Okay, let's get to our message
here in Matthew 27. In Matthew 27, we see another
illustration of God's sovereign mercy. We read in Romans 9 that
God will have mercy on whom He will, and whom He will, He will
harden. I'm taking the title for the
message from the first 10 verses of Matthew 27 that tells us about
the last days the last days of the traitor named Judas. He was a traitor and one who
was a betrayer. He betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ
and he sold out the Lord Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver.
Now, who is this man Judas? Well, he was one of the 12. He
was one of the 12. In Matthew 27, we'll look at
verse 1 down to verse 10. Our Lord said, when Peter made
that confession, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God, we believe and we're sure Thou art that Christ. And the
Lord turned and looked at those twelve men, and He said, I've
chosen you twelve, and one of you is the devil. One of you
is the devil. The Lord Jesus also called Judas,
in John 17 verse 12, the Lord called Judas the son of perdition. Listen to these words in John
17. He said he prayed, while I was with them in the world,
Father, I've kept them in Thy name. Those that Thou gavest
me, I've kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition. And that word perdition is the
son of destruction that the Scripture might be fulfilled. Now we know,
we remember what Judas did. Turn back to Matthew 26, verse
14. Because he had a greedy, covetous
heart, And Matthew 26 verse 14, Then one of the twelve, Judas
Iscariot, went to the chief priest and said unto them, What will
you give me? I will deliver him unto you. And they coveted with
him for thirty pieces of silver. And from that time he sought
opportunity to betray the Lord. And we remember what he did.
Remember, he betrayed the Lord with a kiss in Matthew 26, verse
47. While he yet spake, lo, Judas,
one of the twelve, came with him, a great multitude with swords
and staves, and chief priests and the elders from the chief
priests and elders. Now he that betrayed him gave
them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, the same as he,
hold him fast. Forthwith he came to Jesus and
said, Hail, Master, and kissed him. And the Lord said unto him,
friend, wherefore art thou come? And they came. Then came they,
and they laid hands on the Lord and took him away. So we have
some description about Judas. He was one chosen of the Lord.
He was a devil, a chosen devil. He was a son of condemnation.
And now we see the sad end of Judas his life. In verse 4 of Matthew 27, he
said, I've sinned in that I've betrayed innocent blood. And they said, what is that to
us? And he cast the pieces of silver
in the temple, and he departed and went out and hanged himself. We see the sad, tragic end of
this man's life. We know the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life. This was the appointed
end of Judas that God had ordained for him and those self-righteous
Jews, those chief priests and the elders of the people. We
read a moment ago, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. We can also say this, Peter have
I loved. Judas have I hated. Judas like
that of Esau, like that of Pharaoh, were vessels of wrath fitted,
made up to destruction. In 1 Peter 1.8, Peter writes
this, of those religious Jews, a stumbling stone, a rock of
offense, the gospel was offensive to them, Even to them which stumble
at the word being disobedient were unto also they were appointed. They were appointed to that end.
In the Book of Jude, we read these words of the Apostle Jude. Certain men crept in unawares,
ordained to this condemnation. Judas, like Herod, and like Pilate,
and like the Romans, And the chief priests and all the elders
of the people, the Jews, they all did what their wicked heart
wanted to do. But what they did was determined
before of God from all eternity. Now, can we read that in the
Scripture? We can say that with confidence and boldness because
that's what the Word of God teaches. God said, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. If you turn over here to the
book of Acts, We've read this many times in the book of Acts
chapter 4. In the book of Acts chapter 4,
it says, who by the mouth of thy servant David, and this is
quoting from Psalm 2. This is Acts 4, 25. Why did the
heathen rage? And why did the people imagine
the vain thing? The kings of the earth stood
up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against his Christ. Pontius Pilate and Herod and
the Jews for The kings of the earth stood up and the rulers
were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ.
