Matthew chapter 27. We're going
to take a last look here at Judas. Paul wrote to Timothy
in 2 Timothy 4-2. And Paul said, preach the Word.
There is no part of the Word of God that we skip over. You know, we preach the Word
as we come to it. That is one of the benefits of
going verse by verse. We take the Word of God and we
preach the truth that's in those verses. He told Timothy to preach
the Word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke,
exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. And here, instead of skipping
over Judas, We're going to deal with it this
morning. The end of Judas. Now here in these verses, we
see how Judas ends up. And we see that his so-called
faith was false. And the only repentance that
false faith can produce is a false repentance. It can never produce
anything else but a false repentance. And we see what covetousness
leads to. It leads to destruction. Out of covetousness, Judas sold
him for 30 pieces of silver. I thought when I was writing
this out that none who get what they want in this world, who
go after this world, are happy in the next. Judas went after what his heart
was after, which was covetousness. And that which he desired so
much became his misery, became his undoing. Now it says in Matthew 27.1 here,
when the morning was come, You see, they had gathered that
night and it was actually an illegal gathering. It was not
lawful for them to gather at night like they did. The Sanhedrin
was only to come together lawfully at daytime. So they got together
that night to do their dirty deed. You know, evil works best
in darkness. And so they get together that
morning to try to make this legal, to try not to, listen, break
the law. Isn't it amazing how dead, how dead we are by nature,
how dead religion is by nature? They're trying not to break the
law. Here is the law giver standing in front of them, and they are
going to condemn him to death with the use of false witnesses.
They went out, it says, and sought false witnesses. So all the chief priests and
the elders of the people, all the leaders, all the leaders
of the Jews, they were the leaders. These people were the leaders.
They took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. They could
pass the death sentence. But they could not, they could
not put him to death. And this is interesting. About
two years before this, they had, you know, they could put people
to death. They stoned them to death. But
two years, I think it's about two years prior to this, the
Roman government took away their power to execute anyone. If anyone's
gonna be executed, it's gonna be by the Romans. under Roman
law. Isn't that interesting how God
moves in mysterious ways? Because the Gentiles are going
to have a part in his death as well as the Jews, because God's
going to save Gentiles as well as Jews. So they get together
and they condemn him to put him to death, but now then they got
to take him over to Pilate and then they got to, you know, got
to get the Romans on their side so that they can have him put
to death. And here we see the bulls of
Bashan and the dog spoken of in Psalm 22 gathered around our
Lord to put Him to death. They get together now in the
daytime trying to make it legal. And something else we see here,
we see what this world will do when a truly righteous person
comes into their midst. This is the Holy One of Israel. When you go back in the Old Testament,
we read of the Holy One of Israel. Here He stands. Here stands a
man who knew no sin. And we see, we see the natural
enmity that is in us by nature, spoken of over in Romans. That
carnal mind that says it is enmity with God. It's at war with God. And here stands Jesus Christ
who came. Look over in Hebrews. Let me
show you something. Over in Hebrews chapter 1. In Hebrews chapter 1 it says,
God who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time
past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last
days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of
all things, By whom? Also He made the worlds. Who? That is, Jesus Christ, being
the brightness of His glory and the expressed image of His person. That's why our Lord could say,
He that has seen Me has seen the Father. Philip says, Show
us the Father. And our Lord is saying to him,
You're looking at Him. He that has seen Me has seen
the Father. So here stands the Holy One of Israel. Here stands
One who knew no sin, and He's being despised and rejected of
men. This is the One you would think
that when He came into the world, the whole world, His own creation,
would rejoice. But instead, He is despised and
rejected of men, which fulfills Isaiah 53. And it also fulfills Psalm 2.
Over in Psalms 2, verses 1 through 3, listen to this. Why do the
heathen rage? That's a good question. Why are
they in such a rage? Why were they in such a rage
over Christ? Why do the people imagine a vain
thing? The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
His anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder and
cast away their cords from us. We will not, they said, we will
not have this man to reign over us. They're trying to fulfill
Psalm 2. They will cast their cords from
us and take their bands and cut them asunder because we do not
want God to reign over us. Here is Christ, the express image
of God, the visible representation of God. And what did it do? It brought out that natural enmity
that's in us. That's what it brought out. It brought out hatred. It brought
out the spitting. They spit in his face. They slapped
him. You see, here stands light in
the midst of darkness. And darkness doesn't like it.
