That was a powerful song service. I mean, how many sermons, how many sermons were preached in that message from all the songs? I guess the one that struck me is the next to last song that Bob let us in. The devil is sifting. And we looked at it a couple of weeks ago about being shaken. He allowed Peter to be shaken. I'll allow him to shake you, but I'm not gonna allow him to have you. You remember that? Well, listen, if America, if Christians don't hold on to the truth of God's word, you will be shaken and the devil will have you. This is our own firm foundation right here, church. Amen. Well, let's get to it this morning. This is not a feel-good message. We're dealing with Judas. Why in the world would we deal with Judas again? We've kind of already looked at it once. Because the gospel writer Matthew, in the midst of Jesus being carried to the trial before Pilate, saw fit one more time to go back to Judas taking his own life when he was remorseful over what he had done for the Lord Jesus Christ. I guess if I was gonna tell Josh what the hashtag for this sermon would be this morning, there's a lot of good ones. Verse four in particular is just full. But the hashtag this morning would be what Judas said. He said, I have sinned. I have sinned. And we're gonna see this morning, there's seven other people that use that same language in God's word. Seven other people said, I have sinned. And only two of those seven are saved. There are only two of them that are in heaven today. So it's a powerful, powerful message that we're looking at this morning. We're looking at the end of Judas, the end of Judas. I'll read the scripture one more time. Verse 1 in chapter 27. Okay, so you know the setting? It all went down on Thursday afternoon. They're in the garden. Judas brings the people into the garden and they arrest Jesus, and they go straight from there from a night session of the religious council. The Pharisees, the Sanhedrins, they have a night session in which is illegal and in which they find Jesus guilty of blasphemy and they want him to be dead. They want him to be crucified. So that's where we were. And so then he says, when morning came, the next morning, some of these people haven't gone to bed yet. Okay, but they have a morning session again of the religious council. And what they do in this morning session is to confirm what happened illegally at night. And then he is delivered into Pilate's hands. So that's kind of where we're at in the setting of the scripture. So when morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. And they bound him and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate the governor. Verse three, then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he saw that Jesus really was going to be killed. He changed his mind about what he had done and brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priest and the elders, saying, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. They said, what is that to us? Now this is that powerful, powerful verse. I want you to see what it says here again, verse four. First of all, Judas says, I have sinned by portraying innocent blood. So he had been found out, he is remorseful, but also want you to see what he says to the religious authorities. This man is guiltless. This man is innocent. And we'll look at that as a little closer as we go. And then I want you to look at this next line. But the religious people said, what's that to us? That's your own problem. I mean, this is a powerful scripture that we're looking at here this morning. And they went on to say, Judas, you have to take care of that. That's your problem, Judas. See to it yourself. Verse five, and throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed and he went and hanged himself. But the chief priest taking the pieces of silver, now remember where Judas got the money, okay? You remember where Judas got the money from. So the chief priest taking the pieces of silver that they had given him said, it's not lawful to put them into the treasury since it's blood money. So verse 7, so they took counsel and brought with them the potter's field as a burial place for strangers. Therefore that field has been called the field of blood to this day. And then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah saying, and they took the 30 pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, and they gave them for the potter's field as the Lord directed me. Dear Lord, in the name of Jesus, I pray that by your Holy Spirit, I would preach this sermon exactly the way that you want me to preach it. I pray that you would give me counsel. I pray that you'd be praying for me as I preach it. I pray that you would do by your Spirit And the Word of God, what you see fit to do with me and with this people for your honor and your glory for the salvation of souls. For it's in Christ's name that we pray. And all of God's people said. So we're in chapter 27. You know, that comes right before chapter 28, which is the last chapter of Matthew. If the Lord is gracious and I live a few more months, I probably will finish up the book of Matthew. That's my plan. Chapter 27 begins with the Jewish rulers handing Jesus over to the Gentiles in the person of the Roman governor by the name of Pilate, who was the governor of the province at this time. Now, I want you to know that Jesus himself had prophesied back in chapter 20 of Matthew that this was gonna happen. Jesus is also a prophet. Some people will accept him as prophet, but they won't accept him as the Savior, but as prophet. Look at Matthew 20, 18 through 19. Jesus says, see, we're