Matthew chapter 26. Let's begin
reading in verse 57. And they that had laid hold on
Jesus led Him away to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes
and elders were assembled. But Peter followed Him afar off
unto the high priest's palace, and went in and sat with the
servants to see the end. Now the chief priests and elders
and all the council sought false witness against Jesus to put
Him to death, but found none. Yea, though many false witnesses
came, yet found they none. At the last came two false witnesses
and said, this fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of
God and to build it in three days. And the high priest arose
and said unto him, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which
these witness against thee? But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered
and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou
tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto
him, Thou hast said, Nevertheless, I say unto you, hereafter shall
ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, coming
in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his
clothes, saying, he hath spoken blasphemy. What further need
have we of witnesses? Behold, now ye have heard his
blasphemy. What think ye? They answered
and said, he is guilty of death. Then did they spit in his face
and buffeted him, and others smote him with the palms of their
hands, saying, Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, who is he that
smote thee?" Now in verses 57 through 68,
the Holy Ghost inspired our Lord's disciple
Matthew to set before us a scene which would shock the average
churchgoer. It would shock him down to his
shoes if the Lord ever opened his eyes to see what really took
place before this priest. The Lord of glory, He who created
the world, He said He came into the world
and the world was made by Him. This is the Creator of the world. This is He of whom the entire
Old Testament spoke and prophesied of His coming, hoped in His coming. They took the Lord of glory by
force. By force. They came out with
staves and clubs and knives soldiers and took him by force and dragged
him before the ecclesiastical court of mainstream religion. Now churches today portray the
Jews. I say that, and I'm making this
point because I think it's a very important one, that the Jews
in their day was mainstream religion. They are the exact picture of
religion today. Now, churches today portray the
Jews as blatant hypocrites, pretenders of religion and false prophets
that anybody with any sense ought to be able to recognize. And
while it is true by our Lord's own testimony that they were
all of these things, it was not obvious to the people. Religion
is all of that today, but it's not obvious to the multitude. It's not obvious to the people.
These men were not kooks and crackpots. These men were the only people on the top
side of God's green earth who claimed an interest in the living
God. These weren't crackpots. They
read, studied, and expounded from the Word of God. And their
offices, their sacrifices, their holy days, and feasts, and all
these things that they practiced were all ordained of God. They
owned the Old Testament, which was all they had at that time
of the Bible. They owned the Old Testament
writers as being inspired of God and referred to their writings
as Holy Scripture. This wasn't a handful of nutcases
run amok, but mainstream orthodox religion who were gathered now
for the third time in a single week to excommunicate the Son
of God, and in a way that would seem to honor both them and the
law, condemn Him to death. And they brought in, I think
it ought to just jump off the page actually, they brought in
false witnesses. False witnesses. One after the
other. One after the other. One after
the other. But they couldn't find any that
they could sell to the people. They found plenty, but they couldn't
find any that they could push over on the people and hoodwink
the people. And my reason for telling you
all this is to point out to you that mainstream religion, and
that what I'm talking about here is that which has gained the
acceptance, the tolerance at least, of this world, it was
then and it is now the enemies of God. They are the enemies of God. They gather just as we're gathered
here this morning. They open this book just as I've
opened it and read it to you this morning. They stand up just
like I'm standing before you this morning and teach. They
shake one another's hand, call one another brother and sister. They meet, they sing, they worship,
they pray, they do all of these things. But I'm telling you this,
on the authority of this book, they are the enemies of God.
They were then. And they are now. When Stephen
brought his message over in the book of Acts, he pointed to those
Jews and he took them all the way back to Abraham. And he came
down through their history. And all through their history,
he kept pointing out Christ to them. Pointing out Christ to
them. Then David, and then all these men, all down through.
