All right, back to where we are in our studies in the book of Matthew. It's been a difficult book because it's so Jewish, and we're at chapter 27, and this is the crucifixion chapter. And here it is. And it's very interesting that we know the focus of the whole Bible is Jesus Christ. And obviously, the focus of the crucifixion chapter is Jesus Christ. He's the one that's dying for our sins on the Scriptures. But the Holy Ghost took time in this chapter to paint a little portrait of some religious characters in the beginning of the chapter, which I probably would have eliminated them. But Judas and the priests are here in the first 10 verses. And even curiously, when you back up, last time we gathered together and talked about this, we were looking at the night trials that Jesus went through in the garden. And we also notice the night when Peter had his trial with the maid at the fire. I don't know the man all that. And another curious thing that he does, because most of chapter 26 about Jesus, there's Peter. And there's like a contrast going on that I think the Holy Ghost wants us to look at, so we'll take some time studying it. The first verse says, when the morning was come, that's after Gethsemane, that's after the false trial in the middle of the night at Annas and Caiaphas' house, then all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put Him to death, and when they had bound Him, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate, the governor. And then Judas, which betrayed him, now he's going to run back and talk to the priests. Now, to get some of the further timing, because God's telling Matthew, I want you to focus on this. And then he tells Mark and Luke, you can put a few more details in there if they want to know the details. But I'm trying to paint a portrait in Matthew, so Matthew, don't waste time with those details. I'll let the other guys fill them in. But if you wanted the details, it would be in Luke 23, verses 1 and 6. What's happening in that crazy, hurried morning. is after the trial at the priest's house in Luke 23, verse 1, the whole multitude arose, and they led him to Pilate, and they made their accusations about all that. And then, verse 6, after a very short hearing on Pilate heard of Galilee, and he said, really, you're Galilean? As soon as he knew he belonged to Herod, he sent him to Herod. And so Pilate's trying to get rid of him, and what happens there is now the priests, okay, okay, we're sending him off to Herod, and Pilate says, okay, I'm done with you guys, right? I guess you are, sending him to Herod. And Pilate goes back to whatever he's doing, and the priests start walking away, and it's at this point Judas approaches them. after not only the priest condemned him, but now Pilate sends him off to Herod, and Judas is seeing all this happening, and now back in Matthew where we are. Just so you saw the timing of the events and what's going on. But the thing God wants us to see is the character study and the theology of the events, verse 3, and Judas, which had betrayed him, When he saw that he was condemned, he repented himself and brought again the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, I have sinned and that I've betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, well, what's that to us? Is he thou to it? And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed and went out and hanged himself. And now, here's this few verses about Judas, but if you go to the chapter before, 26, and you look at the final 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 verses of the 26th chapter, it's all about Peter. And it's like God told Matthew, I know these chapters are about my son, but I want you to put this little bit about Peter and this little bit about Judas, and I want the readers to note the difference between these two men. Note the difference between these two men. Because these two men are a picture of all of mankind. These two men are a picture of the two guys on the cross next to my son. And one's on one side and one's on the other. And these two guys are the way I see everything. No shades of gray with me. It's all black and white. There are those who are with me and those who are against me. And that's the way I see it. I see no shades of gray. And God says, put that down, Matthew. I want these people to see it. I never saw it till this past week. I said, look at that. He puts this portrait of these two men right here. Now, what do we know about these two men? Well, Peter, you know, he was a common fisherman. He was a common, ordinary guy with a common trade. He was an auto mechanic. He was a bus driver. Just some trade. He had some regular thing he did. He's a regular Joe. That's what he was. He's a regular Joe. He grew up. He heard. Went to the synagogue like a regular Joe. Grows up. Goes to church a little bit. Good. Judas, on the other hand, his father was a priest. His father was a Pharisee priest. He grew up in Judea. He grew up in religion. Now at the time, the sanctioned religion of that Testament, sanctioned and ordained by God, was Old Testament Judaism. Today, the sanctioned religion by God would be New Testament Christianity. And I've often told you the priests and the Pharisees of those days were like the popes and the priests of the Roman Catholic Church today. In the sense that the Roman Catholic Church, good thing about it, it's got the Father, it's got the Son, it's got the Holy Ghost. It doesn't understand them doctrinally, but that's who