going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes. Delivered over who? Not to the Romans, not to some civil authority, but to the religious authority, the priests and the scribes. And they will condemn Him to death. And look at verse 19. And then they will deliver Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked, flogged, and crucified. And He will be raised on the third day. These are the words of Jesus Himself prophesying about what was going to happen. Jesus was to be betrayed by the scribes, the Pharisees, the chief priests, the teachers of law. The religious teachers of the law were the ones that were going to betray Jesus. They're going to condemn Him to death and turn Him over to the Gentiles to be crucified because the religious people did not have that authority to put someone to death. And then on the third day, he will be raised again. Hallelujah. He is not in the tomb. He is risen. He spent 40 days here. He's ascended to heaven. He is praying for this service this morning. He is interceding on behalf of those that had the storms in Northwest Arkansas. He's waiting for God to send him back to bring consummation, to bring an end of this world as we know it, and for him to judge and to set up his kingdom. Now, Matthew is the only gospel writer that saw fit after the taking him to Pilate to look at the death of Judas one more time. So, if he looked at it, we're surely going to look at it. Judas, now listen, we've already figured this out. This is a little bit of review. The sad fate of Judas should be instructive to us. Surely from what happened with Judas, we can learn from it. All right, now remember, this has kind of been on my mind lately. I want you to get this. Charles Spurgeon says, we need to be self-suspicious. We might say, as Peter would say, I'd never do that. But if we're not careful, we've got way more capabilities of doing evil than we think we do. So we need to be, first of all, we need to be self-suspicious. Now, here's three things we've already talked about. We won't spend any time here. I want you to know Judas had great privileges. He was with Jesus for three years. Those are privileged people. But right privileges and right acquaintances, listen, just because your mom and dad is right with God doesn't mean that you are. And just because you run with the right folks don't mean that you're right folk. Keep that in mind. You can be about the right people. Listen, it amazes me that people can come week after week or maybe go somewhere else week after week and hear great sermons and miss Jesus. It's amazing to me somebody hung around with Jesus and missed him. It's amazing that these Jewish scholars that knew everything about what Old Testament they had missed Jesus. And I'll just tell you, you don't want to miss Jesus. And you don't want to miss who Jesus is and what Jesus has done and what he's going to do. These people have great privileges and great acquaintances, but they still perish and spend an eternity in hell. So get this, that is a possibility. It's not a possibility, it's a reality. If you miss Jesus Christ as being the savior of the world, the coming ruler of the world, as being the savior of the world, and never take him in and become a follower of his, you too will perish. We know what Judas's main problem was. He was greedy. He had a love for money. And let me just tell you what else this teaches us. There is no hope for the unconverted. For those who are not saved, there's no hope of heaven. So we'll move on. So with that in mind, let me move on to this, and I was thinking about some, and it's always amazing, the ones you think about need to hear this, you get to church on Sunday morning, they're not here, right? So maybe this is not for, maybe it's for you, not for them anyway. So why should we pause a moment here? Because it's really important for you to know you're saved. You know why? Because you need to know you're saved because if you're not saved, you're going to spend an eternity. That's 10,000 years plus in an eternal hell. It's so important for you to know you're saved. So he says in Philippians 2.12. Therefore, my beloved, as you've always obeyed, so now not only in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. You're not working to be saved, you're just looking for evidences in you and in your changed, regenerated life that you are converted, that you are a new person in Christ Jesus. 2 Corinthians 13.5, examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Are you not realize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you fail to meet the test? So, y'all know what that verse says? You've heard it over and over again. Is there any evidence that the Lord Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit of God lives in you? Now, I want to tell you, if God Almighty lives in you, there will be evidences of it, especially for yourself. There's been a magnitudinal change in you. In the third one, 2 Peter 1, 10 through 11, and the verses preceding this in verses 1 through 9 tells you what he's talking about here. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent. To what? To confirm your calling, be all the more diligent to make sure you're saved. And let me just talk to you parents for just a second. It is your responsibility to observe and pray for and watch your children to know whether they're saved or not. So you know how to pray for them. You need to do doing that. To confirm your calling in election. Listen to this. Listen closely. I could call out some names. You really need to listen to this. For if you practice these qualities, you'll never fall. There are things that you can do to enhance your spiritual walk. And he tells us what these things are. You need to be about doing those things. And we'll look at them at the end. Verse 11, for in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of God, eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So make sure you're saved. Know you're saved. Don't go to bed tonight not knowing that you're saved. Do business with Jesus. You've got to understand Judas would not do business with Jesus. There's lots of people that will admit a lot of things, but they will not do business with Jesus. So let's look at the text a little closer. Verses one and two, when morning came, all the chief priests and the elders, the people took counsel against Jesus to do what? To put him to death. And they bound him and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate, the governor. So the religious council officially reconvened in the morning so they could deliver up the verdict officially that they had already decided on the night before. Now, hopefully I can give you a couple of interesting things about this that I'd had no idea about and we ought to keep it in mind today. And so what they're doing publicly now in daylight is trying to cover up what they had done illegally the night before. Because what did you know? Everything they did the night before went against all the Jewish laws. Really all the laws that are set up by God's Word. Now, that had probably been a sparse group that was assembled. And now the whole council has come together. I want you to know again, the Jews did not have the authority to execute capital punishment, so the prisoner would now, as Jesus said, go from the religious council to a Roman governor so he could give the death sentence. Jesus prophesied that. He is the one who could sentence the prisoner to death. Now at that time, Judas returns upon the scene and Matthew brings it up again, what Judas was gonna talk about and what Judas was gonna do. So Judas got there and he heard what was going on. And what did he hear? Jesus is going to be killed. Up until that time, maybe he didn't know that was what's going to happen. But now he's aware of it. And he realized that Jesus was going to die. And so he had remorse. He had some regrets for what he had done. Now why did he have remorse and regrets for what he'd done? Because he knew what kind of man Jesus was. And he knew what? He wasn't guilty and he knew he didn't deserve death. So he was remorseful for what he had done. Now, Lewis got me started this morning on Hebrew and Greek. And you young people, if you've got any interest in being an elder or a pastor or any kind of a leader in the church, you need to become a student of the languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. You need to become a student. I have 42 or 44 hours towards my master's. I wish I had every bit of it in Hebrew and Greek. I wish I had every bit of it in that, but I don't. So, Judas had remorse and regret. He did not use the word Met and O-A, which was normally used for repentance. See, if we knew the language, we'd catch off this right at the bat. That was the word that Peter used, but he didn't use that word. He used the word Met and El Lomahi. Met and El Lomahi. And this word was not repentance. It was not repentance from sin. It was only a sorrow and a regret. You young people know what I'm talking about. How about us older people? It's a regret that I got caught. That's what he regretted. So two different words are used. And so it shows us that this was not repentance. He may have said, I have sinned, but he did not repent. All right, now hang on just a bit. Now Peter truly repented. Now how do we know that Peter truly repented? After he was broken and wept, who did he go to find? He went to find Jesus. He went back around him and when Jesus was resurrected and went to Galilee, who went there also to find him? Peter truly repented. He sought Jesus and was restored. Judas never repented and was never restored. If he had have been, he would have sought out Christ. So Jesus is condemned unjustly and illegally, and then they are making a way to kill him. almost if they were fearful that somebody might overrule them. And let me just tell you, it's really interesting what I found, but in Jewish law, in much of the law that our country is set upon, there had to be two witnesses. Now listen to this. They had to give, if there was a death sentence executed, are y'all with me? I know we're, We're getting a tad drowsy here this morning. We need to turn the air down, right? All right, so look. So in this, there was a three-day waiting period before a person could be executed. Now, why was that the case? In case there was a witness that came forward to clear the guy. That was in their laws. Well, what happened? Here's the guy that came forward and said, this man is not guilty of what you've charged him with. But they were already settled on their mind. So they delivered him over Pilate to be crucified. Now it's interesting, if they had done it at this time, what it could have stirred up. But what they did, what they did not, Why did, let me ask you this, why did they go ahead and put Christ to death? I think they were afraid something was gonna happen and they'd missed the opportunity. Listen to John 18, 31, you have this verse. Pilate said to them, take him yourselves and judge him by your own law. The Jews said to him, it's not lawful for us to put anyone to death. They had already, out of their hatred for Christ, broken several of the rules regarding capital cases. And now they break another one. Besides, it was the Passover day, and this might have stirred up a riot and have put them