Day by day. Man, I tell you, I think it would change my life if I sang that song every day and took to heart the message in that particular song. Well, it's so good to see you in God's house this morning. Let's continue with our study of the nearing of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. We're in chapter 26 of Matthew. And Matthew is recording so faithfully, of course, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the things that we need to hear and the things that pertain to our life today. You say, well, this was written nearly 2,000 years ago. I agree that it was, but the Word of God is always contemporary. And so I trust that you will, I trust that it's so contemporary that you can't hardly go through a day without referencing it somehow, if not just getting up in the morning and taking a few minutes aside and reading the Word of God and getting your day started with His presence and with the teachings of His Word. Matthew chapter 26, we're gonna start reading in verse 65 this evening, or this morning rather, verse 65. Those willing and able to, I'm going to ask, of course, that you stand with me, please, as we share together the reading of the Word of God, beginning in verse 65. The Scripture says, Then the high priest tore his robes, and said, He has blasphemed. What further need do we have of witnesses? Behold, you have now heard the blasphemy. What do you think? They answered, He deserves death. Then they spat in his face, and beat him with their fists, and others slapped him, and said, Prophesy to us, you Christ, who is the one who hit you? What an amazing scene. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank Heavenly Father for its preservation. We do that. We thank Heavenly Father for the witness of Christ and how He met opposition. We thank Heavenly Father for the opportunity to, I pray, be mimicking Christ in our own personal lives when we, too, face persecution. We'll stand firm. I pray, Heavenly Father, that you would fill us with your Spirit this morning. Help us to understand that Christ is our propitiation, that he paid the price for our sins on the cross. Help us to understand that he is the Messiah, the Son of God, just like he declared himself to be. And we shall not be moved from the truth of who he is. And we shall be even more boldly proclaiming the need for people to repent and put their faith in this one who is called Jesus in the Bible from Nazareth, who is indeed the Son of God, the Lamb of God, slain on Calvary's hill for our sins. Our world still needs the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Help us to be faithful. No matter what, help us to be faithful, proclaiming and being united in proclaiming the gospel of Christ. In His name we pray. Amen. Thank you and please be seated this morning. So our scene opens this morning with this incredible, this powerful picture. of utter despair and anguish as Matthew records for us that the high priest Caiaphas ripped his robe apart. This scene, this scene is of amazing importance to us. We're looking at the tipping point. We're looking at the turning point of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. From this point forward, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is purposely pursued by these men. You're looking at a flashpoint of what I believe is in some sense the murder of Jesus Christ. Now I know that it is prophesied and Jesus Christ is determined to die by the plan of God. I understand that. But at the same time, they're signing the death warrant of Jesus Christ. The Pharisees and the scribes and the Sadducees and the ruling elders are going to seek the crucifixion of Jesus Christ full steam ahead from this point forward. When someone ripped their robe, such as in the scene that is before us this morning, it was startling. It was shocking for them to see what the high priest did here. Now I know that some of you have seen sportscasts on TV and in the past I have seen where a particular team has been highlighted for winning a big game and they show some of the jubilant players literally ripping off their shirts and tearing off their jerseys and throwing it into the crowd. I am a little dismayed even by our own Razorback basketball coach, Musselman, who in his jubilation when the Razorbacks knocked off the number one Kansas in the 2023 NCAA tournament, ripped off his shirt. Sometimes a victory is so euphoric that people lose all sense of propriety. And their sense of power and their sense of pride and their sense of supremacy and their sense of dominance takes over and they feel like they can break all cultural norms and do whatever they want to do. They're amazing. That's why when you see a team win a national championship, that sometimes the city that they represent will go out and begin to destroy shops. and they will begin to destroy stores, and they will literally create a riot in the city that has won some kind of championship. The victory has so enlarged their arrogance and so enlarged their pride that they feel empowered, that they're above keeping the law, that somehow or another this victory has empowered them, and now they're able to go out and do whatever they want to do. The flip side is when people are in deep grief and mourning and the kind of grief of mourning that has no words. The ripping of one's clothing in despair is not specific to the Jewish culture. A