it's centered around. It's not centered around Allah or Krishna or some other false god. It's centered around the very names that come out of the Bible. It gives lip service to the Bible. The Pharisees, they probably gave a little more than lip service to the Bible, but they had the Bible around. So Judas is someone, of all the disciples Jesus called, one was Simon the Zealot. He was involved in political movements. They had the other guy that was Simon the Canaanite, who was, of course, from Canaan, and we know about the Canaans. We had a couple of more fishermen in there. We had a tax collector in there. We had a whole bunch of people that were gathered together by Jesus, but one guy had grown up in religion. His father was in religion. He was being trained to be in religion. It would be like today in the Catholic Church if you had a family, an Italian family, because this is a Jewish family, Roman Catholic, Italian, Jews, Judaism. and you had a family of a number of brothers, and the oldest brother, who was in his late 20s, early 30s, was a Roman Catholic priest, and the youngest brother, who is about 24 years younger than him, is 14, has grown up looking at his older brother, studying for the priesthood, and his older brother is teaching him. That's like Judas' father teaching Judas. I mean, just this guy, he's going to be a priest. He's as religious as we can get. And these are the two guys laid out before us. And, of course, when Jesus came along, Peter followed Him. And when Jesus came along, Judas... Well, he wasn't dumb. This guy really got miracle power. I mean, I've been in the church for a while. I've heard about miracles. I've never seen one. This guy's the real deal. And he starts to follow Him. However, he's not following Him for the right reason, he's following Him for religious reasons, and the fact that he's got power. And of course, we know that he must have had some kind of a plan that, in verse 3, when it wasn't working out, And now he sees that Jesus is betrayed. I didn't expect, I didn't, Jesus is condemned. Verse three, he's being condemned by these men. My thought was, you know, I've argued with my dad about this Jesus guy. I've heard the arguments at the temple, but this guy's really got power. These men are looking to get power back in our nation, and this is the man that can deliver the goods. And I've heard they've got plots against him, but I tell you, if I can ever get him in front of them for a one-hour face-to-face meeting, and he does a couple miracles in front of them, they're going to recognize this is the horse we need to back to get the kingdom. We want the kingdom. That was Judas's desire was the kingdom. Not the king, the kingdom. And this guy can deliver the kingdom. And now it's all falling apart and this is not what I expected and I feel bad. I regret the things I did. I have remorse over... I probably shouldn't have done it that way. I'm despondent. I'm dejected over what's happening. Now, this is not what I planned. I mean, not only are those guys rejecting Him, now they've turned Him over to Pilate and Herod, and now we're going to have the Roman authorities against Him, and He's not doing anything. He's not performing miracles. He's just sitting there real silent. This guy looks like he's going to lay down. This is a complete mess. And Judas now repented himself. He felt bad. Now the contrast, going back to the last chapter, and the last verse of the last chapter was when Peter remembered the word of Jesus. At the end of the verse, he wept bitterly. Judas was under remorse and despondency. My plans didn't work. And Peter is under conviction. And God says, I want you to see this is a huge difference. This is an eternal difference between these two people. There are religious people that have remorse. There are religious people that have regrets. There are religious people that get contrite and have acts of contrition, but they're not under conviction from hearing my son's word. And therein is the difference. I mean, let's look at the difference. I've got a list for you there. The cause of repentance. What caused Peter to repent? He remembered Jesus' Word. Not only does it say that in Matthew, it says it in Mark, and it says it even with a little bit more in the sense that in verse 72 of the 14th chapter, the second time, the cock crew, Peter called to mind the word that Jesus had said to him, and at the end of it, and when he thought thereon, he wept. And the cause of the repentance in Peter was remembering, hearing, remembering, and thinking on the Word of God. And the cause of repentance in Judas is my plans didn't work out. You know, I thought if I invested in this company, I'd make money, it didn't work out, and the people, I'm dejected. I thought if we built this way, it would all work out. I thought if we did it this way, I thought if I did it this way, then God would do this for me. I mean, I have these plans that if I just push the right buttons, I can get God to do what I want. And my plans and my schemes don't work out. with God. Only God's work works with God. And it's supposed to work on you. And so the cause of repentance was, my plan failed for Judas, I'm dejected. Peter is, I just thought on God's Word and I'm under conviction and I'm going to repent. The object of the repentance. Well, for Peter, it was Jesus. Luke tells us that, go to Luke 22, This is an eternal difference between these two characters, both who look like they're followers of Jesus Christ. God said, paint this