Darkness does not like the light. Evil does not like light. Don't
turn the light on. You know, the thief does not
want you to turn the light on. Evil does not like life. Evil
loves darkness. That's why Christ said, you love
darkness rather than light. He said, that's why you won't
come to me. That's why you'll not come to me. You love your
sins, you love your ways, you love your darkness rather than
God's light. He's not talking about just light
like you turn it on here. He's talking about light, the very
source of it. God is light. He is the very source of light,
just as the sun that shines out in the sky is the source of light
that shines on this earth, and you and I see everything that's
in front of us. Jesus Christ is the light. He's
the revelation of God. It is through Him that we see
and understand who God is, how God could be a just God and a
Savior. We see it in His light. That's why the psalmist said,
in thy light shall we see light. In his light. And then it says in verse 2,
when they had bound him, they led him away and delivered him
to Pontius Pilate the governor. They bound him. It's not like
he was trying to get away. You know what they're doing?
They're trying to make him look like a criminal. That's what they're doing. It's
not like he's trying to get away. He's the Lamb of God. He's going
through the slaughter. He's going willingly. But they're
going to bind him so that he looks like he's guilty. But why did they really bind
him? Turn over to Genesis chapter 22. Here's why they really bound
him. In Genesis chapter 22, verse 7, And Isaac spake unto
Abraham his father, and said, 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. Here's
something interesting. It's evident Abraham taught his
son that in order to worship God, there's got to be a lamb.
There's got to be bloodshed. Make sure we teach our children
this. Make sure they know that. Saved by the blood of the Lamb.
But where is the Lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My
son, God will provide Himself a Lamb for a burnt offering.
So they went both of them together, and they came to the place which
God had told him of. And Abraham built an altar there,
and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son. And then
he laid him on the altar. He laid him upon the altar, upon
the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his
hand and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the
Lord called out of heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he
said, here am I. And he said, lay not thy hand
upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him. For now I
know that thou fearest God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy
son, thy only son. And Abraham lift up his eyes
and looked, and behold, and behind him a ram caught in a thicket
by his horns. And Abraham went and took the
ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son." That is so clear a message of substitution. So clear. But Abraham, what did Abraham
do? He bound Isaac. Isaac wasn't fighting Abraham.
I don't believe he was fighting him at all. I mean, Abraham,
listen, Abraham was an old man. He's an old man at this time
whenever he has. And Isaac is now a young lad. I mean, he's probably a teenager
or some are older. He's not a little boy. He's not
a little boy. He could have overcame his father
Abraham. It wouldn't have been a fight
there. Isaac willingly let Abraham bind
him. And here they say, and when they
had bound Him, when they bound the sacrifice, when they bound
the Lamb, the Substitute, they led Him away and delivered Him
to Pontius Pilate. Here the Creator, what a scene! What a scene! The Creator, as
I read to you in Hebrews, by whom all things were created,
here He stands being bound by His creation. And then he's bound by his love.
As I was reading this, I thought, that's not the only thing that
had bound him. Oh, they bound the sacrifice. They tied him. But I'll tell you something else
that bound him. His love to sinners. The sinners he died for. He was
bound by his love to them. But it was also done that it
must fulfill the Scriptures. Mark 10.33.34 says this, Our
Lord said this, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son
of Man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, unto the scribes,
and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him
to the Gentiles, the Romans, and they shall mock him, scourge
him, spit on him, kill Him, and the third day He'll rise again.
He told them step by step. He said, let me tell you what's
going to happen. Step by step, He told them what was going to
happen. And here it is happening. It's
happening. But now the Holy Spirit here
in verse 3, He returns our attention back to Judas, to let us see
the end of what false faith leads to, and of false repentance,
it leads to death. It leads to death. You remember
Cain, how disturbed he was when God accepted Abel's sacrifice
and rejected Cain? Cain was upset. He was upset. Pharaoh, when all those plagues
were brought on him, it says he repented himself. No, he regretted. But he got over that, didn't
he? He got over that. So what we're going to see here
is that a worldly sorrow is not godly sorrow. It's not godly
sorrow. Then Judas, which had betrayed
him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself. That is, he regretted. He regretted
what he did. In other words, he regretted.
Here's what he regretted. He regretted the outcome. That's
what he regretted, the outcome. And he brought again the 30 pieces
of silver to the chief priest and the elders. Judas probably thought that Christ
would slip away through the crowd or he'd get out of their hands.