Verse 27, for of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou
has anointed both Herod, Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and
the people of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever
thy hand Thy counsel determined before to be done. God is the
absolute sovereign over all things. He even uses the wickedness of
men, the sinfulness of men, to accomplish His eternal, eternal
purpose. Now in verse 9, just to make
mention of something here, in Matthew 27 verse 9, when Judas
came back and tried to return, those 30 pieces of silver, and
the chief priest said, what's that to us? That means nothing
to us. The chief priest, they took the
money, and they took counsel, and they said, let us buy a field
that we might bury strangers in. Verse 8, wherefore that field
was called the field of blood unto this day. Now look at verse
9 carefully. I point this out to you. I could
have glossed over this, but I point this out to you to make this
statement that all the Word of God is the Word of God. There's
no mistake in the Word of God. And skeptics would point to this
verse and say, ha, got you here. then was fulfilled that was spoken
by Jeremy, or Jeremiah the prophet, saying, 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 had appointed. Now, if you look at the reference
there, the reference is not back to Jeremiah, the book of Jeremiah.
The reference there is Zechariah 11, verse 13. So is there a contradiction
here? Absolutely not. Zechariah just
simply wrote down what Jeremiah prophesied. That's all. So there's no contradiction. Some have tried to use that to
say, well, the Bible contains errors. If we question any part
of God's Word, we must question all of it. If there is anything
in the Word of God that's not true, we have to question all
of it. It all stands or falls upon God's
truth, God's truth. Now here's what we can learn
from this tragic and sad story, the ending of the life of Judas. And it's sad and it's tragic.
False faith always leads us to false repentance. Both those
things combined, false faith, false repentance leads to eternal
condemnation. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Can you
turn to the book of Hebrews? This will help us here. The book
of Hebrews chapter 12, we recently studied all the way through the
book of Hebrews. If you go to Hebrews chapter
12, and I'll give you the page number, If you have the Cambridge
I'm using, it's page 315. But Judas, like Esau, found no
true place of repentance. Judas regretted, but he did not
repent, because God did not grant him repentance. Now, Hebrews
chapter 12, look at verse 14. Follow peace with all men and
holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Christ is
our holiness. Without him, we have no salvation.
Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God,
lest any root of bitterness spring up and trouble you, thereby many
be defiled, lest there be any fornicator or profane person
as Esau. Remember what we read? Jacob
have I loved, Esau have I hated, who for one morsel of meat sold
his birthright to his brother Jacob. He sold out for a bowl
of soup. You know how that afterward,
when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected
and he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully
with tears. Now, if you have a marginal reference on place
of repentance, number six, the marginal reference is, he found
no way to change his mind. He did not have a change of heart.
Repentance is a gift of God. Men don't naturally repent or
believe the gospel of the Lord and His glory. God our Father
hath raised up the Lord Jesus Christ, whom you slew and hanged
on a tree. Him hath God exalted to be Prince
and Savior, For to give, to grant repentance unto Israel. Repentance like faith is the
sovereign gift of God. Now if you look at verse 1, Matthew
27 verse 1. When the morning was come, you
remember what happened the night before. The Lord prayed all night
in the garden. And then Peter denied that he
knew the Lord. And Judas betrayed him with a
kiss. And now it's the next day. And that night they falsely accused
him. And they said, if you look at
Matthew 26 verse 65, that night before the morning when they
had that council, the high priest Matthew 26, 65, the high priest
ran his clothes, saying, he has spoken blasphemy. What further
need have we of witnesses? Behold, now we have heard this
blasphemy. What think ye? They answered
and said, he's guilty of death. They spit in his face. They buffeted
him. They smote him with the palms
of their hands, saying, prophesy unto us, thou Christ, who it
is that hit thee? They put a blindfold on his face
and they hit him. Said, you're a prophet of God?
