Good morning and welcome to the
Sunday morning broadcast of the Grace Community Church of Rock
Valley, Iowa. We invite you to tune in this
time each week as we bring you the message of the grace of God.
Stay tuned at the end of the message for contact information.
This morning's message is entitled, See to It for Yourself. In Matthew
chapter 27, verse 1, we read this story. When the morning
was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took
counsel against Jesus to put him to death. And when they had
bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius
Pilate the governor. Then Judas, which had betrayed
him, when he saw that he, that is, Jesus, was condemned, repented
himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the
chief priests 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. And he cast
down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and
went and hanged himself. And the chief priest took the
silver pieces and said, It is not lawful for to put them into
the treasury, because it is the price of blood. and they took
counsel and bought with them the potter's field to bury strangers
in." Now of all the sad stories ever told, the story of Judas
must be among the saddest. He was a member of the covenant
people of that day, the Jewish nation. He had the advantage
of the prophets. of the worship of the temple,
of the promise of Messiah, or Christ. He had the hope of Christ,
and he knew the true and living God. He had a good name. The
name Judas is just a Greek version of the name Judah. This is the
name of the tribe from which our Lord came, the tribe of Judah. It means praise. and it is the
tribal name from which the Jews get their name. When we say Jew,
we're just sounding out the first syllable of the name Judah. He had glorious privilege to
be chosen, called to be disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
was one of only 12 whom the Lord chose to be within the inner
circle of his teaching and of his work. He was good in his
outward conduct. So good, in fact, the only one
who knew what a monster he was was the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
Not even Judas realized what a scoundrel he was. Even though
he stole out of the treasury of the disciples, I'm sure he
justified himself in doing it, saying, I do all the things the
other disciples do, plus I do the work of managing the money,
so it makes sense that I get paid a little more than the others
do. Only the Lord knew that inside he was a devil. But he had all
these great privileges. Yet note how his life turns out,
as described by Peter in Acts 1, beginning with verse 18. Peter
says, Now this man, that is, Judas, purchased a field with
the reward of iniquity, and falling headlong, he burst asunder in
the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. Now the two accounts,
the one we read in Matthew and the one we read in Acts, seem
contradictory, but really they are just describing different
aspects or different parts of the same story. If you put them
all together, here's what happened. Judas agreed to betray the Lord
for 30 pieces of silver. Once he had done that evil deed,
and then saw that it was gonna bring Christ into condemnation
and crucifixion, he felt great remorse for his evil deed, and
he went back to the people who had hired him in the first place
and tried to undo what he had done. But they said to him, what
is that to us? You go see to it for yourself.
So he did, and he went out and hanged himself. He threw that
30 pieces of silver back into the temple, then went out and
hanged himself. And the priest took that money, that was Judas's
money, and they took it and bought a field. Later on, they must
have noticed that he had hanged himself, and he had been hanging
there long enough that his body had begun to decay. And so, I'm
sure they wouldn't touch that dead body, but they hired somebody
to go dig a grave in that field they bought with Judas's money.
They dug a hole, and they shoved him in there and his body was
already so far rotten when he hit the bottom of his grave,
he burst apart like a rotting carcass. So here in just a few
days, he goes from a very privileged and blessed man to a pile of
rotting flesh in the bottom of a grave. Now the point I want
to focus on this morning is the response of the chief priests
and the elders to Judas' attempt at repentance. Even though the
men he spoke to were as wicked as he was, they stand as symbols
of God's law and show us how the law responds to our attempts
at repentance and amending our ways. The law has a two-fold
message for every sinner that approaches God through the law
on the basis of his sorrow over sin. The law says to every such
sinner, what is that to me? You go see to it for yourself.
What is that to me? This may surprise some of you,
but the law has no interest in your repentance. The law notes
only two things. perfect obedience or disobedience. That's the only two things the
law can notice. And it blesses perfect obedience
with eternal life and punishes the smallest infraction with
eternal death. Therefore, repentance means nothing
to the law. You see, repentance doesn't put
away sin. Repentance does not undo what
has been done. You see, Judas went in there
and he was actually trying to undo his sin in the presence
of these men. They gave him money. He tried
to give it back. Those 30 pieces of silver stood
as a symbol of his great evil, and you can imagine how awful
they felt in his hands. And so he threw it away from
himself, trying to separate himself from his sin. But he couldn't,
could he? Because even though Matthew says
the chief priests bought that field, That just meant they went
out like real estate agents and used Judas's money to buy the
field. You see, no matter what Judas
did with that money, he could not make it not his money. No
matter what he did, he could not separate his sin from himself. And you know, a lot of us try
to do that, don't we? We try to cast our sin away from ourselves. We hear that our sin has separated
us from our God, and therefore we try to separate ourselves
from our sin, hoping by that to draw near to God. That's what
Judas was doing. But you see, even though he threw
that money into the temple, the book of Acts says Judas bought
that field. Now Judas was already dead when
the field was bought. How in the world could Judas
buy a field when he's dead? That money, no matter how much
he tried to cast it away, was still his money. And brethren,
your sin, no matter how hard you try to cast it away from
yourself, is still your sin. And it will do for you only what
Judas' money did for him. It will buy you a grave. You
know, it was said of Judas there in Acts chapter 1 verse 15, excuse
me, verse 18. It says that this man with the
wages of unrighteousness bought a field, fell headlong, and his
bowels gushed out. The wages of sin, of unrighteousness,
is death, isn't it? And that's exactly what Judas
got for his 30 pieces of silver. It's exactly what he got for
his supposed repentance. There are many who think that
God the judge is impressed with demonstrations of guilt, sorrow,
tears, misery, and grief. You know, when we speak of coming
before the law, we really mean coming before God through the
law. And many people think that a protracted period of grief
and misery over sin, coupled with a hearty effort at reforming
one's life, is at least partially responsible for gaining God's
mercy. But you see, the law has no mercy. Now, understand that the law
has no mercy. The law says, he that does these
things will live by them. Not the one who tries to do them,
not the one who thinks it'd be a good idea if he could do them,
but the one who actually does them. And that's all that the
law takes note of, actually doing what the law says. All that your
sorrows, tears, misery, and attempts at reformation do is prove your
guilt. And God already knows you're
guilty. So it means nothing to Him if you come in your tears
and in your misery and think your tears and misery is going
to move Him. The old hymn writer, Augustus Toplady, in his hymn
Rock of Ages, wrote this, not the labor of my hands could fulfill
thy law's demands? Could my tears forever flow?