He would get out of this and no harm done and he made some
money. And no doubt he's thinking like this. He thought the Lord
will escape this like he has all the other times No harm done. But when he saw what was happening,
he repented himself, he was filled with grief. He felt, now let's
you listen, he felt the sting of his natural conscience. Remember,
the law of God is written on the heart of every person that
comes into this world. Every person knows, they instinctively
know, because the law is written on the heart, it's wrong to murder.
It's wrong to steal. It's wrong to commit adultery.
You don't have to read the Ten Commandments to know that. That's
written on the heart of everyone. And when he saw this, he was
filled with regret at what he'd done. If they had let Christ
go, Judas wouldn't have felt a thing. If he had slipped out
of there, he wouldn't have felt a thing. But because of what
was going on now, it says he regretted what he did. He repented
himself. True repentance, true repentance that is of God, that
is a product of genuine faith, is not caused by seeing the outcome
of something. It's not caused by seeing that
you might go to hell if you don't repent. That's not the cause
of true repentance. True repentance is caused by
work of the Holy Spirit. True repentance is caused by
the grace of God. I want you to listen to Acts
11.18. When they heard these things,
they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, now listen, Then
hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. They say God has granted repentance
to Gentiles unto everlasting life. Repentance is a work of
God. There is a natural repentance.
There is a natural sorrow. It's called worldly sorrow. It's
sorrow over getting caught. It's sorrow over losing material
things. But it's not sorrow that you
have sinned against God. It's not sorrow of what you are. It's just you got caught doing
something. That's what worldly sorrow leads to. That's all it
is. Now, I want you to notice here,
Judas tries to make restitution by bringing the money back. He
says here, he brought again the 30 pieces of silver to the chief
priest and the elders. First of all, we can never undo
what we do. And when God grants true faith
and repentance, you know that. You know that. You know you cannot
undo all that you've done. And you cannot change. You know
this, listen. You know you cannot change what
you are. That's how you come to God. That's
how a true sinner comes to God. He comes to God, he or she comes
to God, knowing they cannot undo what they've done. Knowing they
cannot change what they are. If Judas could have changed his
situation, he wouldn't have felt bad about it. I mean, he'd have
just moved on and got over it, but he wouldn't have felt bad
about it. In Jeremiah 13.23 it says this, Can the Ethiopian
change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do
good that are accustomed to do evil. If they can do that, then
you can do good that are accustomed to do evil. You can't do that.
The Ethiopian can't change his skin and the leper can't change
his spots. The change has to come from God.
And the change is inward. It's in the heart. It's in here.
It'll be seen outward, but the change comes inward. Only the
blood of Christ can wash away our sins. I want you to get this. No amount of repentance will
put away any sin. You can cry your heart out. It
will not put away sin. True repentance does mourn. True
repentance. We do weep over our sins. But
we know this. Our sins are put away by the
blood. Only the blood of Jesus Christ
wipes away our sins. Do we repent? Absolutely. Do
you know what repentance really is? It's a change of mind. That's what true repentance is.
It's a change of mind. It's a change of the way you
think of God. It's a change in the way you
think of how He saves sinners. It's a change in the way you
think of Jesus Christ. And it's a change in the way
you think of yourself. You read in the Scriptures, there's
none good, no, not one, I wrote out by mine, even me. There's
none good, no, not one, even me. That's what true repentance
leads us to. And here's the process. Here's the process of salvation.
In Acts 20, 21, turn over there, let me just read it to you. Let's
read it together, other words. Look in verse 17. And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus
and called the elders of the church, this is Paul, And when
they were come to him, he said unto them, You know from the
first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been
with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of
mind and with many tears and temptations, which befell me
by the lying in wait of the Jews, and how I kept back nothing that
was profitable unto you. but have showed you and taught
you publicly from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and
also to the Greeks, repentance toward God," now listen, this
is how it works, "...and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ."
My aunt told me one time, she's passed on now, but she told me
years ago, years ago, And she said to me, she goes, I repent.
