Judas Iscariot's betrayal and subsequent death are examined through Matthew 27 and Acts 1, revealing that actions have consequences that extend beyond death. The sermon highlights how Judas's thirty pieces of silver, used to buy the potter's field, became a 'field of blood' due to both the price of betrayal and Judas's own demise. This narrative illustrates the principle that what is set in motion, whether good or ill, continues to have an impact, serving as a warning against unrepented sin and a call to trust God's prophetic word. The message concludes by emphasizing that God's word, though sometimes concealed, ultimately reveals His sovereign plan and the certainty of His predictions.
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Matthew chapter twenty-seven, again starting at verse three through ten, then Judas, who betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed innocent blood. But they said unto him, What is that to us? See thou to it. And he cast down the pieces of silver into the sanctuary. And he parted. And he went away and hanged himself.
And the chief priest took the pieces of silver and said, It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is the price of blood. And they took counsel. and bought with them the potter's field to bury strangers in. Wherefore, the field was called the field of blood unto this day. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was priced, whom certain of the children of Israel did Christ.
And they gave them for the potter's field as the Lord appointed me. Now, there is more in Acts chapter one, and we have to read that now. Acts chapter one. Verse fifteen. And in those days, Peter stood up in the midst of his brethren and said, And there was a multitude of persons gathered together, about a hundred and twenty. Brethren, it was needful that the Scripture should be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spake before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who was guide to them that took Jesus.
for he was numbered among us, and received his portion in this ministry. Now this man obtained a field with the reward of his iniquity, and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. And it became known to all the dwellers at Jerusalem in so much that in their language That field was called a calgama. That is the field of blood, for it is written in the book of Psalms. Let his habitation be made definite, and let no man dwell therein, and his office let another take.
Twenty four. And they prayed and said, Thou Lord, who knoweth the hearts of all men, show of these two the one whom thou hast chosen, to take the place in this ministry of apostleship from which Judas fell away, that he might go to his own place. That's all we'll read for now. Let us speak to God again in prayer. We are thankful that thou dost tell us about the coming of children into the world, and thou dost tell us about the death of men as they leave this world.
Our God, who but you alone, knows what the end shall be from the beginning. But thou dost know our Father, and we have seen that though before events have transpired, let us tell us the conclusion from the beginning. We thank you that you know this, our God. We confess that in looking at the world, looking at the scene and conditions that exist about us, we could never believe that all these things that we read in thy word as to the future should come to pass, and yet we have seen again and again that what thou didst say did come to pass.
So from this, our Father, not only by faith, but by sight, we would learn to trust in thy word, to have faith in God. And so from the portions that we've read and in thy will, we shall read. We pray, our God, that we shall consider our latter end, as we consider the latter end of Judas. prepare the hearts of all, the minds, our God, that they might understand, cleanse from sin, prepare the lips of him who shall speak, and glorify the name of thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. It would seem as if Matthew twenty-seven could be dealt with certainly in one message or two, but I've been on it before I came here an additional week and it will take all of my power to tell you everything that's contained here and in Acts chapter one and in Old Testament references if I'm to even begin to introduce all the
teachings contained in these few verses three through ten in Matthew chapter twenty seven. It tells us not only what Judas did in his lifetime, but the remarkable thing is that it tells us what he did at the end of his life and what happened to him after he died, and what was the outcome of his buying the Savior, the thirty pieces of silver. God not only tells us history, concerning the man and his lifetime, but he tells us what is the outcome of the history that was begun by the man after he left this world and went into the next.
Now I want you to consider that. Some of you think that all that you're going to do, all that you have done for good or ill is completed when you die and go as they say to receive your reward. But that's wrong. There are some things that have been set in motion even after you had gone, that will redown to your glory and to the glory of Christ and to the good of mankind after you are gone. And there are also ills that shall do the same thing even after you have died because of what you began because of what you set in motion, and these things shall have their consequences after you die.
I have books in my library, one hundred, two hundred years old, and I am looking at the things that men said who have returned to dust and went God took them, and they are blessing my soul today, and they being dead yet speak. But at the same time, and this is what you should understand, that I have books in my library that are the veritable mouthpiece of hell telling me lies, and if I did not know the truth of God and have the Spirit of God within me to refute these, then this ill that man did during his lifetime that is still in print, I read, and it would destroy me as it's destroyed so many other people, even after the one who wrote it is dead and gone.