Tell us, tell us who hit you. So they mocked him. Now we come
to the next morning. When the morning was come, all
the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against
the Lord Jesus to put him to death. And when they bound him,
they led him away and delivered him to Pontius Pilate, the governor. They delivered the Lord Jesus
Christ to the Romans to be executed. Now, why didn't they, according
to Jewish law, someone blasphemed, according to Jewish law, you
were to be tied up and stoned to death? Why didn't they do
that? Why did they deliver him to the
Roman government to be executed? Someone said, and I'm sure that
it's true, two years prior to this time, the Roman government
had stripped the Jews of any power to execute anyone under
Jewish law. But all this was done in the
purpose of God. For the Lord could not be stoned
to death, could he? He could not be stoned to death
because that would not fulfill scripture. The Lord Jesus Christ
had to be lifted up on a pole like the brazen serpent. Remember
he said in John 3, verses 14 and 15, As Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up, that whosoever looketh upon him, believeth on him shall be
saved. You remember the story in Numbers
21, those 40 years in the wilderness, and the people murmured and complained.
God killed a whole generation of those complaining Israelites,
and God sent serpents among them, and they were bitten. And God
told Moses to raise up a brazen serpent, and to look to that
serpent and to be healed. Now I don't know where the medical
community, we have a doctor here, Dr. Francis, my son's a doctor.
Have you ever noticed that medical symbol of a staff with a serpent
around it? That has to come from Numbers
21. Those who looked were healed. And the Lord said, I must be
lifted up. I must be lifted up. If I be lifted up, I'll draw
all unto me. Let's say that man is italicized. If I be lifted up, I draw all
unto me. We know the Lord Jesus Christ
redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for
us, for it says, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. He bare
our sin in his own body on the tree, on the tree. We know from
the record of scripture that the death of the Lord Jesus Christ
was no accident. It couldn't be stoned, he had
to be hung up on a tree to fulfill that scripture for us. He must
be lifted up. He dies. On purpose, the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ is no accident. He dies on the account
of God's eternal purpose, which he purposed in Christ before
the foundation of the world. We read in Revelation 13, eight,
he's the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Him
being delivered, it says in Acts 2.23, him being delivered by
the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by
wicked hands have crucified and slain the Lord of glory. God
raised him from the dead. You crucified him. Always keep
in mind that the things that happened to the Lord Jesus Christ,
they happened exactly as he said it would happen. You remember
in Matthew 16, we read it several times. He told them, I must go
to Jerusalem. I must be betrayed. I must be
denied. I must be beaten. And I must
die. And oh, by the way, I must be
raised again the third day. And he told them on more than
one occasion that these things must happen. Now Matthew 27,
so there's a chief priest and the elders. They took counsel
to put him to death. They wanted to put an end of
his life. But all that was according to
God's purpose. God's purpose. Look at verse
2, and when they bound him, they led him away and delivered him
to Pontus Pilate the governor. Now this is the Roman civil magistrate,
the governor, but at least three things we see here. They bound
him. They bound him. They tied him up. Now, you remember
our Lord said, no man takes my life, I lay it down. He was a
willing sacrifice, but they bound him anyway. Why'd they do that?
To fulfill scripture. Abraham bound Isaac, his son,
and laid him upon the altar of sacrifice. So too, the Lord of
glory was bound to be offered up for our sin. This is the Lamb
of God that God provided. We also know as a substitute
for our sin, the holy justice of God, the law of God, bound
him as he bears our sin and his own body on the tree. Not only
to fulfill scripture, not only did the law of God have a claim
on him, justice of God had a claim on him and bound him because
he was guilty of our sin, but not only that, you know what
else bound him? His love for us. His love for us. He said, His face like a flint.
He said, I must go. You remember that one Scripture?