in a strait with local authorities. So in the morning, after receiving counsel, they delivered Christ over to Pilate to be crucified. Matthew Poole says, as we begin to look at this situation with the money, So these people had no problems on Thursday night eating the Passover meal. Then let me ask you what they did the rest of the night. Think about it a second. They had the Passover meal, this great experience spiritually, and then the rest of the night they had an illegal meeting conniving to kill an innocent man. Wow. But yet now they're concerned about being defiled and not being able to go to the Passover event, not to be able to go to the rest of the feast because they've defiled themselves by going into the court of a pilot, a Gentile who was the governor. So let's go to verse three. And then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priest and the elders, saying, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. This is the guy that brought the authorities into the garden. And now he's saying this man is innocent. And so the priest said, what's that to us? What should any man with any integrity at all have said? Wait a minute, what are you talking about here? Did they do any of that? No, they go headlong and they told Judas, see to it yourself. And throwing down the pieces of the silver into the temple, he departed and went and hanged himself. Judas says, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. So we should learn from this, all repentance is not saving repentance. What'd he say? I have sinned. Now repentance regards not only saying but doing, turning from sin. He did not have the heart to humble himself and beg for forgiveness. He did not have the heart to seek out Jesus. He did not have the heart to go to Jesus. He did not have the heart to defend Jesus. Verse 4b says, what is that to us? The priest had taken the money out of the temple treasure, but now they'll not put it back in the treasure. They're only concerned about their outward defilement. They're not the least bit concerned about Judas, nor the fact that they have convicted an innocent man. Religious leaders, we've looked at this in the past too, are surely capable of being lost and ruthless. Keep that in mind. And he went out and hanged himself. The devil had entered into his heart to tempt him, to sell out Jesus, and now the devil enters him again to persuade him to put an end to this miserable life that he was living in and to hang himself. So let's go to verse 6. So God's Word clearly forbids the use of profane money into the temple treasury. Look at Deuteronomy 23, 18. You shall not bring a fee of a prostitute or the wages of a dog into the house of the Lord your God in payment for any vow for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God. And so they saw that this money had been defiled. So now, I want you to see what they are. They gave the money out of the temple treasury, but now they're too righteous to put the money back into the treasury. And let's go on to the last four or five verses. So they took counsel and brought with them the potter's field as a burial place for strangers. Therefore that field has been called the field of blood to this day. And then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah saying, and they took 30 pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, And they gave them for the potter's field as the Lord directed me. Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard and a servant girl came up to him and said, you also were with Jesus of Galilee, but he denied it before them all saying, I do not know what you mean. So I want you to see that these people were trying to figure out what are we gonna do with this money? So what did they do? They decided to buy a plot of ground. A plot of ground, a mostly worthless piece of potter's ground. Now what am I talking about? This was a place that a potter had, he owned, he used it. He probably mined the ground to get the materials for the pots. He probably threw the waste of the pot keels there and it was a place of no great value. And so it's always been known as the field of blood. It was bought with blood money is what the sign speaks of. And upon this purchase of it by the priest, it was still and is called many years after the field of blood. Okay, so Jeannie and I were talking about this last night and talking about it this morning. So we have two problems here that really until I began to study this time, I didn't know really were problems at all. Because when you look at this scripture and you read the scripture and you see the word spoken by Jeremiah, what do you think yourself? This came out of the book of Jeremiah, right? Well, to be honest with you, this quote that is from Jeremiah did not come out of the book of Jeremiah. So what are we going to do with that? We have one other problem too. Matthew says that he went out and hung himself, and then we find from the writings of Luke in the book of Acts that he hung himself, his body fell, and burst open. So, we have some things that don't, in our little eyes, seem to match up. So, I want to cover that in closing. Look at Acts 118, talking about him hanging himself. So, Matthew 27, 5 says, he went out and hanged himself. That seems simple enough, right? So, we can all get this picture into our mind, what it looks like. But then we get over to the book of Acts, and Luke says, So how do we reconcile what Matthew said with what Luke said? Well, we're going to take a quick look at that. So it's usually said that he fell from the place where he hanged himself, And with the fall, he burst open. There are people who think that