lot of cultures demonstrate deep grief and sorrow and bitterness over death. by ripping their clothing as an expression of inexpressible sorrow. But I want to tell you what the bottom line is here, folks. The bottom line is of this kind of behavior is a lack of self-control. The bottom line, the bottom line is a lack of self-control. There's a momentary lack of ability to control their actions and to control their behavior and it results in destroying something that is positively good. When someone does this is because they have been overwhelmed by their emotions and by their desires and they cannot think logically, they cannot think cogently, and they cannot think clearly. And I assure you that destroying something that is perfectly good and exposing yourself by removing your clothing in public because you're carried away by your emotions and your feelings is not the way God intended for us to be governed. our emotions. We are image bearers of Almighty God. We are to be governed by the truths of God, not our emotions. and not our desires. And if you're like me, you're probably looking at the news and you're looking at the world and you're wondering to yourself, why has this world gone so crazy? Why is it so wild? Why are people so clueless and senseless in this society and culture in which we live today? Because it's people being governed by their desires and by their lust and by their emotions and by their feelings. And it's resulted in the rudeness and the harshness and the chaos that we're seeing in our culture today. God's truths have been jettisoned and rejected and it's God's truths, i.e., summarized in the Ten Commandments, that always keeps order in society. When you jettison the truths of God, i.e., the Ten Commandments, you will have what we see today in our country, which is total chaos. Men are living by their own minds and by their own feelings, and it's going to lead to self-destruction. You say, how do you know that? Go read Romans chapter 1. Go read Romans chapter 1. So let's delve a little more into what's going on here with Caiaphas ripping his robe. So what's going on? What's going on here in verse 65? Then the high priest tore his robes and said, he is blasphemed. What further need do we have of witnesses? Behold, you have now heard the blasphemy. So the most important man in the Jewish culture has lost control. That's what that means. The Jews feared Pilate. The Jews feared Herod. The Jews feared Caesar. And no doubt these men had the political power and the political clout to kill people. But the high priest was the one who ruled their cultural norms, who ruled their daily lives, who governed the way that they lived. The high priest, the chief priests, the elders, and the Sanhedrin all held that authority. And so when the high priest then tears his robe, it would be equivalent to you watching your own father or your grandfather or your pastor, stand in the pulpit and start ripping his clothing apart. What they were witnessing here was an incredible point of watching someone who they loved and respected losing control of themselves. And not only did Caiaphas get their attention when he did this, what he did according to the law was unlawful. The law makes it absolutely 100% clear that the high priest was to never under any circumstances whatsoever to rip his clothing apart or to rip his robes. It was clear in the law. The Bible says this, the priest who is the highest among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured, and who has been concentrated to wear the garments, shall not uncover his head or tear his clothes. Leviticus chapter 21 and verse 10. Caiaphas had lost all sense of propriety, and he was now driven by his emotions, and he clearly broke the teachings of God's Word. You say, well, what would cause a man, what would cause Caiaphas to be so enraged? What was it that blinded him to any sense of decency? What was it that got under his skin? What does it say? What did Caiaphas declare? He has blasphemed. The context of the he here is Jesus Christ. And Jesus has just confirmed to them that I am the Son of God and I am the Messiah. He's confirmed that. The problem with what Jesus said wasn't that it wasn't true. It was true. He was the Messiah and he was the Son of God. The problem was that the high priest didn't believe it. Not only did he not believe what Jesus said, he did believe that Jesus told a lie. And that Jesus was lying about being the Messiah. And that Jesus was lying about being the Son of God. And that lie has a name. The name of that lie is blasphemy. Blasphemy. The high priest was the ultimate authority on God. He would tell you what God was like. He would tell you what God wanted. And if you wanted to know how to serve God or how to understand God or know who God was, you would seek out the high priest and he would tell you. He was the authority. He was the final word on God. And so when Caiaphas says he's blaspheming, Caiaphas was giving the final word on Jesus Christ. My question has always been, and maybe this is just peculiar to me, and maybe it doesn't bother you at all, but my question has always been, how did Caiaphas miss who Jesus was? How could a man? who is clearly a religious leader, who clearly understood the law, who clearly spent his whole life studying the law. How could this man, so familiar with the ideas of God and with the very book