It says over here in Matthew 26 verse 54, But how then shall
the Scripture be fulfilled? Thus it must be. I keep ringing
that statement over in my mind. Thus it must be. when things
are going wrong and you think everything is against you and
everything is working against you and everything is just falling
apart. Remember this phrase right here,
thus it must be. That gives me comfort. That gives me comfort. The Lord
Jesus Christ, having loved his own, he laid down his life for
his sheep. Having loved his own which were
in the world, he loved them to the end. Thus it must be. The second thing I want to point
out in verse 2, they led him away. You see that? They led
him away. Why did they do that? He was
the lamb led to the slaughter. So he opened not his mouth. He
was oppressed and he was afflicted, Isaiah 53, yet he opened not
his mouth. He was brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, as a sheep before shears is done, so he opened
not his mouth. All through the revelation, the
Lord Jesus Christ is viewed in his sacrificial character, isn't
he? Behold, the Lamb of God, worthy as a lamb to receive all
honor, glory, blessing, and power. Someone said they paraded him
through the street. from the house of Caiaphas to
the hall of judgment that Pilate was at was one mile, and they
bound him, and they paraded him, and they led him as a lamb to
the slaughter. And then it said they delivered
him to the Romans to be executed under Roman law. Not Jewish law. And again, this had to happen
because way over there in Genesis 49, when Jacob was dying and
he blessed his 12 sons, he gave each of those 12 sons a blessing. And Judah was one of those 12
sons, Judah being the kingly tribe and the Lord Jesus Christ
is a lion of the tribe of Judah. But listen to scripture. Genesis
4910, it said, the scepter, the reign and rule shall not depart
from Judah nor the lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh
come, the Prince of Peace, the Lord Jesus. Unto him shall the
gathering of the people be. The Jews had to keep power. Judah
had to keep power until Shiloh came. Now the Romans, now the
Romans. Both Jews and Gentiles had a
hand in his death, right? The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Savior of His people, His elect out of every tribe, kindred,
nation, tongue under heaven. Now, that gets us down to verse
3 and 4, and here we see the sad end of Judas. The sad end
of Judas. Then Judas, which had betrayed
the Lord, he's always identified as a betrayer, isn't he? Judas,
which betrayed the Lord when he saw that the Lord Jesus Christ
was condemned. Maybe Judas, you know, many times
when they came to arrest the Lord, he simply just walked through
them. Maybe Judas thought that the
Lord Jesus again would just bind them and just walk away. But
now he sees the Lord bound. Now he sees what their intention
to do was to kill him, to murder him. Judas, when he saw that
he was condemned, he repented himself. And if you look that
word up, it's one word in the original, he regretted. He regretted. He felt sorry. He felt sorry
for himself. And he brought again the 30 pieces
of silver. to the chief priest. Now before,
boy, he thought a lot of that 30 pieces of silver. I'm going
to betray the Lord. I'm going to get some money out
of this. I'm going to make some money on this deal. And he said,
I betrayed innocent blood. And they said, what is that to
us? That's nothing to us. You see,
you take care of that yourself. What you did your own fault.
What you did your own problem. Judas regretted what he did. What about Judas? Did he repent? Peter, denied
the Lord, went out and wept bitterly and we know that Peter was granted
true repentance because he had a mediator, a savior. But Judas
had no true faith. Judas had no true repentance. No doubt his grief was real and
genuine. He realized that he had betrayed
He realized that his betrayal led to his great remorse. Judas regretted what happened
when he saw the Lord condemned, and he tried to undo what he
had done by returning the 30 pieces of silver, but it only
added to his condemnation. One of the old writers said,
repentance apart from genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
is repentance that needs to be repented of. It was an evil repentance,
a false repentance. True repentance toward God and
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is only granted to the elect
of God. They come as a gift of God and
they come at the same time. You remember the apostle in Acts
20 testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance
toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now here's the