And so remember that. What you do for good can be continued after you die, and what you do for ill can be continued after you die. Some of the mothers and fathers who have prayed for their children, and some of the teachings that they have passed on to their children after their parents have died, Their children recall what they were taught on their mother's knee, and their mother's being dead, yet speak, and their influence is for good. And yet how many ill practices by fathers and mothers have been retained and coveted by the children, and after their parents are gone, they pattern their lives after their parents.
And so beware. Do not respond if the little good that you have done has not come to fruition or brought forth much fruit. It can in a later day. And remember this, that at the same time the ill that you have done, it can be passed on, and while you are in heaven or in hell, it can be influencing your children as well. Do you remember the rich man in hell? He remembered his brethren on earth, and he was concerned about them in hell. when he was in torment. There was nothing he could do. Only what he had done during his lifetime would do any good. And he said, Send Lazarus back to tell them.
Well, why, O Davies, did you not tell them during your lifetime? Well, I failed to do it. And so he wants to send someone back. But it's too late. And in like manner, the things that you should have done that you did not do, you're not going to be able to do them in the grave. And you cannot send anybody back from the grave. I'm telling you all of these things because Judas started something happening, set in motion certain events, and he went out and hanged himself, but little did he know that these events were both prophetical and were fulfilling prophecies that were written of him in the Old Testament.
And for that reason, While I wanted to tell you a little bit about this part of the chapter, it is essential that I tell you more than what I introduced last week, because it's so complicated. It is so complicated, and if you ask why is not the Word of God to give light, yes, but it is not to give light immediately as you open it, because some of the light in the Bible is concealed. And this is the purpose of God. Listen to this verse. It says, It is the glory of God to conceal a thing.
And so one of God's glories is not only to reveal a thing, but to conceal a thing. It says, The glory of kings is to search out a matter. And some of the things I open the book and I say, yes, here is the solution to that. That's elementary. Yes. And then you come to Matthew chapter twenty-seven and I said, uh-oh, this is one of the portions that is to the glory of God. He has concealed a thing, but it says the glory of kings is to search out a matter. And so God could have made it easy and elementary, but he made it as difficult as difficult could be.
and I'm going to tell you some things about it. And yet, I am not certain that I speak definitively, but I speak suggestively anyway, because what we have here is not a simple illumination to questions that we have. But it is something that is concealed of God, and you have to search ever so diligently before you discover the matter. But if you do, then God is rejoicing in heaven, because when you discover it, God said, I concealed it. and you have worked diligently and you have uncovered the matter. Are there any kings here? It says the glory of kings is to search all the matter. Most of us, well, that's difficult. I'll turn to another portion.
It is a challenge when something before you seems to be a contradiction. It is a challenge from God understanding that he has already told you, I've concealed many things in the Word, and it is your glory to search out a matter. And that is what we should do. And that's what we're trying to do this morning. And the first is this. If you are vaguely familiar with the prophecies of the Old Testament, if when I read you in Matthew twenty-seven, then was fulfilled, that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was priced, which certain of the children of Israel did price.
How many of you have ever read that in the book of Jeremiah? I've never read it in the book of Jeremiah. And you haven't either. If you have, then there is an expanded translation of Jeremiah that you have that I've never read. Because this is found, and I'm going to let you turn to it now, keep your place here, turn to Zechariah eleven, and tell me if I am not reading to you from Zechariah eleven. Zechariah eleven. Verse twelve. And I said unto them, If you think good, give me my hire, and if not forbear, so they weighed for my hire thirty pieces of silver.
And the Lord said unto me, Cast it under the potter. The goodly price I was prized at of them, and I took the thirty pieces of silver and cast them under the parlor in the house of the Lord." Now I raise you from Zechariah chapter eleven, and I challenge you to show me these words in the prophecy of Jeremiah. You say, well then you told me a contradiction? That is folly. To acknowledge that the man who wrote the Gospel of Matthew was so deficient in his understanding of the Scripture that he doesn't even know where the prophecy is that he's telling what's fulfilled, why that is to me enough to take this book and toss it aside.