portrait, Matthew, so people will see it. Luke chapter 22. So I don't know where Peter is warming himself, probably in the courtyard there. And at one point Jesus walks by, verse 61, and the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. and I'm willing to bet anything." As they're going by, Peter looks up, and they see Idai. I don't know how long it was, but the Lord looked on him, and he looked, and the object of his repentance was looking at Jesus Christ based on the words he heard. And the object of Judas' repentance was he repented himself. He was the object of his repentance. He turned back to himself. He said, well, my first plan failed. I wonder if I've got a second one that can work out here. I wonder if maybe I run back and give him the money. I've got plan number two. I mean, I've been stuck in this alcoholism so long. Maybe if I go to A.N., I turn to my own power and do what I can. I mean, how many people have changed their plans, and the object of their repentance was, I've got to come up with something new. I've got to come up with something new. It's not a look to God or a look to Jesus or a hearing from God's Word. I better scramble in here and come up with something. And the repentance was right back to himself. He's looking and scrambling in his own mind and his own thoughts as to what can I do next. There's a way that way seemed right that didn't work out. Maybe this way will work over here. There's a way that seemeth right unto a man. But the end thereof you lead right back to yourself and there's not a lot of hope in yourself. Just because the word repent is there doesn't mean anything. Repentance is not the way to salvation. It's repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. There have been some well-intentioned tract writers for the past 30 years talking about the importance of repentance. Repentance isn't that important. Judas repented. What are you repenting from and to? Well, I think I'll get rid of my philosophy books and pick up an NIV. Okay. It's repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the cause of Judas's repentance was my plan failed. The object of my repentance, I better come up with something different. Let me go to plan B. But plan B isn't Bible. It's another botched scheme of his. And the price of repentance, well, Peter wept. What was Judas's? Money? Mammon? Silver? Money brought to a religious system? This is important, folks. We're not talking about thieves on crosses here. We're talking about... He said, yeah, they could fit next to the thieves, but I didn't put them up on the cross. I put them near the foot of the cross for you to see the difference. There are religious people lost, like Judas. They've got the wrong cause of repentance. They've got the wrong object of the repentance. They've got the wrong price of repentance. And notice the confession. Verse 4, Judas ran to the priests, the chief priests and the elders, and he confessed to them, I've sinned. And his confession was to a priest. Now, the Bible is real clear about this in the Old Testament in a number of places. I just put two down for you, one in the Psalms and one in Daniel. You can find it all over the book. But you don't confess your sins to a man. That's not what you do. Psalm 32, verse 5, And in the beginning, David's saying, blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. The Lord's the only one who can say, your sins are covered there. Not go out and say five Hail Marys and it's going to be okay. Only the Lord can do that. Verse 5, I acknowledge my sin unto Thee, Lord. and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sins." Selah. You better sit and think about that for a while, folks. Go to Daniel 9. One of the great prophets, one of the angels came from heaven and said, I was just at the throne of the Lord, and Thou art greatly beloved, Daniel. That's God's opinion of you. And I'm going to give you some Scripture. But not only that, one of the reasons I love you so much is Daniel 9, verses 3 and 4. I set my face unto the Lord to seek by prayer and supplication with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed unto the Lord my God and made confession to Him, O Lord, the great and the dreadful God. And he's confessing to God. Now here's the funny thing about that. Those very priests in that temple go to what they said in Mark chapter 2. Because here's Judas coming to confess to them. And you remember Mark 2, there was this man sick of the palsy, and they brought him before Jesus. They had to lower him down through the roof to bring him down in front. And in verse 4, they let him down. And verse 5, when Jesus saw their faith, He said to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee. And I should have put verse 7 instead of 4 in your notes. I make mistakes. So it's 2, 7, and verse 6. And the priests and the scribes sitting there said, why don't this man speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only? They had enough common sense, only God can forgive sins. You don't confess to priests. You don't confess to scribes. You don't confess to elders. You confess to God. Nowhere in God's Bible does it say to confess a sin to another man. Well, in James, it says confess your faults one to another. I'm sorry, brother, that was my mistake. I told you I'd be there yesterday at 10 o'clock. I couldn't make it. It's my fault this happened to me. That's between men. That's got nothing to do. Sins are against the only have I sinned. I don't sin against Him. I