Let's take our Bibles now and
turn to Matthew chapter 27 beginning with verse 1. When the morning was come, all
the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against
Jesus to put Him to death. Now this was They didn't just
start this council, but they'd been at it all night. They'd
been at it all night long. 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 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 innocent blood. And they said, these are the
leaders of Israel, the chief priests and the elders. 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's not lawful to put them into the treasury
because it's the price of blood. They didn't leave them lay on
the floor. They picked them up. But they couldn't put them in
the treasury. It would offend their righteousness. It would
offend their holiness and offend their beliefs. So 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 Jeremiah, 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 me." Now, as I read through these
verses, I kept saying to myself, I read them very slow, and I
just kept saying to myself each verse, that's amazing. That's amazing. That's remarkable. And so this lesson was given
to me, and I hope and pray that God will do the same for you
In the first ten verses of Matthew 27, there are seven amazing things,
seven amazing events brought before the church and preserved
in the Word of God to teach us something about our Lord and
His death and this world and the religion of this world. The
first amazing thing I saw as I read these verses is that the
elders of God's beloved Israel were holding a council on how
to murder the Son of God. Now you think on that. When the
morning was come, verse 1, all the chief priests and elders
of the people took council against Jesus to put Him to death. These
were not Buddhists. These weren't Mormons. This was the most orthodox people
on the face of God's earth. This is the only people who knew
anything at all about the living God. Among their ancestors were
the prophets. They were the only people to
actually hold the Scriptures, hold the Word of God. You know, there in Romans, I
think it's chapter 3, he begins and he said, what profit, therefore,
does Israel have? What profit? He said, much every
way, but chiefly because unto them is committed the oracles
of God, the written Word of God. They have God's Word. And these
are the people who are holding a council to murder the Son of
God. Don't you find that amazing?
I find that absolutely amazing. They stayed up all night in a
desperate attempt to find a way to maintain their dignity and
their righteous reputation, keep their stations, and yet destroy
this man Jesus of Nazareth. I think that's amazing. And yet this is the same principle
by which all false religion still operates today. They are careful to maintain
everything in biblical worship. I guarantee you their uniforms
were intact. There wasn't a thing missing
from those robes. I guarantee you their speech
was exactly according to their own traditions and their own
laws. They are careful to maintain
everything in biblical worship except the person and work of
Jesus Christ. They destroyed the Christ of
God. They loved Christ the miracle worker. They loved Him. He said, for which of the good
works that I've done do you stone me? They said, we don't stone
you for good work. We're not upset about that at all. What
we're upset about is what you're preaching. We're upset about
what you're saying. They loved Christ the miracle
worker, Christ the healer. But they despised His sovereignty. They said, we will not have this
man to reign over us. And they despised how he taught
things contrary to their traditions. Many times, and some of those
times are recorded, and they came to him and they said, why
do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders?
And he said, but I say unto you, why do you transgress the commandment
of God by your traditions? They despised his total disregard
for their authority and approval concerning his ministry to the
people. He never justified his own ministry. God justified his ministry. And
he refused to do it before them, and he refused to do it before
anybody else. God justified his ministry. They
despised the company he kept. They said he's a friend of publicans
and sinners. And they despised the gospel
he preached and the kingdom of God he declared. Actually, when
it comes right down to it, they despised him. They despised him. And then here is the second remarkable
thing I read. The Almighty Lord of the universe
was bound. Can you imagine? He was bound. I think it's in the book of John,
the account is, where they came to get him. And they came with
a large company, a lynch mob. And some of them were soldiers
and some of them were servants of the high priest. And they
came out with staves and swords drawn. And they come out to get
the Son of God who was not armed, who openly walked among them,
his whole ministry. And they came out there and they
said, who are you? He said, I am. And that whole
outfit fell backward on the ground. He could have, with a word, destroyed
everybody in that place. But he didn't. Rather, he was
bound. He was bound. Bound by a bunch
of self-declared religious leaders of people who had no power to
do anything of their own on him, and were even at this time in
captivity to a Gentile king. When they had bound him, they
led him away and delivered him to Pontius Pilate, the governor. Now think about what I've just
read to you there. This is the creator of the universe. This is the governor of providence.
This is the Son of God come into the flesh. And this bunch of
peanut men took him and with some cords tied him and bound
him and drug him off. and led him away to the governor. And then again, let me draw a
line from these religious men to the religion of our day who
will bind the Son of God if God will permit it. And He does.
He does permit it. They bind Him in His purpose.
Do they not? God has no certain purpose. They
try to bind him. They try to take his purpose
away from him. They bind him in his character. They won't receive his character
as he declares it to them, but rather they bind him. And they
bind him in his objectives. They bind him in his power and
rights. What do you mean God elected
a... Well, that's not fair. He has no right to do that. Don't
we have rights? And they bind him in the sufficiency
of his work. Jesus of our day has no certain
or eternal purpose connected with his person and work. He
is simply here to save as many as will let him. Isn't that what
they say? And it is an absolute denial
of the deity and pre-existence of Christ. And Jesus of our day
does not have the character of God, and therefore he cannot
be the Christ of God. Jesus Christ is equal to God. I didn't know that growing up.