the devil actually strangled him and threw him down a hill. Others that he was suffocated by some disease which caused his body to rupture. Others think, as Matthew speaks, and others like Matthew Poole believe, that he hanged himself, and swelling, his body burst, and his bowels gushed out. So maybe he went off by himself and hung himself. It doesn't say that. He maybe was not found for several days. And maybe he bloated and he burst open. Or maybe he bloated, fell from the tree limb, and burst open. So what I want you to see is sometimes there's things in the Bible that we've got just to take the best we can. Let me give you an example. Concerning the way that Judas died, from these two accounts, we can't really figure out anything in particular. We do know that he was strangled. We know that his bowels gushed out. These two scriptures assert that. But how it exactly happened or took place, the scripture doesn't say. So we've just got to go with what we got, right? Now, let me tell you this. It has nothing to do with the account. It has nothing to do with the gospel message. It has no, nothing to do with gospel truths overall. Okay, so that's the problem with what Luke said in comparison to what Matthew said. Well, what about the scripture not being from Jeremiah? that may even be a bigger problem. So let's look at that. And you know the scripture that we're looking at. It's verses, the last two or three verses that we're looking at this morning. Beginning in verse 9, it says, Now, it says in that account from Jeremiah. All right, let's take a look at this. The nearest place that that scripture is found is in Zechariah. In Zechariah, the 11th chapter, verses 12 and 13, if you want to turn there, we will. Zechariah, right before Malachi. I don't know why I didn't put that scripture in for you. Zechariah, chapter 11, 12, and 13 says this. So it was an old on that day and he and the sheep sheep herders who were watching. knew that it was the word of the Lord. And then I said to them, if it seems good to you, give me my wages, but if not keep them. And they weighed out as many as they weighed out as my wages, 30 pieces of silver. This is about the closest that we get to it in scripture. So what can we make of this? Well, we can make what historians and scholars and theologians have done throughout the time. So some think that the quoted prophecy quoted by Matthew was really from Jeremiah, but not written, but handed down and recorded by Zechariah. that Jeremiah said it, it didn't get recorded, and when Zechariah came along, he recorded it. Number two, some think that Matthew originally wrote the words, the prophet, and some scribe recorded it as Jeremiah. Thirdly, some think that Matthew originally wrote Zechariah, but that some scribe changed it to Jeremiah. Those are all things that have been thrown out. Now here's what I think is the best about what I can read. So when we talk about the law and the writings and the prophets, we're talking about divisions of the Old Testament. The law and the writings and the prophets In that order of the Law, the Writings, and the Prophet, Jeremiah was always listed first. It's not that case in our canon. But in the canons from the past, when it comes time for the prophets, Jeremiah was always listed first. You with me? Okay. So, because the entire section on the prophets was then referred to sometimes as Jeremiah. So they would have said, Jeremiah, and it covered all the Old Testament prophets. Just as the writings were sometimes referred to as a group, as the Psalms. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, all of those are just referred to as the Psalms. So, thus spoken by the prophet Jeremiah was like saying, this is what was recorded in the prophetic books. All right, again, this has nothing to do with the account. It has nothing to do with the gospel messages. It's just really proof that what we have here is the best we know how, the truth according to the almighty God. These are the words of God himself. So I want to finish with three things to discern from this scripture, from the text. Listen carefully. Remorse is not repentance. Remorse is not repentance. Repentance is turning from. And repentance is not only turning from that we've sinned against God, but a turning to. Are you with me? You can turn to sin, you can turn from sin without looking to Christ for your forgiveness and your salvation. Judas confessed that Jesus was what? Innocent. He did not turn to Jesus. He did not approach Jesus for forgiveness. So, in one of the readings that are read, examples, And it makes me think about a recent president. There was a guy that was a terrible, wicked guy. A bad guy. And so he was under some type of conviction, remorse for his lifestyle. So this preacher said, you just need to confess everything you can to the Lord in your own words. And he said, I don't know how to pray. And he said, you just say God and start talking to God. And he said, this guy just poured out his heart about all the awful things that he had done. But he said, then you must admit to God that you've sinned and ask Jesus for forgiveness. The president said, no need for me to ask for forgiveness. I've never done anything I need forgiveness for. So this guy confessed all that he had done, but when it came time to turn to Jesus and ask for forgiveness and ask Jesus to cleanse him, he wasn't willing to do it. So he only turned half. So he was going this way. He only turned a 90 degree. He admitted that he had done wrong. He didn't go the last step. Church, listen to me. You've got to go the last step. You've got to turn to Jesus. If you are a sinner, he is your