sin against Him. You better get that right. That's Bible. Judas didn't have that right because he was raised in religion. I don't understand that. And so we see so many differences between Peter and Judas. He confessed to the wrong person. Not only that, when he makes the confession, he makes the wrong type of confession. Look what he says in verse 4, saying, I have sinned. I have sinned. I got those backwards. I am sorry again. You see, I'm not very good at this. So just you got to put arrows on your notes between Peter and Judas. That's so you get a broken vessel doing work. The Lord's got to fix this. But Judas says, I have sinned. Past tense, I made a mistake. I spilled a little wine on the tablecloth, dear, but I'll never do it again. It was just a slip up on my part. But notice how Peter made his confession to the Lord, not to a priest, in Luke chapter five. Luke 5, verse 8, Peter had just observed Jesus do something that was absolutely incredible, and realized what a word of power this man has. And verse 18, Peter saw it, and he fell down at Jesus' knees, Luke 5, 8, and he said, Depart from me, for I am. A sinful man. Oh, Lord, not I made a mistake once. I mean, I'd only spilled the wine today. I'll spill it tomorrow and probably the next day. And you keep me at this tablecloth, I'll knock it down for a whole bunch of times, even when I'm trying to be careful. I just, I'm just a sinner. That's an eternity of a difference. Versus, forgive me, Father, I have sinned. We'll do this act of contrition. That's what Judas is playing, this ring around the rosy with these guys here. It stinks over there. And versus someone who recognizes, I am a sinner who needs the Savior. How'd he come to that? He heard the Word of the Lord. The other guy hadn't. The other guy had hardened his ears up to Jesus' teaching. One had thought on the Word of the Lord, the other had been scheming his own plans as, see, I want God to do what I want God to do. I'm a religious guy because if I can just twist, if I can get the right pressure point on God, I can get him to do what I want. That's what religion thinks. And the difference is, well, Paul writes about it in 2 Corinthians chapter 7. 2 Corinthians chapter 7. And Paul had written a letter to the Corinthians. And it was a letter of reproof, because the Corinthians needed a lot of reproof. They were very confused, charismatic assembly in the first century. And today, the confused charismatics could use some reproof in the 21st century. And the Word of God would reprove them, by the way. That's why they don't use it. That's why charismatics don't like a King James Bible, and they don't like rightly dividing it. They like modern Bibles that they can teach any way they want. Paul says in verse 8, look, I know I made you sorry with a letter, one of my epistles. And I do not repent, though I did repent, for I perceived that the same epistle made you sorry, though it were for a season. But now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that when you read that epistle, you sorrowed to repentance. That's what the words of God do to you. That was the cause of Peter's repentance. He heard the words of Jesus. And you'll hear the words of Jesus in the Holy Bible. And why? Verse 9, you'll be made sorry after a godly manner. Verse 10, why? For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation that need not to be repented of. But the sorrow of this world worketh death. And that's what Judas said. He had worldly sorrow. My plans didn't work out. My schemes didn't work out. The plot that I hatched is falling apart right before my eyes. And work and death is going to happen in the next three hours to him. But it's not just physical death. God's talking about spiritual death, the death of the soul, the only hope you have of salvation. The soul that sinneth, it shall die one day. The physical death is just the first of the two-step death process. And the second death is the death of the soul. and we see the type of sorrow. And God wants you to have godly sorrow. And the only thing that can give you godly sorrow are the epistles written in God's Word and the words of the Savior in the Gospels. And you need to encounter those things. And so, God says to the Holy Ghost, tell Matthew, he's got to put these two characters side-by-side across these two chapters so people can see the difference. Because they were both religious and they both appeared to be followers of Jesus, and one is eternally saved and one is eternally lost. And the readers better take heed because they fall into one of those two categories. And of course, we know what happened. Peter's soul went from darkness to light. The trial was at night, and by the morning, and three mornings later, and then he met the resurrected Jesus, and he went from darkness to light. The Apostle Paul tried to warn the Jews in Acts 28 as they were passing up again the final time on Jesus Christ. And looks like I got the wrong numbers again, didn't I? I've been doing a lot of that. It's not 16. 