She said, I asked the Lord, forgive me. And she said, I repent, but
I can't. She said, I don't seem to get
anywhere. And I knew when she said, I knew exactly what she
was thinking of this. What she'd been taught, you know,
when she was little, you repent. And, you know, you ask God to forgive
you. But I told her this, I said, I said to her, I said, but here
is what you're missing. Here's what you're missing. She
said, I repent, but I can't get anywhere. She's, you know, she's
talking about a feeling too. I know what she's talking about
a feeling. I said, but the scripture says this repentance toward God
and faith. toward the Lord Jesus Christ.
I said, you're missing the key element. And that's faith in
Christ. That's looking to Jesus Christ.
God can forgive you. He can forgive me of all my sins,
of the worst of what we think, the worst of sins through the
blood of Jesus Christ. And I look to Christ. as my substitute,
my representative, my righteousness, my sacrifice, my high priest,
my all in all to stand before God on my behalf. I looked to
Him. It's not me and Him together
doing it. It's not me cooperating with
Him. It's Him saving me. And that's what I looked to.
I looked to Him. And I told her, I said, that's what you're missing.
You're saying, I'm sorry for this, I'm sorry for that, I wish
I hadn't done this, I wish I hadn't done that. I said, but you're
missing, you're missing Christ. If Judas, if he had only gone
to the Lord Jesus Christ, he would have found forgiveness.
If he'd have done that, any person in this room, any person looks
to Christ, God forgive you. God forgive. God save. It's evident
God has saved you if you do it. Because He's the one who enabled
you to do it. If he had gone to Christ, but
instead, instead, do you notice who he went to? He went to religion. He went to religion. He went
to the high priest. He went to the high priest. When
Peter denied the Lord, he went out and wept bitterly. He wept
bitterly. He never went to a high priest.
He never went to religion. He went to his Lord. And we see
that later on as the Lord draws him back. But he stayed with
Christ. Now Judas here, he confesses.
He confesses. We see here what Judas' confession
leads to. saying, I have sinned in verse
four. I have sinned and that I have
betrayed. And I thought this was so interesting
when I read this again this morning. I have sinned and that I have
betrayed the. Innocent blood. He's not saying I just betrayed
innocent blood, I betrayed the innocent blood, the only innocent
one there is, I betrayed him. I have betrayed him. And they
said, what is that to us? I mean, you talking about callous?
You talking about dead? He comes back and he says, I
betrayed this innocent man, the innocent blood. And they said,
so what? That's your problem. That's what
they're saying. That's your problem. See thou to that. That's your
problem. That's not ours. But he's saying
here, I've done a terrible thing. Anyone with a conscience would
realize that's a terrible thing. You know, the most hardened criminal
in prison would say, that's a terrible thing. They don't even want to
be called Judas. They don't even want to be called
that. They know it's terrible. Your own conscience knows that's
terrible. Judas felt the guilt of his sin
without the faith to apply to the Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness,
even though he is with him for nearly three years. Isn't that
something? Those in hell, those whom God
cast into hell, it's a very real place, it's a very real torment. Those whom God cast into hell
will feel the full-blown guilt of their sin. This is the worm It's spoken
of over Mark 944. It says, where their worm dies
not and the fire is not quenched, that worm that dies not is their
conscience. When you remember that rich man
that lifts up his eyes in hell, you know what Abraham said to
him? Son, remember. Rolf Barnard has, I think, a
message on that on the hounds of hell. Son, remember. Your conscience will fly into
your face relentlessly. It's where the worm does not. The conscience of a sinner will
continually fly in his own face. I cannot explain the guilt of
a conscience without relief. This kind of guilt leads to despair.
It leads to despair. And as I pointed out, the Holy
Spirit moves Matthew to write that Judah said, I have betrayed
Thee, innocent blood. Over in Acts chapter 20 again,
turn back over there. Here's why it is called Thee,
innocent blood. Acts chapter 20. In verse 28, Paul says, "...take
heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which
the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church
of God which He hath purchased." With whose blood? His own blood. He says here, "...to feed the
church of God which God hath purchased." With His own blood,
God became a real man. And His blood was shed. And that
blood is innocent blood. It's pure, perfect and holy.
Because it's the blood of God. It's the blood of God's Son. It's the blood of that man Jesus
Christ who knew no sin. It's the blood of God. That's
what Paul calls it there. And Judas is made to confess that
he's innocent. You know why? The Holy Spirit makes it very
clear here that this man knew no sin. Knew no sin. If anyone could have pointed
out to the chief priests and the elders any flaw that Christ
may have had or done, it could have been Judas. He was there
for three years with him. He was right there walking with
Him, eating with Him, and He said, He's innocent. Even He
is made to declare that the Son of God is innocent. And their
reaction is this, what's that to us? What's that to us? You know, when the world is done
with you, here's a good, this is good to put in your back pocket.
especially those whom the Lord has not saved, and they run after
this world. When the world's through with
you, this is what they have to say. What's that to us? They'll
throw you away. They'll toss you in a scrap pile.