Nobody ever told me that. The Scripture said, let this
mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus, who being in
the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. but made himself of no reputation. And even that man of no reputation
was yet equal with God. Jesus Christ was and is God come
into the flesh. I and the Father are one, he
told the Jews on many occasions. And he's unchangeable. He's almighty. He's all-knowing. He's all-seeing. He is sovereign God. God over
all, Paul said, blessed forever. And by His own words, He tells
these same men that now bind Him, these same ones, He said,
except you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. And His being bound both then
and now is the sovereign act of God. The sovereign act of
God. And then here is the third amazing
thing I see here. The sovereign mediator, the King
of heaven and earth, He who will judge the nations and all men
in that day stand bound before some pompous Gentile governor. He doesn't even stand before
Caesar, but he stands before some little peanut governor. This man who was given his station
by the providential hand of Christ Himself stands and looks. at the one who gave
him his seat, and he pities him as some man would pity a beggar
on the street." I find that absolutely amazing.
Pilate saw Jesus of Nazareth as a political religious pawn
who was set up by the hypocritical priests and elders of Israel
because of their positions. Their positions were being threatened,
and their stations were being threatened, and their religion,
and their teaching, and all that they were about was being threatened
by this man. And Caesar knew that. I mean,
Pilate knew that. He knew exactly what was going
on. But he never saw or considered Jesus Christ as being the eternal
God come into the flesh. He didn't know that. Everything
he saw and felt came from natural logic and worldly education.
And again, there's a parallel to our day. Men and women will
only have a Jesus that they can feel sorry for and pity. They'll
only have a Jesus who can do what they let him do. You can't find a person who will
bow and submit to the sovereign Christ. That is, that you're
in His hand to do with what He will. And yet, that's exactly
what the Scriptures say He is. They won't have that Christ.
I'm going to have that one. Listen to me. Our Lord had that
big old cross. Those of you built barns, pole
barns and things. You know how heavy those timbers
are? Just one of them? And this was
a big ole long timber. Maybe twelve, fourteen feet long.
And had another timber attached to it going sideways. And here's
this man who'd been beaten beyond recognition. Been kept up for
all day and all night. It was all night the night before. And here he is, and he's carrying
this heavy cross on his back down that Roman road, going up
that hill. And as they looked at him, as
the women looked at him and saw him, they began to weep and pity
him. And he said, don't weep for me.
Huh? He said, don't weep for me. Weep
for yourselves and weep for your children. Weep for me. Don't feel sorry for me. Pilate
looked at him in pity and said, man, don't you know who I am?
Don't you know that I have power to crucify you or power to release
you? And he said, you didn't have
any power at all, except it were given you of my father. Don't
pity me. Pity yourselves. Weep for yourselves. Weep for your children. I find it absolutely amazing
to see the sovereign incarnate God standing before this puny
little governor and listening to him talk down his nose at
him and pity him like a beggar. And then think about this. All
those in authority, whether religious or secular, will one day find
out that their authority and influence in this world was all
used of God and ordained of God to accomplish His everlasting
purpose of grace. Psalm 76.10 says, Surely the
wrath of man shall praise Thee. We're going to praise Him. In the end, you're going to see
that. We're going to see that. And the remainder of wrath shalt
thou restrain. Alright, here's the fourth thing
that I found absolutely amazing. It's that Judas, The son of perdition
repented. He repented. Did you find that
amazing? I read that, and I went back
and read it again. And I read it the third time, and it was
just as amazing to me the third time as it was the first time. Verse 3, and Judas, which had
betrayed him, When he saw that he was condemned, he repented
himself and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the
chief priest and elders, saying, I have sinned. He repented. But this is not the repentance
given of God. Can you hear me? This is not
the repentance given of God, but a repentance that needed
to be repented of. Lots of men repent of things
they have done. Conscience begins to wear on
the mind. And you begin to repent. I did
this. I did that. And you can't make
it go away. And you're sorry you ever did
it. Sorry I ever did it. But more sorry than that is when
you're convicted of it. Then you're not only sorry for
what you did, but you're sorry you got caught. And this was
the thing with him. is he knew when they condemned
the Lord, he saw himself being used of them in the condemnation
of Christ. And he repented. This is just suddenly realizing
that something he did was wrong, but still holding on to all the
other things and looking at them as not so bad. I don't have many
people I've talked to in my lifetime who have one sin that they've
done that they can't shake. Can't shake it. Can't get past
it. Whatever it was. In John 12, verse 6, this plainly
indicates that Judas was a thief. Isn't that what that says? He
was a thief. He questioned our Lord. about
that alabaster box that was broken. He said it could have been sold
and given to the poor. It was wasted. This act of Mary
on you was a wasted thing. Wasted. Ungodly thing that she
did. This was precious. It could have
been sold and all that money given to the poor. But he didn't
say it because he cared for the poor. See it there in that verse?
He said it because he was a thief and carried the bag. But Judas
is not repenting over that, is he? Huh? He is not sorry about that at
all. It is very plain in his betrayal.