28, yeah, be it known therefore the salvation of God is sent to the Gentiles. And I wanted the one with the light. And just forgive me. You know, I do work at this. I'm not very good at it. But anyways, he went from darkness to light. And one of those passages has it in there. This is my mistake. I don't do a good job of preparing. Shame on me. But he went from darkness to light, and the other one went from light to darkness. And that would be in Matthew chapter 8, verse 11 and 12. And Jesus said, I say unto you that many shall come from the east and the west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, but the children of the kingdom..." Judas. Judas, who's named after one of the twelve tribes of Israel. Judas, who grew up in Jerusalem. Judas, who grew up in the religion God had sanctioned in the Old Testament. A child of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, supposedly in the kingdom of heaven. "...the children of the kingdom shall be cast outer darkness, and there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." And what a portrait that God puts between these two men as a warning to anyone that in the New Testament claims they're a follower of Jesus Christ. God says, I don't know what denomination you're in, I don't know what cult you're in, I don't know what Bible you're in, but you're either Peter or Judas. Your repentance is either based on My Word, and your repentance is based on looking toward My Son and Me, and your repentance didn't cost you anything other than a few tears and the recognition that you confessed, I am a sinner and you confessed to Me, God says. Or, Your religion is based on your own plans, your own schemes, trying to railroad me to get me to do what you want me to do, so you're well exalted, wrapped in a phony cloth of religiosity. Every time your plans fail, you come up with a new one in your own mind. You think throwing more money at the temple or a little more work at my church is going to do it, and you're running around confessing to each other, whether it's a priest or someone else in the congregation there, and you just think you made a mistake without recognizing thou art a sinner in need of a Savior, and your sorrow isn't godly based on my book, it's worldly based on your own feelings, and I don't save people based on feelings. I save them based on the conviction of my Word. That's a big difference. Interesting portrait that God puts there. But he's not done. And he moves on. And we continue back in Matthew 27. Listener, God's talking to you. I wouldn't betray Jesus. You're trying to get Him to do what you want Him to do. Are you trying to tell Him what you want? Or are you listening to Him? Is He your homie and your servant? Or are you on your knees and He's your Lord and He's your Savior and you're His servant? And so Judas, when he saw his plans were all messed up and Judas was condemned, he repented himself. He brought the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. He said, I've sinned. I betrayed the innocent blood. They said, what's that to us? See that, see to it yourself. And the first thing God says, do you see the heartless attitude of these priests? What is that to us? regarding the innocent blood? That's a corruption of my Scriptures all through the Bible in the Old Testament. The innocent blood now historically in the Old Testament. You go back and look at, let's say, 2 Kings 24, verse 4, and it says, Nebuchadnezzar's coming in and he's taking over the kingdom. And why is this happening? Verse 3, it's at the commandment of the Lord. All this came on Judah for the sins of Manasseh. Verse 4, for the innocent blood that he shed, for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord would not pardon that. Innocent blood was children, okay? Historically. Innocent blood historically referred to Jewish children. A child, until they made their bar mitzvah and was brought under the law, was innocent. He didn't know the law. He was like Adam in the garden. He was not responsible for the sins of the law because he had not been brought under the weight of the law. Paul talked about it. I was alive without the law once. Then I got my bar mitzvah, and holy moly, I was responsible for all those things. And the innocent blood, historically, was the children, but doctrinally, go to Psalm 94. And these Pharisees ought to know this. After all, they're supposed to be teachers of the law. Thou that teachest the law, knowest not the law? Have you never read in the Scriptures? Psalm 94, verse, and the Lord is, this is a rough psalm because the prophet is calling for judgment against the wicked. And in verse 20, he says to the Lord, Lord, shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with Thee? The throne of iniquity, which is framing mischief by a law. That's what these chief priests were doing. They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous and condemn the innocent blood. That's the Messiah. And here are these men. They just had a trial condemning Him on false witnesses. They had paid 30 pieces of silver to Judas to betray him and bribe Judas to go out and find a way that they could capture him, which Judas led them to the Garden of Gethsemane. And there they are condemning the innocent blood and the soul of the righteous. What's that to us? It doesn't mean anything to us. We've still got our place. We're still in charge here. Look at this robe. And so the heartless, corrupt attitude of the priests, God says, let me point out to you, reader, reader, wake up! Priests. Priests. He didn't say pastors, he said priests. Yeah, there are bad pastors, but this is just a broad brush against priests. You wouldn't find any today, would you? heartless toward the Scriptures, corrupt toward the Scriptures. Verse 5, it says, Judas cast the pieces of silver down into the temple and departed and went and hanged himself. Now, this is a so-called problem text for the critics. And I've had this brought to me. And the reason they say this