only answer. And he can't be your answer unless you turn to him. Number two, don't expect to get bailed out by the wicked. Don't expect somebody to bail you out of your sin problem. He came to who? The scribes and the Pharisees, the religious council said, I've sinned against an inner man. What'd they said? That's your problem. Don't expect to get bailed out necessarily by religious people. And three, the religious leaders and Judas would not come to Jesus Christ. Now, why would the religious leaders and why would Judas not come to Christ? I wanna tell you, it's still happening for the Jews today. They knew the prophecy that there was a coming Messiah, but their Messiah looked like a king that would have armies and powers and run the Romans out of the country. That was Judas' problem. For three and a half years, he followed Jesus, and he finally saw that Jesus was not going to be a military king. So he bailed. The religious leaders, they had all of this prophecy, but they were looking for an earthly king that would get them out of their circumstances. So let me ask you, what are you looking for? There's a lot of people who want to be a Christian so their lives will get better. There's no promises of that anywhere in God's Word. They might be turning to Jesus because that's what maybe somebody else did. Let me just tell you, only those who turn to Christ will be saved. You can repent all you want to. The scripture says, and we're going to get there in a minute, repent us towards God in faith in Christ. Matthew 27, 4a says, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. Those words did not save him. To say I have sinned will not save you. Those words were spoken out of an unrepentant heart, a heart that's willing to make a turn. Out of eight people who spoke these words, I have sinned, I'm gonna tell you who they were, Pharaoh, Remember that guy? You remember Balaam? You remember that guy, Achan, Saul, Shimea? And we just read about him in our account in 2 Samuel with David. David, Judas, anybody want to get the last one? The prodigal son. They all said the same words, I've sinned. But only two of them are saved. Listen, repentance will not save. Repentance towards God, we'll look at the scripture, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Psalm 51.4, this is David. Well, I'm telling you, if you haven't read closely the account of David in Kings Chronicles and Samuel, I'm talking about guys, this is a guy after God's own heart, he was a messed up dude and created a messed up family. Listen, I believe if God can save David, he can save me. Really, I mean, he created a monster. Listen, parents, primarily for his unwillingness to discipline his children. Do you hear me? Parents, let me tell you, what am I gonna tell you? Peaceful parenting will, that is poor. I'm gonna pull a Bob. Peaceful parenting will not, it didn't work for David, a man after God's own heart, it won't work for you. Discipline your children. Psalm 51, have mercy on me, oh God. Did you hear that? This guy is begging for mercy. That guy that repented of all his sins, Judas, they wouldn't beg for mercy. According to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgression, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgression, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Here's the prodigal son, but when he came to himself, when he was born again, when he was regenerated, or when he was brought back to repentance, he said, how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough, but I perish here with hunger. He came back to his father. And these are the two verses I've referenced a couple of times this morning. Acts 20 and 21. Testify, now here's what you gotta do. You're here this morning, you don't know whether you're saved or not. Here's what you've got to do. Testifying to both Jews and the Greeks of repentance towards God. God, I've sinned against you and your holy word. and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm looking to you, Jesus Christ, as the one who came, lived a perfect life, died on the cross, became the perfect Lamb of God, shed your innocent blood for my forgiveness. I'm looking to you, Jesus, for my forgiveness and my salvation. Repentance towards God, faith in Christ. If you don't like that, we'll go on to one more, Acts 26 20. but declared first to those in Damascus and then to Jerusalem throughout all the region of Judea and also to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God. Repent, turn to Jesus. Performing deeds in keeping with their repentance. Judas never did that. He never turned to Christ. So let me ask you again in closing, what are you looking for? A little relief? to do something your mom or your dad or your wife wants you to do? No, you're looking to have your sins forgiven. You are looking for your sins to be forgiven that you might escape the wrath of God. And let me ask you this, what do you want from Jesus? Do you know what you need from Jesus? Your sins forgiven? The wrath of God for your sins satisfied? His righteousness? Have you sought out Jesus? Are you continuing to seek after Jesus? That's a good indication that you're a child of God. Have you turned to Him in faith for your forgiveness and your righteousness? There was no other way. except through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that we can be forgiven. Lord, I pray that you would do with a preach word this morning what you see fit to do with all of the shortcomings of the one that tried to put it together. I pray that you would do with it what you see fit to do for your honor and your glory. For it's in Christ's name that we pray, amen.