He just betrayed the Lord. But he is not repenting about
that. And that plainly, plainly to me, tales of his allegiance
with the Jews, even though he was a professed
follower of Christ. But you don't see him repenting
of that. He'd been deceived, and he is in fact a fallen son
of Adam whose every imagination of thought is only evil continually,
but he ain't repenting of that. Repentance is not over some isolated
act that you did or a number of isolated acts that you did.
Repentance is about running from who you are, turning from who
you are. You're obnoxious in your own
eyes when you see what you are. And it's turning from it. Turning
from it. It turns from itself the way
a man would turn from a leopard. finds nothing in himself to love
or hope in, nothing in himself to value or treasure. And what
I find amazing here is that a man can do so much evil and only
be affected by a single act. Don't you find that amazing?
And then the fifth remarkable thing I see here is that a man
who believes in the final judgment of God knows that he's a sinner. That's what he said. I've seen.
I know that I'm a sinner should go out and take his own life
and thrust himself into the hands of an angry God. I find that
absolutely amazing. The only reason for any man to
do such a thing is that they hope by the sacrifice of themselves
to undo everything that they had done. I'm going to ask you something.
Folks in here this morning, I'm not trying to scare you. I'm
not trying to scare you adults. But do you know why hell is everlasting? Have you ever thought about that? Why is hell everlasting? Do you know why no man, no matter
how long he suffers, shall ever be set free? You remember Lazarus talking
to the rich man? And he said, If I could just
have a drop of water to quench my thirst, and he said, there's
a great gulf fixed. I can't come over there and you
can't come over here. Why is that? Why is hell everlasting? Because man is not sufficient
nor all his sufferings to satisfy the justice of a holy God. That's
why. And running out and hanging yourself
because you betrayed the Son of God is not going to undo what
you did. And I don't care what else you've
done. Judas was deceived, Jeremiah
said. The heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? And I'm amazed
at what deceived men do and attempt to do to justify it. in the Word
of God. And then the sixth amazing thing
I see here is that the chief priest picked up the blood money
which they knew they could not put in the treasury and used
it to buy the potter's field to be used to bury strangers
in. They justified this blood money
by doing something charitable with it. The whole of Antichrist religion
takes their betrayal money and hides it from the people in acts
of charity. Did you hear what I said? They
take that betrayal money. They stand up and deceive people.
And they take that betrayal money that those folks give to them
and they go out and do charitable works to justify what they did
and hide it from the people. Never mind how we got it. Don't
you find that amazing? When Judas came back with that
money and he said, here, I don't want it. I've sinned. I've betrayed innocent blood.
I don't want this money. And they said, what's that to
us? What's it to you? You're the one who offered him
the money. You're the one who paid him the
money. You're the one who told him he'd
be doing God a service by betraying the Son of God. Well, what's
that to us? As though they hadn't done anything.
And then when Judas threw the money down, he just threw it
down on the floor. Things were getting worse for
him. He went out and hung himself. And now these priests are looking
at that money while we can't leave it on the floor. I'll tell
you what we'll do. We'll go out here and buy the
potter's field. And when these strangers come in, we don't want
them buried with us anyway. We'll bury them out in the potter's
field. I find that absolutely amazing.
And then last of all, I find it absolutely mind-boggling that
everybody that I just described to you was foretold by the prophet
of God 500 years before it ever came to pass. Don't you find
that amazing? Jeremiah said, they're going
to take this 30 pieces of silver, which they're all going to get
together and decide that's the value of this man, this 30 pieces
of silver. We're all going to get together,
and we're going to do this. Jeremiah said that 500 years
before it ever came to pass. And it came to pass exactly with
whom and at that time that Jeremiah prophesied. Nothing more forcefully points
to the existence and power of God than the Holy Scriptures.
Only an almighty, all-seeing, all-knowing God can declare the
end from the beginning and then bring it to past. And skeptics
and agnostics have been trying to disprove the Word of God for
4,000 years with no avail. And some of you kids, you're
just about the right age, you two girls, And some of these
other ones, you're going to get into school and they're going
to begin to lump all these spiritual things that you see in the Word
of God and they're going to lump them right in with the Buddhists
and the Mohammeds and everybody else out there. Let me tell you
something. When they go to disprove the
Word of God, you better know something. Better than three
quarters of this book has been fulfilled and not one thing that
God ever said has not come to pass. in this book. Not one thing. Not in 4,000 years. You want to run off and believe
a bunch of men who not even quibble about telling you that the world
is flat and you'll sail off the end of it? And men believe that?
For how long? Huh? They said the sun revolved around
the earth and everything else. A few thousand years later, they
found out that wasn't so. And they say, well, the Word
of God, that's just another book. If I was you, I'd believe those
agnostics. Yeah, go believe them. Scientists,
so-called. But I tell you this, you need
to read this book and get yourself acquainted with it and find out
what it says. Not one thing in it has ever
failed to come to pass, though it was written thousands of years
before it ever came to pass. Jesus Christ came exactly according
to the prophets. And that's what took place on
that day. Everything God said was going to take place, took
place exactly. That's how we know that Jesus
of Nazareth is the Son of God, because everything God prophesied
of Him came to pass.