difference. There is such a thing as a worldly
sorrow, a worldly sorrow. There is such a thing as a godly
sorrow, and there is a difference. Listen to this scripture, 2 Corinthians
7, 10. For godly sorrow worketh repentance
to salvation, not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world
worketh death, death. death. It is the goodness of
God that leads us to true repentance. It's not the fear of hell. It's
not the fear of punishment. It's not even the promise of
reward. It is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. God must grant us repentance
as he grants us faith. Faith is a gift of God. So is
repentance. Both true repentance Like that
of true faith, both true repentance does what? Acknowledges God is
God. True repentance acknowledges
that the Lord Jesus Christ is all of salvation. Like repentance,
true God-given saving faith, the faith of God the elect, acknowledges
the truth, loves the truth, salvation to the Lord, loves that truth,
believes that truth, bows to that truth. That's true faith. That's true repentance. Judas
was not granted that. Peter was. God loved Peter in
that everlasting covenant of grace. Now here's something important. The confession of Judas, he said,
I betrayed innocent blood. How true that statement is. He
did not confess unto God, I'm a sinner. He did not confess
unto God that I need mercy, but he did confess unto those chief
priests and elders that I betrayed innocent blood. Judas declared
the sinless humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Both in Luke 22
and John 19, Both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
they both confessed and said to the Lord Jesus Christ, I find
no fault in this man. Pilate said he's a just man,
a just man. Pilate called him in verse 24,
I think it is verse 24, look there in Matthew 27 verse 24,
when Pilate saw he could prevail nothing, but rather was made
a tumult. He took water and washed his
hands before the multitude and said, I'm innocent of the blood
of this just person. He's a just person. He's the
just one. And it's interesting, look right
up to page, to verse 19, I believe it is, Matthew 27, 19. Even Pilate's
wife, confessed that the Lord Jesus
Christ is the sinless one. When he was set down on the judgment
seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have nothing to do with
that just man, for I have suffered many things in a dream about
him. Not only did Pilate's wife and
Pilate inherit, and Judas declare the sinlessness of the Lord Jesus
Christ, but you know also the Roman soldiers did too? Look
at Matthew 27 verse 54. Now the centurion, when they
were with him, watching Jesus, this is the centurion watching
how he dies upon the cross, when he saw the earthquake and heard
those things that were done, remember when the Lord died,
there was an earthquake, the veil of the temple was rent,
they feared greatly saying this, truly, truly this was the Son
of God. Even his enemies, even his enemies,
that this is the sinless Son of God. In Luke 23, 47, another
Roman soldier said, This was a righteous man. Interesting,
isn't it? This was truly the message, and
this is truly the message of the gospel of Christ. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the only man, a real man, without sin. Now this is critical. He could
not be the Lamb of God if he had sin that he had personally
committed. Such a high priest became us
who was holy, harmless, undefiled, and totally separate from sin. All sin, original, he had none.
Actual, he had none. Omission, he had none. Commission,
he had none. The scripture said he was manifested
to take away our sin, and in him is no sin. The Scripture
said that he did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.
The Scripture said God made him to be sin for us, who knew no
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Now this is a very vital point
to the Gospel of Christ. He could not be our substitute
if he had any sin that he had personally committed. He is the
spotless Lamb of God. You remember even back under
the law, on the Day of Atonement, When they took that lamb, what
did they do? They put it up for 14 days and
observed it to make sure it had no scurvy, no disease, no spot. It had to be the spotless lamb.
Why so? Because the Lord Jesus Christ
is the spotless lamb of God. He could not bear our sin in
His own body on the tree if He had sin of His own. Now He's
indeed guilty of sin, but not that He committed, we committed. And our sin was laid upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. Judas doesn't beg for mercy.