of God, miss Jesus Christ being the Messiah and the Son of God? That's always confused me. Well, I came to the conclusion that he missed who Jesus was for the same reason that we have so many different religions all claiming to have the same truth based on the same Bible. That's a conundrum. Conundrum. Why do we have so many different religions, so many different churches, all based on the same Bible, all claiming that they believe the same Word of God? And just like Caiaphas, they have their own brand of Christianity. Over the years, you see, the Jews developed their own brand of religion. And it was a religious system that was built on works of righteousness. You say, well, how did that happen? happened when people began to take the law, or in today's vernacular, take the Word of God and impose upon the Word of God their own ideas of what the Bible said. A technical word for this is eisegesis. I said, Jesus is where you impose your thinking upon what you are reading. And so Caiaphas began to impose or force his beliefs onto the Word of God rather than believing what the Word of God said. The basic problem the Caiaphas had with the Word of God is the same problem that people still have today with the Word of God. And the reason we have so many divergent and conflicting religions based on the Word of God is because of unbelief and because of laziness. These are the two main problems that Caiaphas faced. It's the same problem that people face today. The problem that people have with the Word of God has nothing to do with ignorance. It has nothing to do with intelligence. It has nothing to do with one's IQ. It has nothing to do with their unfamiliarity with the Word of God. The problems that we face today are laziness and unbelief. You say, what do you mean? Laziness, number one. Listen to this. The Bible says, "...be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth." 2 Timothy 2 verse 15. Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica. For they received the word with great eagerness, examining the scriptures daily, to see whether these things were so. All scriptures are inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. You see, what are you driving at? I'll put it bluntly, okay? Bluntly, this is what I'm driving at. There is a lot of sorry, sloppy exegesis going on in the studies of pastors. That's what's going on. That's what's going on. More and more men who call themselves pastors and teachers are lazy when it comes to studying the Word of God. It isn't that they aren't busy, folks. The pastors I know, the preachers I know, they are up to their chins in busyness, and they are working hard, and they are active. I don't know a lot of preachers who are, quote, lazy as in doing nothing. But I fear that there are pastors who are lazy in the wrong thing. They're ignoring the study of the Word of God. And I'm concerned. where it's going to lead us and where it's going to and where it is leading our churches today. You see, what do you mean? I mean it's quite possible to build a body of people and call it a church without the foundation of the Word of God. And it's not necessarily that the Word of God is not mentioned in the worship service, but it's that sermons are not born out of Paul's command to Timothy. What did Paul command Timothy? The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. My problem is, folks, is that more and more preachers are finding it more important to be productive at being entertaining, at being relevant, and at being contemporary than they are faithfully and truthfully preaching the offenses of the cross of Jesus Christ. That's my problem. preaching on hell, preaching on sin, preaching on the eternity of the righteousness of God. These subjects are not taught today. The basic doctrines of the word of God are ignored today. And I am concerned about this chatbot jazz or this IA jazz because you can go in there and you can put in there, I want a sermon on Matthew chapter 26 and verse 65 and that program will give you a sermon on Matthew chapter 2665. You don't have to study the Word of God. You don't have to work at the Word of God. It's simply something that is put out there and you can mimic it to your people and it might even be a good sermon. But it is not the sermon that is filled with the Spirit of God. It is always the man of God that is filled with the Spirit of God who preaches the Word of God. That's the way it works. The only way that the Word of God ever gets into my heart or the only way the Word of God ever gets into your heart is if you do what I just read to you in the scriptures and that you study the Word of God. If you're not studying the Word of God, you're not going to get the Word of God in your heart. You're not going to do it. It's a possibility. Impossibility. You might have it in your mind. You might have it in your brain. But you need the Word of God in your heart. Sermons aren't filled with the Spirit, folks. Preachers are filled with the Spirit. Spirit fills men, people, people. Paul said this, my message and my preaching are not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power. So if the pastor then is doing his job and studying the Word of God, he's gonna stand before you and he's gonna be filled with the Spirit of God and he's gonna be preaching in the power of the Spirit of God. We say, preacher, if that's true, shouldn't our churches be on fire? If that's true, then shouldn't that produce big changes in people's lives? If that's true, then how come our services are sometimes lethargic? If that's true, then where's the power? Where's the fire? If that's true, why is it not producing something? I'll repeat to you what I read earlier. You can look at it again in Acts chapter 17 verse 11. Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica. For they received the word, they received the word with great eagerness, eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. It's not a description of the pastor. It's not a description of church members. This is a description of church members, not of pastors and leaders. The people sitting in the pews. Paul was describing the church at Berea and they said, you're receiving the word with eagerness. They didn't come to church because of a job. They didn't come to church because it was time to go to church. They didn't come to church because it was a duty to do. Their appetites were wet. They were spiritually hungry. They were spiritually hungry. Unfortunately, the word of God doesn't inspire people or excite people. They come out of obligation. They come because it's entertaining. They come because it's fun. They come because, well, this is where my friends are. Really? Really? Peter said this. like newborn babies, long, you remember that? Long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it they may grow in respect to salvation. You see, Paul said, Peter reinforced it, that those who are gonna get the most out of a worship service are those who have come prepared to listen and to participate, and that the Spirit takes control of, and they're looking for the Spirit to speak to them through the Word of God, and they prepared their hearts for worship. Jesus said, blessed are those who, what? Hunger and thirst for righteousness. Hunger and thirst for righteousness. But what does the Bible say? What did Paul say? He said this, the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires. And more and more preachers are capitulating to the desires of the people in the church." So not only did Caiaphas impose his own interpretation upon the Word of God, secondly, he didn't believe it. He didn't believe. Unbelief. Like I said earlier, the problem with people studying and their relationship with the Word of God is not that they are ignorant, it's not that they are unintelligent, it's not that they can't understand, it's that they don't believe it. The Bible is not comfortable, it is not yielding to the flesh. As a matter of fact, I can guarantee you that the Word of God is going to go against your flesh, it's going to go against your desires, it's going to go against your fleshly movements. I can guarantee you that. The Word of God is going to make you uncomfortable. And you're going to be inclined not to believe it. You say, what does it mean? What does it mean? It means you're going to find excuses for not obeying the Word of God. It means you're going to find justifications for not believing the Word of God. You're going to come up with some kind of reason why the pastor's wrong and why the Word of God is wrong. You're going to come up with all this stuff because it's offensive to you. It's offensive to you. Caiaphas did not believe what Jesus said. I'm the Messiah. I am the Son of God. Caiaphas didn't believe it. It was offensive to him. It was offensive. Jesus didn't look like the Messiah that he wanted. Jesus didn't look like the Son of God that he expected. Caiaphas wanted a Messiah. No doubt about that. He wanted a Messiah. I believe Caiaphas wanted a Messiah. But let me tell you something what Caiaphas wanted. He wanted a Messiah that would come and look at all of his good works and all of his sacrifice and all of his obedience and all of his compliance with the law and accept him into the kingdom. He wanted a Messiah who could look at all his good works And accept him and say blessed are you Caiaphas? You are a wonderful man. You have done everything that I've wanted to do you've complied with the law I now accept you but Jesus didn't do that with Caiaphas Caiaphas looked at himself said, you know, I'm pretty good. I Just know that the real Messiah will be impressed with who I am I know he will I Jesus did none of that. Here's what Jesus said in the words of the Apostle Paul. Jesus said this, there is none righteous, not even one. There's none who understands, there's none who seeks for God. All have turned aside, and together they have become useless. There is none who does good. There is not even one." Romans 3, verses 10-12. Even though those are Paul's words, that's basically how Jesus described Caiaphas and the chief priests and the elders and the rest of the court. They honestly believed that the true Messiah would praise them and accept them because they were living on a works-based righteousness. And Jesus came preaching, I am the Lamb of God who is to be slain for your sins. The idea that their Messiah, the Son of God, would die for their sins was preposterous to them. According to their interpretation of the Bible, Jesus was demonic, and they called him the Son of Beelzebul. their minds Jesus had reached the pinnacle of sinfulness and Jesus was an imposter and he was a blasphemer and there was only one judgment under the law that he should be put to death look at verse 66 look