is somebody shows them the book of Acts 1 and verse 18, And so they didn't find it on their own. The majority of critics that will come to you and say, you know, the Bible contradicts itself. Really? Can you show me? Actually, they can't. So they'll run to the internet and they'll find me some Bible contradictions, and this will be one of the ones they'll find. And they'll try and look at Matthew 27.5 and Acts 1.18. One says, he hung himself. And Acts 1.18 says, this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity, and he fell headlong and burst asunder in the mist, and all his bowels gushed out. See? See, it doesn't say the same thing. You can't trust that book. So let me go bang that broad over there and do what I want. And that's why they do the things they do. so that they can run off and sin. Let me go have another beer. Let me go hit another shot. Let me go mainline a little more H. I mean, you understand that. You understand who these people are. What am I speaking out of turn? Don't you live in the 21st century? Don't you know any regular people? Someone's got to speak plain. I did a little research, I found a couple verses, so now I can go back and, you know, take my pants off. Come on! But there's not a contradiction if you read a little further in Matthew 27. Just read the rest of the 27th chapter and you get a little further down along there and look at verse 51. And you know, verse 50, when Jesus finally cried with a loud voice and yielded up the ghost. And so now the crucifixion is over. What happens? The veil of the temple was rent in twain from top to the bottom and the earth quaked and the rocks rent. And Judas, he runs out of the temple and he goes near to the area where there's a real cliff and he hangs himself over that cliff over the valley of Kidron. And when that earthquake happens, some of those trees were shaken right by the roots out of place and fell all the way down into the valley of Kidron about 200 feet down, boom, and hit the rocks there and burst in twain. So he hung himself, and then after the earthquake, that's what happened to him. And there's no contradiction. Just read a little further, and you can figure the thing out. But back to where we are. There's no problems with the book. There's problems with sinners that won't repent. And today we deal with so many heathen sinners. It's, you know, you can't find many religious sinners left because today virtually everyone in America is a flipping heathen. But there still are a few religious people. And if they do come with an honest question, the Bible has answers if they want to know them. Sadly, many of them don't want to. But God says, I still want you to focus on the priests there. They're heartless, they're corrupt. And not only that, verse 6, and they took counsel and bought with them the potter's field to bury the strangers. And what a bunch of hypocrisy. I mean, in verse 6 they said, let's see, it's not lawful to put the 30 pieces in the treasury. So we'll do something else with it. Wait a minute, it's not lawful. Didn't you just use the treasury money a couple days ago to bribe Judas back in the 26th chapter? No? Let's see, chapter 26, verse 15. Then they said to him, he said, what will you give me and I'll deliver him. And they covenanted with him for 30 pieces of silver. And they took that out of the treasury and gave him the money to bribe him, but now they don't want to put it back. What a bunch of hypocrisy. God says, I want people to know priests are hypocrites. My son just said that to them in the 23rd chapter seven times. And the average religious person has never read Matthew 23 once. And sadly, the average pastor has never preached out of it once. So from now on, every week, we're preaching Matthew 23. No. Hypocrites. And verse 7, their lawlessness, then they take that same money and they go out and buy the potter's field. They use blood money for so-called charity. Really? Is that what God wants? Yeah, bring the money you skimmed off the drug cartels in Colombia and use it for me. God says, sure, I'd like some of that dirty blood money. where God wants people to work and bring their honest first fruits to the Lord, not dishonest gain that they stole from someone else. And the funny thing is, you know, we'll do this and then the people will be happy. They'll say, we just made a big charitable contribution to buy a nice cemetery. After all, since we can't give anyone eternal life, what do you say we buy some cemeteries in the name of this denomination? You wouldn't know a church that buys cemeteries and sells them on the radio, would you? Why is a church trafficking in plots of death as opposed to eternal life? That doesn't make any sense. We don't have any plots around here. We've got the Gospels and the Word of God and salvation. And so they go out and buy this thing and everybody finds out. And therefore, the field was called the field of blood. Everybody found out what they did. You know why that is? Their exposure. You know what the Bible says? Be sure your sin will find you out. You think you can do this stuff and it's going to be hid in a corner somewhere? I'm not going to have it exposed? These heartless, corrupt, hypocritical, lawless priests, I'm going to expose them, God says. If you read a Bible, you could map them out real easy. And, verses 9 and 10, and then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, And they took the 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 hath appointed Me." Now some people