He doesn't ask the Lord for mercy. What does he do? He tries to
undo what he so foolishly had done. He returns the money and
then he goes out and commits suicide. This is only mentioned
in the book of Acts. where Judas took his life. Judas
sought relief from his tortured conscience, not by begging for
mercy, not by looking to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation,
but rather by satisfying the desires of his wicked flesh,
and that was to end his own life, not to look to the Lord. The
priest said to him, In verse 4, what's that to us? What Judas
had said about the Lord was true, but it had no effect upon these
wicked, self-righteous Jews. Their bloodthirsty minds are
already made up. What's that to us? You say he's
innocent, you bring back the money. What's that to us? Nothing. We're going to kill
him. We're going to murder him. What's
that to us? Nothing. Nothing. They took counsel
to put him to death, it says in Matthew 26 verse 4. Now what
do these wicked men do? Judas comes back, gives them
the money back, and declares that the Lord Jesus Christ is
innocent. He's done nothing wrong. So what
are the chief priests going to do? Well, they try to hide their
sin, don't they? And that's what people do when
they get caught. They try to hide what they've done. They
said in verse 5, and he cast down the pieces of silver in
the temple, departed and went out and hanged himself. And the
chief priest took the silver pieces and said, it's not lawful
or right to put the money back in the treasury. They took money
from the treasury to buy off Judas, but we're not going to
put it back in the treasury because it's the price of blood. It's
blood money. So they took counsel. verse 7, and brought with them
the potter's field to bury strangers in, wherefore that field was
called the field of blood unto this day. Then was fulfilled
that which was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, written in
Zechariah 11, 13, they took the 30 pieces of silver that the
price of him that was valued, whom they, the children of Israel,
did value, and they gave them for the potter's field as the
Lord had appointed unto them. These wicked men sought to cover
up their wicked sin by doing a good deed, by taking the money,
buying a cemetery plot, saying, we're gonna bury strangers here.
Maybe they buried Judas there, I don't know. Scriptures don't
say, doesn't say. But they thought they were going
to do a good deed to cover up their sin. These wicked men tried
to do a good deed, trying to take the money to buy a field
to bury strangers in. They thought it would be noble.
Did it put away their sin? Buying that field and taking
care of strangers and feeding strangers, did it put away their
sin? Salvation, sin, salvation by God's grace. Sin is not put
away by our works, is it? It's not by works of righteousness
in which we have done, but according to his mercy. He appeared once
in the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself. The Lord called it, in verse
eight, the field of blood, or a cemetery, it was called the
field of blood, bought with blood money to this day, to this day. And all that was done to fulfill
what was written in the Scripture. Notice verse 10, they only did
that which God decreed from eternity. I'm through. But I want to give
you these two or three things. In closing, what can we learn
from this very important lesson? Remember the sad end of Judas. He had much religion, didn't
he? He had no righteousness. Let's make sure that we look
to the Lord Jesus Christ for all our righteousness alone. It's just not, oh, I'm religious. Are you made righteous in Christ?
That's the issue. Paul said, I count all things
lost, dung, and ruined that may win Christ and be found in Him. Judas had much remorse, but he
had no true repentance. He had no true faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Judas had much knowledge about
the Lord Jesus Christ. You think of everything Judas
saw and heard. He saw many. noble, mighty miracles. He heard all the teachings of
the Lord for three years, yet he had no real saving interest
in Christ, no saving knowledge that lead to true repentance
toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. As I said earlier,
true faith and true repentance, receive, love the truth, believe
the truth about the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Judas had much sorrow. But he
had no salvation. Because he had no Savior. He
had no advocate. He had no mediator. He was so
sad after the fact he was once coveted for 30 pieces of silver.
Now that meant nothing to him. He cast it down on the floor.
But it did not reveal salvation to him. It did not put away his
sin. Salvation is revealed as it's
revealed in the Word of God. is a revelation of his person,
his doing, and his dying. Not what we must do, it's what
he has done for us. Casting the money out, trying
to put away our sin, our good works will never, never, never,
never put away sin. How is sin put away? If we confess
our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The blood of Christ cleanses
us from all our sin. Don't look in here. Don't look in here. Don't look
to self. Don't even look for assurance.
Don't seek assurance. Seek the Lord. Look to the Lord. Assurance and salvation is looking
unto Him. Didn't our Lord say, look unto
Me and be ye saved? All the ends of the earth. When
you look in here, all you see is it just leads to despair. When you look to Him, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, we have a hope
of salvation. There is forgiveness with the
Lord There is. He's plenteous in mercy. Call
upon him. Call upon him for mercy. The
publican in the temple did and received mercy.