And finally he looked at them and he said, you stiff-necked
and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do, like your fathers,
you do always resist the Holy Ghost. You resist the message
of Christ. You deny the Christ of God. The Jews wanted to keep their
stations and keep their structures and their customs, but they wanted
no part of this kind of a Christ. When Christ came, He manifested
the real Christ before men, the Christ of God, and why He was
here, and what He was about to do, and for whom He was about
to do it. And they wanted no part of this
kind of a Christ, and especially the gospel of grace that He preached. I'm telling you this, worldly
religion is worldly. That's the first thing God taught
me about it. Worldly religion is worldly. Most of what they
relate to as blessings and benefits are just of this world. It's
just of this world. Health and wealth and recognition
and authority and longevity of life and all these things, money,
all of these things. When the truth is that the love
of this world is not of the Father. Isn't that what John said? It's
not of the Father. And believers are warned against
it. He said, love not the world, neither the things that are in
the world. If any man loved the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. Worldly religion is worldly. They mix the ideas and philosophies
and desires of the world in their religious practices and in their
doctrine. Free will. I defy you to find
anywhere in this book, Old Testament or New, where the salvation of
sinners is left to the free will of man. You can't find it. It's
not in there. But it's mixed in every doctrine
they preach. Free will. Freewill works religion
is worldly religion. It glorifies man and not God. It elevates man and not God. And it appeals to man and not
God. You go back and read about the
ministries of these men in the New Testament, and you won't
find them out here pleading with men. You'll find them alone in
their closet pleading with God for these men, praying that God
will do something for them. Praying that God will open their
eyes, give them life, raise them from the dead. And
while the religion of this world sings about God and mercy and
grace, they don't believe or preach a word of it. I'm telling
you, I came up in religion and I know what I'm talking about.
I'd bow, I'd throw my head back, strum that guitar and sing Amazing
Grace. I didn't know grace from a bucket
of buttermilk. Grace. Seeing all those old hymns
talking about grace, I didn't have one word to understand it. Their God is restrained by men's
rights and man's will. He's hindered by chance and circumstance. He's hindered by Satan's power.
It's out of control. And God now is forced to take
desperate measures. And the God of this generation
knows nothing about those whom He saves. Doesn't know anything
about them. Just what they allow Him to know. What they tell Him. And He dares not interfere with
their lives lest He violate their free agency. Truth is, the religion
of this world is nothing at all like true religion. I told a
fellow one time, he said, well, how do you know what's true?
I said, you take everything they say and take the opposite. You'll
have the truth. You'll have the truth. True religion
worships God. It worships God. It don't have
to have a rock and roll band and an orchestra and a choir
to raise them up in that music and lift them up in that music
that they call worship. It doesn't have to have the candle
lights and the choir boys and the robes and all these majestic
things, the cathedrals and all of these things. It doesn't need
any of that for worship. It worships God. And it worships
Him in spirit and truth. It worships Him as He is in His
absolute sovereignty. It worships Him in His attributes
and character. And most of all, it worships
Him in His mercy and grace in Christ. It worships Him. And this world has and worships
another God, Paul said, and another Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth, though he
fulfilled every messianic prophecy in the Old Testament, was rejected
because he bore no resemblance to the Christ they looked for.
That's why they rejected him. He wasn't anything at all like
what they thought would appear. Well, they were looking for a
man like David. They were looking for a kingdom
like ancient Israel. They were looking for one to
come along, and in God's favor, He'd raise him up and He'd deliver
them out of their captivity like Moses did, and He'd restore unto
them that ancient glory of Israel. That's what they looked for.
They thought the kingdom of God was in the Middle East. They
didn't understand anything at all about this thing, the Kingdom
of God cometh without observation. The Kingdom of God is in your
heart. They didn't understand any of
those things. This man didn't fit the bill. He wasn't anything
like what they looked for. And that's why folks a lot of
times come in here and listen one time and they're out the
door and don't come back. What we preach doesn't fit what
they believe. One fellow said he was being
talked to about his rebellion against the message that was
preached here. And he was telling him, he said,
well, the Bible says, the Bible says. And after a while, he got
angry and his face got red. And he said, I don't care what
the Bible says. Well, that's the problem. That's
the problem. And you can just apply that across
the board. I don't care what the Bible says. That's that rebellion
in man. That's that enmity of God in
him. It's not subject to the law of
God or the Word of God, neither indeed can it be. They worship
another God and another Jesus. You preach substitution and representation
and imputed righteousness. the new birth, gospel preaching,
repentance and faith. These things were all contrary
to what they believed. These things had no place in
what they believed. They believed in illegal righteousness. They believed that the thing
to do was to make God's law known unto man and then he's to follow
that law and win the favor of God by his obedience to the law. Mention election in the average
pulpit today and they'd ask you to leave and then they'd publish
newsletters warning all the surrounding churches about this heretic trying
to limit God's salvation. Preach sovereign grace and they'd
brand you as a hard shell. Preach particular redemption
and they'd accuse you of violating man's rights to be saved. Turn with me to John chapter
3. What's going on here is the exposing of this world's sinful
delusion that they know the one true and living God. Somebody
said one time, they'd heard this man preach several times, and
he said, all right, all right, we get it, we get it, now let's
move on. No, you don't get it. If you
got it, you wouldn't want to move on. Because this is it. This is it. Salvation is in Christ. Don't move on. Paul said, if
you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. You are complete in Him. Everything
is in Him. Don't go somewhere else. That
is what the Galatians did. They wanted to go somewhere else.