will claim that's another contradiction because Jeremiah didn't write that, Zechariah did in the 11th chapter and in the 13th verse. Yeah, but Jeremiah spoke it first when he preached and Zechariah recorded it. Because a prophet is not just a writing prophet, he's a speaking prophet. And Jeremiah did write two chapters about the potter's field back in Jeremiah, and we'll cover them, chapters 18 and 19. And he probably said a lot of things when he was at the temple there. And one of the guys standing by said, that's good, I'm going to write that down. And God says, go ahead, write it down. He forgot to write it down, you write it down. Brother Mike made a mistake, you write it down. And that happens. Of course, brother makes a mistake, don't write the mistake down, write the right thing down. But the thing is, the appointed judgment was foretold in the Scriptures. God knew what they were going to do before they did it. And God has already laid it down in the Scriptures. Who is on the Lord's side? You're on one side or the other. I've mapped this thing out. I know ahead of time who's going to choose what. I'm not causing them to choose it. Judas could have not just repented himself, he could have repented to my son. My son said to him, where comest thou friend? And Judas could have got on his knees and said, I just made the biggest mistake of my life. I got these numbskulls behind me. I am so sorry, Lord. No. He made his choice. Go to Isaiah 28. And God's warning, the days of priests are over. I've sent My Son, the Great High Priest, and He's not going to bring the blood of bulls and goats, and He's not going to go to a temple made on earth. He's going to cross into the veil of heaven and put His blood on the mercy seat and turn it to a throne of grace. and He's going to sit up there and ever live and make intercession to those that come to Him and look to Him and listen to Him by faith. And He's the only one that can save. And the rest of these priests, Isaiah 28, verses 7 and 8, they've erred through wine and through strong drink. They are out of the way. The priest and the prophet, these false prophets, have erred through strong drink. They're swallowed up of wine. They are out of the way through strong drink. They err in vision. Oh, I had a vision last night. They stumble at judgment. Their tables are full of vomit and filthiness. There's no place clean among them today. Go to Jeremiah chapter 5. We covered it a few weeks ago. And verses 26, 27, 28, "...among My people are found wicked men." like these lawless, hypocritical, corrupt, heartless priests. They lay wait as He that setteth snares. They set a trap, and you come past land and sea to make a proselyte, and you make them twofold more the child of hell than you are yourself. They're like, verse 7, a cage full of birds. Their houses are full of deceit. They've become great. They're waxen rich. Someone was talking about the Vatican. And how much money is there? And how many secret passages are there? I mean, this place, they got gold, they got treasure, they got art. Is that the Jesus that you read of in the four Gospels? Verse 28, they're wax and fat, they shine, they overpass the deeds of the wicked. A priest is worse than a mafia man, in my sight, God says. And Jesus, earlier in Matthew, chapter 7, Sermon on the Mount. Beware of false prophets that come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they're ravening wolves. Verse 15, you'll know them by their fruits. And verse 20, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, or said mass in thy name, or passed out wafers in thy name? Verse 23, and I'll profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. And that's verse 23, and then he took the entire 23rd chapter to rip them a new one. Woe unto you, you hypocrites! You devour widows' houses for a pretense. You make long prayer. He didn't put on beads, but that's what they do. And therefore shall ye receive the greater damnation. And God said, you put this down. Because these religious charlatans and characters are right there on the day my son's being crucified, stirring up the whole thing. And when are you folks going to learn it's religion that's the enemy of my son? And people like Judas and the priests? And then there's that simple fisherman, Peter. Well, you know, Peter had his problems. Yeah, he did. But he heard the word of the Lord. And Peter thought on the word of the Lord. And Peter came to the conclusion, you know, based on the word of the Lord, I really am a sinful man. And Peter wept and he looked on the Lord and he confessed to the Lord. And you'll see him for all of eternity in heaven. And the rest of those guys will only see him for a few minutes at a white throne judgment and then they'll be gone. And God put this right here in the crucifixion chapter. to hope that maybe we won't walk right by it and walk by the way and show ourselves to be fools, but we'll look on these things and consider. Father, thank you for, you know, the way you opened the chapter, and there's so much more in this chapter. It'll take us weeks to cover. And this is the great and the high point of man's history, where the Good Shepherd laid down his life for the sheep. And no man took it from Him. He laid it down of Himself to take it up again that He could give us the gift of eternal life and help us to be like Peter. We may fall down, but as long as we're down and we look to Jesus and we think on those words, He'll pick us up. And we give thanks in Jesus' name. Amen.