
words to say, but it's not easy to do. In fact, it's impossible
for us to do except the Spirit, which God sends, draws us. I'm going to preach on that this
morning. The drawing power of the Spirit. I call the message
invincible. Invincible drawing in that sense. Here they are before Pilate,
and Judas, he has regrets, but it's only natural conscience,
repentance, in knowing that he's acted wrongly, and where does
it drive him? To despair. Because what did
Judas do? He hanged himself. But again
now, I emphasize this, true Holy Spirit conviction over sin can
only be known as it drives the sinner to seek salvation, forgiveness,
righteousness, assurance in Christ. It's not, do you feel bad for
your sins? Well, sure you do. Some feel
badder than others. And of course, there are people
who are without conscience, who have no regrets over that. But how do you know if it's the
Holy Spirit working? to bring you to that regret and
that, where do you find relief? That's the question. Where do
you find peace? Where do you find forgiveness?
If you find it in preaching or in casting out demons or doing
many wonderful works, it's not the Holy Spirit. That's natural
conscience. But if you find it only in Christ,
the glory of his person and the power of his finished work, that's
the Holy Spirit. Well the verse five says this,
it says, Judas cast down the pieces of silver in the temple
and he departed and went and hanged himself. Now turn over
to Acts chapter one. A lot of people say, well this
is a discrepancy in the scripture or a contradiction. And it's
speaking of Judas, Acts chapter one. And if you'll look at verse
18. And it says, talking about this man purchased
a field with the reward of iniquity and falling headlong, he burst
asunder in the midst and all his bowels gushed out, speaking
of Judas. And they said, well, Judas hung
himself. He hanged himself. But now it says he fell against
a rock or whatever. There's no discrepancy here. always you know skeptics are
always going to try to discredit scripture. We're going to see
that next week in another passage where we're told that there's
a quotation from Jeremiah but you don't find it in Jeremiah,
you find it in Zechariah but Jeremiah said it. How do I know
that? Because the Holy Spirit said he did and that's what we
have in the scriptures. But anyway, we'll get to that
next week. But what it could have been, it could have been
that when Judas hanged himself, the rope broke and he fell and
burst, or it could have been later on when his body began
to deteriorate and it fell. But don't get into this, you
know, say, we'll see there, you know, there's a contradiction. No, no. Here's the point of this
whole matter is that Judas came to regret what he did but it
wasn't repentance unto life. It wasn't godly sorrow over sin. It was despair that led him to
kill himself. So understand that, and that's
the main thing. So either way, Judas died a horrible
death and brought on by his sorrow and regret. Another person who's
mentioned like that is Esau. Esau wept bitterly. over what
he did but it wasn't repentance unto life, it didn't drive him
to find peace and assurance and forgiveness in the promised Messiah. We'll look back at Matthew 27
now, look at verse 6, it says, and the chief priest took the
silver pieces and said it is not lawful for to put lawful
for to put them into the treasury because it is the price of blood
And when I see things like that, I think about just religion and
how awful it is. They're trying to murder a perfectly
innocent person, and they're lying, and they're trying to
bring in false witnesses, and they're doing all this sinful
stuff. But boy, we wouldn't defile our
treasury with the price of blood, blood money. Oh boy, we gotta
be careful now. It says in verse seven, they
took counsel and bought with them the potter's field to bury
strangers in, and wherefore that field was called the field of
blood unto this day. So here's the very ones that
gave this blood money to Judas to betray Christ, but they certainly
wouldn't defile their holy treasury. Now, isn't that just like false
religion? What was it Christ said? They
swallow a camel and strain at an ant or something like that. They're so careful. Christ told
me, he says, you're so careful to pay tithes of all these things. Make sure you pay that 10%. But
you neglect the weightier matters of the law, mercy. justice and
truth, you know, that's religion for you. All right, well look
at verse nine, Matthew 27. It says, then was fulfilled that
which was spoken by Jeremy. Oh, it's in this lesson, I was
thinking it was the next lesson. But Jeremy the prophet, that's
Jeremiah, saying, and they took the 30 pieces of silver, the
price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of
Israel did value, and gave them for the potter's field as the
Lord appointed me. And so that quotation, that exact
quotation is not found actually in the book of Jeremiah. And
as I said, skeptics try to use that just like they do the thing
with Judas and falling and bursting and all that to discredit the
scriptures. But their efforts are useless
to do that. I mean, they're just straining
at a hat and swallowing a camel is what happens there. It's not
literally written down in Jeremiah. But it was certainly stated by
the prophet himself. Well, how do you know that? The
Bible says it was. Isn't that good enough for you?
If it's not, you got a problem. This is the Holy Spirit inspiring
Matthew to write this. Now you will find these words
in the book of Zechariah, chapter 11, verses 12 through 13, this
prophecy. And somebody says, well, Matthew
just got it wrong. Instead of quoting Jeremiah,
he should have quoted Zechariah. Well, what if Zechariah was quoting
what he heard handed down to him from Jeremiah? You see, Zechariah
was after Jeremiah. Jeremiah was right up to the
time of the Babylonian captivity, and Zechariah was later on in
the return. So I believe what we have here
is Zechariah quoting Jeremiah's handed down to him. But that's
not the only place in the Word of God we see things like that.