Don't go anywhere else. Stay put. He that hath the Son
hath life. Our Lord is standing before ecclesiastical
religion, orthodox religion, world accepted religion, and
He is exposing the ruin of man before this high priest. It is the unveiling of their
total depravity and ruin. Now watch this here in John 3,
verse 18. He that believeth on him, is not
condemned. But he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God." And this is the condemnation. Here it is. You say, man is depraved. How do you know? Here it is.
Here's the condemnation. Here's the depravity. You say,
man totally ruined. Can you give me a scripture for
it? Yeah, I'm about to read it to you right here. This is condemnation
that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather
than light. This was light standing before
Caiaphas. Perfect, complete light. In him was light and no darkness
at all. He is the light that lighteth
every man that cometh into the world. This is light. And he's
standing before Caiaphas, and Caiaphas is calling him a blasphemer. That's ruined man. That's what
that is. Because his deeds were evil. His religion was evil. His worship
was evil. His prayers, everything about
him was evil. It was not ignorant hands that
slayed the Lord Jesus Christ, though they were ignorant. It
was not mentally unsound hands that slain the Lord Jesus Christ,
though madness, Solomon said, is in their heart. They live
in madness. But it says by wicked hands He
was crucified and slain. Wicked hands. This religious
world is so convinced that they know and serve the living God
that our Lord said they'll plead that very thing even at judgment.
Even at judgment, before Him whose eyes are not dim, He looks
on the thoughts and intents of your heart, and they're going
to stand there still in that day at judgment and say, have
not we preached in thy name? No, you never did. Have not we
done many wonderful works? No, your works were an abomination
to me. I told you that. Have not we done many wonderful
works in thy name? Now listen to what he tells them.
Depart from me, I never knew you. I never knew you. Mainstream religion, worldly
religion has always been contrary to God and the gospel of His
grace. And then the second thing I want
you to see here is the fulfilling of the types. the fulfilling
of the types. We've been studying Exodus on
Wednesday night, and we've been studying the great high priest,
looking at his clothing, at his robe, his ephod, his crown, and
all of those things, the breastplate, the shoulder pieces, those jewels,
all those things about the high priest and who this high priest
was and what he did. And one of the things that he
did was to lay hold of a live goat. You remember reading that
over in the book of Leviticus? He laid hold of a live goat,
and he confessed the sins of Israel upon his head. He laid
all the sins of Israel upon the head of this live goat, and then
he was sent away into the wilderness. And how fitting it is here that
our Savior, who has been considered as a goat, He has been marked
as a goat by this priesthood. And he's brought before the high
priest on that great day of atonement. And by the providence of God,
pronounces sin upon the head of the scapegoat. And they led
him off to the wilderness. They led him off to the courts
of Rome. And then secondly, it said he
was bound. Listen to this type. When Abraham
took Isaac up on Mount Moriah, what did he do with him? He was
bound. He was bound. Now Abraham didn't
bind him against his will, but he was submissive to his father
and was bound, submissively, willingly bound and laid upon
that altar. And our Lord was bound, not by
cords or ropes, but by the sins and iniquity of His people. Listen
to this. I thought this was so good. Robert
Hawker, one of the old commentaries on the entire scriptures, he
said, for as chains and fetters tie down the body, so sin and
iniquity bend down the soul. And our Lord cried out to God
as one whose soul was bound. Bound. And there's something
very striking concerning the judgment of unbelieving men in
this thing of this binding. When our Lord said, He said,
now don't you go in and start separating wheat from tares. I'll take care of that. You don't
do that. You pull up the wheat. But in that day, He said, when
He sends out His angels, they'll gather up those tares and listen
to what He says. and bind them. Isn't that what
he said? And then cast them into the fire.