Could my zeal no resting know? These for sin could not atone. Thou must save, and thou alone.
So the law says, what is that to us? Our repentance, our tears,
our sorrow means nothing to God if we come to Him through the
law. The law says, see to it for yourself. The chief priests
and the elders rightly said that it was Judas's responsibility.
He must make atonement. He must see to satisfying God's
justice for his sin. He must bear the curse. It was
all on him. And Judas did what he was told.
He took matters into his own hands. He saw to his own execution
and made himself a curse, for it is written, cursed is everyone
that is hanged upon a tree. His sin, his attempts to undo
his sin, did nothing more than buy him a grave. The wages of
sin is death. Please listen carefully to this.
Satan lays traps wherever he can in order to trip us up. And one of the traps that has
damned the soul of many of a religious person is the belief that his
sadness over sin and his efforts to stop sinning are pleasing
to God and move God to mercy. God has said that he will by
no means clear the guilty, and tears over sin do not remove
our guilt. When Judas was stricken with
remorse over his sin, he came to a crossroads. One way was
a broad road with many people on it. It was a way that seemed
right to him and to many others, but the end is death and destruction.
The other fork is a narrow winding path, few find it, few walk on
it. There is nothing about it to
attract the flesh, but it leads to life. Judas chose the broad
road, the road of doing things for yourself. He tried to get
rid of his sin. He tried to offer his own sacrifice,
and all it got him was cursed, dead, rotted, and damned. Here is the hallmark of this
broad road that leads to destruction. On this broad road, you are told,
see to it for yourself. Any religion that puts you on
to taking care of things for yourself is a broad road that
leads to destruction. Now, rewind with me 2,000 years
before the events of Judah's life. And there's a 114-year-old
man and his 14-year-old son climbing a mountain, and they're going
to worship God. And the son understands what's
needed for worship. And he says to his father, he
says, Father, I have wood and you have fire. Where is the lamb
for a burnt offering? And the father, and you recognize
who it is, it's Abraham and his son Isaac, the father says, God
will provide for himself a lamb for the burnt offering. Now that
word provide, even in our English language, it means to see to
it. Pro means to. And the V-I-D part,
we get our word video, to see. What Abraham actually told his
son was, God will see to it. And this is what the gospel tells
us. The law says, you see to it for yourself. In the gospel,
God says, I will see to it. You realize that you are a sinner. Oh, go before God and tell him
that's what you are. and that you need righteousness.
And he will say, I'll see to it. Tell him that you are a criminal
against him and that you need a sacrifice. And he will say,
I'll see to it. Tell him that you're dead in
trespasses and sins and that you need new life. and he'll
tell you, I'll see to it. And over and over, let him know
not how good you are, not how sorrowful you are about your
sin. Tell him about how wretched you are and how worthy of condemnation
you are. And in his mercy, he will say,
I'll see to it. And when you're all done with
your prayer, And when God is all done telling you by the gospel
that he'll see to everything, he will turn to his son and say,
see to it. And that's exactly what the Lord
Jesus did. He came and saw to everything
necessary for the salvation of God's people. In your approaches
to God, what are you hearing? Are you hearing the law say,
see to it for yourself? Then my friend, you're on the
wrong road. But if you are hearing the wonderful
words of the gospel, in which God says, I'll say to it, I'll
provide everything. then you're on the road that
leads to life. God grants you that grace. We pray that you've
been blessed by today's message. Visit our website where you can
find more information regarding our church. Our web address is
www.rvgrace.com. There you can find information
on our worship times, audio and video recordings of our worship
service and Bible study, plus a weekly devotional. Our email
address is pastor at rvgrace.com. Until next week. May the God
of all grace and comfort bless you in Christ Jesus.