I've got in your lesson here. The Apostle Paul, as recorded
in Acts 20 and verse 35, he quoted the Lord. But if you go through
the Gospels, you won't see the exact quote given by the Lord,
but Paul quoted him. So how do you know that the Lord
said that? Well, the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to quote him. And
then Jude, quoted Enoch, you remember Enoch who was taken
away? Jude quoted Enoch in Jude 14
through 15, but now if you go back to Genesis, you're not gonna
find Enoch, Enoch's quote quoted there. But I know Enoch said
these things because the Holy Spirit inspired Jude to write
them down. Now, somebody may say, well, I don't agree with
that. Well, okay. Yeah, you got, you know, you pays your money,
it takes your choice, as the Irishman said. But that's what
I believe this is the case. This is the Bible. This is God's
word. And it's inspired, and it's inerrant,
all of these things. The main point of Matthew's quotation,
and here's what happens. A lot of times people, they get
to arguing about stuff like that, and they miss the point. They missed the lesson. Well,
what is the main point of all this? It doesn't matter who quoted
who or whatever, who said it, this is God's word. And the main point of it is that
Matthew is showing that all these events surrounding the death
of Jesus Christ, even the events that included Judas as the betrayer,
And what happened to him? They were well in accordance
with God's predetermined sovereign will in bringing Christ to the
cross for the salvation of his people. This is no surprise. This is no plan B. This is the
way from the beginning. God is sovereign. Did y'all watch
the Kentucky Derby yesterday? You know who won? A horse named
Sovereignty. And I picked him. When I saw
that list yesterday, I said, I'll pick sovereignty. And he
won. I didn't put any money down on him. But God is sovereign. And all
of this, there's nothing out of line here. There's nothing
where God said, oh man, look what they did. I better formulate
another plan. It's all well within his purview. Predestination. Look at verse
11 now. And Jesus stood before the governor. Now, I entitled this lesson Our
Savior's Blessed Silence. And here's why. Jesus stood before
the governor and the governor asked him, saying, art thou the
king of the Jews? Now, the Lord spoke now. Notice
he spoke. Jesus said unto him, thou sayest. That's just another way of saying,
it is as you say. So, yes, he is the Messiah. The king of the Jews means the
Messiah. Doesn't mean that he was taking Herod's place or anything
like that. But he's the king of the Jews,
he's the Messiah. He said, it is as you say. And it says here, verse 12, and
when he was accused of the chief priest and elders, he answered
nothing. Now he didn't speak when they
brought accusations. And look at verse 13. It says,
then said Pilate unto him, hearest thou not how many things they
witness against thee? How all these charges they're
bringing against you? One of the things that the Romans
were concerned with was the charge of insurrection, rebellion against
the conquerors. Of course, the Jews, they brought
blasphemy and idolatry, you know, all of that. But he says, don't
you hear all these witnesses against, these things they witness
against you? And verse 14, and he answered
him to never a word. Blessed silence. In so much that
the governor marveled greatly. Pilate was so amazed. And you
know why? Because he saw that the charges
that they were bringing was false. Look over at verse 24. We'll
get to this later on. It says, when Pilate saw that
he could prevail nothing, Pilate didn't want to have him killed.
But that rather a tumult was made, he took water and washed
his hands before the multitude saying, I am innocent of the
blood of this What? Just person. See you do it. And I've got some other places
listed there where Pilate stood up. I find no fault in the man,
Pilate said. Pilate was speaking the truth.
There was no fault. So why didn't Christ defend himself? Well, what's all this about?
It's about his going to the cross because he was guilty. Not before men, and not based
upon the charges they were bringing, but before his father, based
upon the sins of his people, charged, accounted, reckoned,
imputed to him. And he had to go to the cross.
I've got listed here Isaiah 53, verse seven, where it says he
was oppressed, He was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.
He's brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before
her shears is dug, so he opened not his mouth. Well, why didn't
he defend himself? And I'll quote Isaiah. It was
because he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised,
crushed for our iniquities. The chastisement, the punishment
of our peace that would bring peace to us was upon him. And with his stripes we're healed. And all we like sheep have gone
astray, we've turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord
hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. All of his sheep,
that iniquity was charged to him. So he didn't defend himself. because he knew the score. And
he knew that before his father, he was truly guilty, again, not
before these sinful accusers, but before his father. And his
guilt and the wrath of the father coming down upon him was not,
I put it in here, not due to any imparted contamination, which
a lot of preachers are preaching today, that's blasphemy. wasn't
for any imparted corruption or sins within him. All during his
death, his suffering, he justly bore the wrath of his father
for his people, but he remained within himself the spotless,
sinless Lamb of God, never having a thought, a motive, or a goal
of sin, not one time. As Peter said in 1 Peter 3.18,
he died the just for the unjust. And even Pilate recognized it. Not imputation and not substitution
and surety shift. But he recognized that this person
was an innocent person. Pilate recognized more than what
some preachers today recognize. This just man. That's what he was doing. He
was deserving of the wrath of his father because he willingly
took upon himself to be our surety, our substitute, our redeemer,
of all whom the father had given him before the world began. So
when you come to passages of scripture like 2 Corinthians
5.21, which has been beat up more than any other scripture
I know of in the last 20 years, he was made sin. Yes, he was
made sin. How? God was in Christ. Reconciling the world unto himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them. Well, where did he
impute them to? He imputed them to Christ. And as a result of
that, we stand before God in his righteousness imputed. And out of that comes life from
the dead by the Spirit. Are you born again by the Spirit?
It's because God had already justified you. based upon his
righteousness imputed. This body is dead because of
sin, Romans 8, 10, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. All right.