They'd be bound. And then, you remember that parable
he gave of the king who made a marriage supper for his child? You remember that? For his son,
he made this marriage supper. And at the end, somebody was
sitting there, but he didn't have the wedding garment on.
The king supplied garments, special garments for all those who were
invited to the supper, but he didn't have one on. Do you know
what it said about him? Bind him hand and foot, and cast
him into outer darkness. The binding of our Savior is
that binding due to His elect. It is a binding of law and justice,
and it is a binding of love. And then last of all, I want
you to hear what the Lord tells these reprobates. Matthew 26,
verse 64. Theophis is losing his cool because
the Lord is not answering his questions. He thought by now
he ought to be trembling in his shoes and just start to say anything. He ought to just be confessing
what he is, but he is not. He is just sitting there in peaceful
silence before Him. It said he held his peace. He
just sat there and looked at him. Looked this old reprobate
right in the face and wouldn't answer him a single word. And
finally he just was at wit's end and he said, I adjure you
by the living God. If you be the Messiah, tell us. And he said, well, that's what
you said. You said I was the Messiah. You
said it. I didn't say it. You said it. But he said, here's
what I'm going to tell you. You're standing before me right
now looking at me. The next time you see me, you're
going to see me coming in clouds of glory. You're going to see
me as I am. We don't often think about me
and not seeing. These were men by the Lord's
own mouth that were blind leaders of the blind. They could see
Him with their physical eyes, but they couldn't see Him with
their spiritual eyes. They saw Him, but they saw no
glory in Him. They saw no majesty in Him. They
saw no deity in Him. They were ready to cast Him over
the brow of the hill because He said, I and the Father are
one. They saw Him, but they didn't see Him. They could see a man,
but they could not see the God-man. A natural man is blind to the
person and work of Jesus Christ. Isaiah said, when He has come,
He said, we will see Him. We shall see Him. There is no
beauty that we should desire Him. That is what we don't see
any beauty in Him. You see the man. And this world
hears the facts concerning His birth and His life, His death
and His resurrection, but it does not see the glory of God
in His face. That is salvation to see that.
That is eternal life to see that. Every time this gospel is preached,
men can be said to see Him. But not all who see Him, see
Him as He is. Let me give you one more Scripture
and I'll wind this thing up. John chapter 6. Turn with me over there. John
chapter 6 and verse 35. Again, He's addressing these
same men, these Pharisees and this High Council of Israel.
And He said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh
to Me shall never hunger. He that believeth on Me shall
never thirst. Now watch this. But I said unto
you that ye also have seen Me, and believe not. Believe not. All that the Father
giveth Me shall come to Me. That's what seeing Him is. Seeing
Him in His glory. Seeing Him in His majesty. Seeing
Him in infinite mercy and grace. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out." These men had seen Him a hundred times. These men
had seen Him as He described Himself to them in the parables
and in the prophets. And these men had seen Him as
he was approved of God through the miracles and wonders and
signs which God did by him in their midst. They saw him, but
they saw nothing in him worthy of praise, worthy of all. They saw no glory and no majesty,
no sovereignty. All they saw was a man who was
causing chaos in their religion. Okay, if it's when He cried,
I adjure thee by the living God that thou tellest whether thou
be the Christ, the Son of God. He said that not because He wanted
to believe on Him, or rejoice in Him, or worship Him, but to
find Him guilty by His own mouth of fraud. Fraud. And our Lord said unto him, Hereafter
shall you see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of
power. Every eye is going to see Him. Every knee is going
to bow down to Him. And every tongue is going to
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. You're going to do it here, or
you're going to do it there, but you're going to do it. You're
going to do it. And he told that old proud priest,
he said, I'm going to tell you something. This is what you confessed,
and you confessed it through clenched teeth. And he said,
but I'm going to tell you this, and next time you see me, you're
going to see me on the clouds of glory. All those who do not see Him
here will one day see Him and all His majesty and deity. And
what they see will not cause repentance and faith, but fear
and dread. And they'll cry to Him, not out
of mercy, They'll cry to Him in that day. They'll cry to the
rocks and the mountains to hide Him from the face of Him with
whom they have to do. May God be pleased to grant us
the mercy and grace to see Him now, to see Him in God's benevolence
and God's mercy and God's grace and fall down before Him.