They will. The world only wants you for
the benefit. That's why they go after youth.
You know, back some years ago, there was this thing of these
plants, especially back home, they were shutting down, or they
were downsizing. A lot of them shut down, but
they were downsizing. Guess what they were doing? They
were taking people 55 and older and making them retire so they
could replace them with the younger. They felt that they had, you
know, they had reached their maximum use. They had squeezed
out of them all they needed to squeeze out of them. And they
were costing them more money than they were worth. And they
were actually retiring them early. Many were retired early. You
know, my father lost his job. This company bought the place
he was working. And they changed the name. And
those who were 50 years old and older, my dad had turned 50.
They didn't bring him back. They didn't bring him back. When the world's through with
you, it'll just toss you aside. Remember that. And then here's what they also
do. They clear themselves of any guilt by saying, you came
to us first. That's what they're saying. What's
that? You came to us first, remember? Boy, these guys are snakes, aren't
they? Snakes. We see here the end of false
repentance and false faith. Verse 5, And he cast down the
pieces of silver in the temple, and he departed, and he went,
and he hanged himself. He hanged himself. This is what
false repentance leads to. It leads to despair. It leads
to despair. That's what my aunt, it was leading
her to despair. The very thing that Judas loved,
and coveted became his ruin. In the day of his death," now
listen, in the day of his death, he found no comfort in the things
which he possessed. The scripture says your life
consists not in the things which you possess. Your life doesn't
consist in that. And he found no comfort in all
those things that he had gotten over the years when it came time
for him to die. And he went out and he hanged
himself. Over in Acts chapter 1 verses 18 and 19, it says he
went out and hanged himself and his intestines gushed out. He fell down. I guess the rope
broke. Whatever was broke, it broke and it just gushed out.
You know why? Because that's exactly in the
Old Testament that is written, that's the way it was going to
happen, and that's exactly how it happened. Look over in Acts
chapter 1. Let me read it to you. Well, this is why we make much
of the Word of God. We have such instruction in the
Word of God, and it can be taken literally. God can be taken at
His Word. In Acts 1, verse 16, "'Men and brethren,
this Scripture must needs have been fulfilled. which the Holy
Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which
was guide to them that took Jesus. For he was numbered with us,
the apostles, and had obtained part of this ministry. Now this
man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity. And falling
headlong, he burst asunder in the mist, and all his boughs
gushed out." Because that's exactly what the
Word of God said would happen. And that's how it happened. And those chief priests, they
took the silver pieces and they said, it's not lawful. Isn't
this amazing? This is just stunning. It's not
lawful for us to put this money into the treasury because it's
the price of blood. It's not lawful. Let's not break
the law here, men. You know, let's go find false
witnesses to accuse this innocent man, but now, Here the next day,
the sun comes up, and it's like, let's not break the law. It's
amazing what we do to quiet our conscience, isn't it? Men and women will do anything
to quiet an accusing conscience. So they are really particular
about how they're going to handle this money. They don't want to
break the law. They didn't want to keep blood
money. But here's their blindness. They
did exactly what they were supposed to do. Oh, they said, let us not break
the law. You know, you're talking about gagging at a gnat and swallowing
a camel. And they said, this is blood
money. Let's not keep it. So notice what they did to quiet
their conscience. They took counsel and bought
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 Jeremy the prophet,
saying, And they took thirty 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."
He said, "...as the Lord appointed me." How many times Did the scribes
stand and read from the Old Testament and read that Scripture? How many times did they stand
or sit and listen to that prophecy being read, and what did they
do? They turned around and fulfilled it and didn't even realize it.
The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Scripture says, is of
the Lord. It's of the Lord. Until then,
you can't hear anything. Spiritually, you cannot see or
hear anything. This is how dead all are until
God commands the light of the gospel to shine into their hearts
and give the knowledge of the glory of God in the face, the
person of Jesus Christ. Lord, grant us true faith and
true repentance. That's what I want for me and
that's what I want for you.