at verse 66 what do you think they answered he deserves death And then they spat in his face, they beat him with their fists, and others slapped him and said, prophesy to us you Christ, who is the one who hit you? You're looking at the greatest misapplication and the greatest misinterpretation of the word of God that has ever been perpetrated upon the face of the earth. Caiaphas was using the law to condemn the very one who wrote the law and who actually kept the law. I'm reminded of another story in Genesis. In the Garden of Eden, Satan came to Eve and tempted her. And he used a perversion of the very Word of God to cause her to sin against the clear teaching of God. This is the ultimate calling good evil and evil good right here Jesus Christ being called evil the Son of God. Played out in the very scene before us today. They truly believed that Jesus was the one in the wrong and that he needed to be eliminated. Then here's the amazing thing of the whole story. Jesus didn't hate him. He didn't hate them for what they were doing to Him. Read it in verse 66. Read it in verse 67. Jesus didn't hate what they were doing to Him. They beat Him without mercy. They pulled the hair out of His beard and out of His head in chunks. They left gaping holes in His face and on His head. And the blood was already flowing as they continued to pound him until he was literally unrecognizable. You would not have recognized Jesus Christ when they got done with him. You wouldn't recognize him. They hated him. But he loved them. He loved them. The Bible says, And this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. God doesn't return your love because you love Him. That's not the way it works. God doesn't base His love for you on whether or not you love Him. That's not the way it works. In spite of the fact that we don't love Him, He sent His Son to be what the Bible calls our propitiation. You say, what does that mean? That means when Jesus was on the cross, God took all the anger, all the wrath, all of his justice, and he poured it out on Jesus Christ. And he poured everything that you deserve and eternal hell that you deserve, he poured it all out on Jesus Christ on the cross. And Jesus fully paid your debt, fully paid for your sins, left nothing owed on your behalf. You're free and clear. Free and clear. Jesus totally pacified the wrath of God by shedding His own blood in your place. In your place. And the very blood, here's the paradox. The very blood that was being splattered on their garments as they began to pound and beat Jesus. The very blood that was on their garments and on their fists was the blood that's going to pay for their sins. Amazing act of love. Indescribable act of love in our Savior Jesus Christ. Well, my friend, do you know Him? You have a personal relationship with Him today. I mean a true relationship where He's in control of your life. You know Him personally. You're confident. You're absolutely sure because the Holy Spirit has given you the confidence that you are a child of God. It's nothing that you and yourself can muster up. Oh, I'm a child of God. No, no, no. It comes from the assurance that you have in you that the Spirit of God is confirming in you by His witness and by His presence in you that you are a child of God. Do you have that kind of faith? And if you don't, Jesus is your propitiation. We're going to stand. I'm going to ask Brother R.D. to come. He's going to help us with an Invitation Hymn this morning as the Word of God speaks to our hearts, as the Spirit of God speaks to us through the Word of God, leading us to the decision He wants us to make. I want you to stand with me, please. Would you do that as we prepare for the Invitation Hymn? And we'll just let the Holy Spirit do His work. I can't do the work of the Holy Spirit. I'd be foolish to think that somehow or another that my words and my voice and my lack of ability to preach could do anything. But Paul said, I've come to you in the power of the Spirit. And that's the way I come to you this morning, in the power of the Spirit, not my own power. Brother R.D., introduce that hymn for us, then we're gonna pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the Holy Spirit that guides us and teaches us. We thank you, Holy Spirit, that convicts us of our sins. And maybe everybody here is saved and they have the blood of Jesus Christ deposited upon them, being their atonement and being their covenant or covering. And maybe the righteousness of Christ is on them. They're wearing the robe of righteousness. But Father, the things in our lives that are not right, things in our lives that are not things in our lives that are not true, things in our lives that are unfaithful, things in our lives that you know and nobody else knows that you need to convict us of to get us right with you. And so we're going to pause and we're going to ask the Holy Spirit to take control of every heart, soul, and mind in this building and bring about your will and your conviction. and empower us to leave the building and take advantage of those opportunities that you're going to give us to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and the difference it made in our lives. And maybe nobody will be saved, but the seed will be planted. That's all you ask, is to plant the seed. Glorify your name. Fill us all with your spirit. In Christ's name we pray, amen.