Why? Because I know more than Matthew, I would say, and you are supposed to be an inspired writer of the Gospels. Don't you understand that what you told me is from Zechariah chapter eleven? And his Sunday school student knows that, that's familiar with Old Testament prophecies. And not only that. Let's suppose that he had put in Jeremiah instead of Zechariah. Do you not think that when somebody read the gospel, they would have come to him and said, Look, you put in Jeremiah instead of Zechariah. Don't you think they would do that? All I have to do is, as on occasion, I'll say, Yes. And Noah was swallowed by the great fish. Afterwards the brother will say, it wasn't Noah that was swallowed by the great fish.
It was Jonah. Didn't you know that? I say, oh, thank you so much, you see. And what you'll find is that the manuscript authority, the ancient manuscript authority, all the major manuscripts say Jeremiah, the prophet. And so we're not going to say that. You can't say that's the easy way. Oh, Matthew made a mistake. Well, if you made a mistake here, then he may have made mistakes in other portions of his gospel. And what can you trust? Suppose you say, this portion in Matthew is so precious, I'm resting my soul's eternal welfare on it. And then someone looks at you and says, why didn't you know that Matthew made a mistake there?
That isn't part of the Word of God. You don't understand. how slippery your pathway becomes when you start saying there are errors in the Bible. If there are, then if you can pick out the errors, you are wiser than the Bible. And if you are wiser than the Bible, you do not need the Bible. And so I'm going to set that aside, not only for the reason that I've just told you. I say without inspiration, the man has sent enough to know Jeremiah from Zechariah. any person that isn't inspired, all of these liberals that come and jump on it and say, he's made a mistake. I say that even without inspiration, Matthew would know Jeremiah from Zechariah, and yet he has put Jeremiah the prophet.
And having said that, this is what it's done to me. It has caused me to search and study hours to try to find the solution in the prophecy of Jeremiah. Because had he said, as is written by Zechariah, I would have turned as I did with you to Zechariah eleven and said, Of course, there it is, and passed on. But now I've gone back to Jeremiah and I read chapter after chapter after chapter trying to find where these words are to be contained in the prophecy of Jeremiah. You understand? You say, well then, God has provoked you to deeper study, whereas if he had read Zechariah, then you would have blanched it and passed on.
Well, of course. The Lord has his ways to get you to study his word, whether you like it or not. Well, let me tell you in brief. This is how it is done, and I'm going to give you principles like I did last Wednesday about principles of interpretation of the first epistle of John. So there are also principles of interpretation when you read the Bible. You have to learn how the author writes and how he deals with the scriptures. And it doesn't matter whether you like them or not. This is the way he handles the Bible. And if you do not follow his way of handling the Bible, you're not going to understand how to interpret the Bible.
So whether you like it or not, see how Matthew dealt with the Bible. and having seen how he dealt with it, then see his interpretation of the scriptures. That's what you have to do. All right. I mentioned this word before. Who knows what the word conflation means? Not inflation. We all know what that means. But what the word conflation means. Does any brother know? Well, I better tell you then. conflation, and I'm making things as simple as possible. I don't want to put too much in your mind, but it's this. It is when an author of Scripture will take one part of the Bible from one prophecy, another part of the Bible from another prophecy, blend them both together, and only quote one of the two prophets from which he quotes.
You understand? That is conflation. Instead of quoting from one prophet and saying, Jeremiah said this, and then quoting from another prophet and saying, Zechariah said this, he will quote from Zechariah and Jeremiah, but only mention one of the prophets from which he quotes. And yet you can look at it and say, yes, he is conflating. which gives us this principle of interpretation. Now grasp this. That God's Word does not put everything neatly in chapters. This is the chapter about the resurrection of Christ. This is the chapter about the betrayal of Christ.
This is the chapter about the coming of the Holy Spirit when Christ goes back to heaven. He doesn't do it that way. The Old Testament is written in such a manner that unless the Spirit of God is in the man to guide him into all truth, he would not be able to interpret these passages from the Old Testament. I know that. Let me give you an example. When the Savior was asked about the resurrection of the dead, he quoted from Exodus three, how anybody could find the resurrection of the dead when Moses was being taught at the burning bushes beyond me.
The Lord Jesus said, Why didn't you know that the dead are raised? Why, you learned that from Exodus chapter three, Moses in the burning bush. And unless my Savior had told me about that, I never would have thought of looking for the resurrection in Exodus three. But if the Savior says it's there, then you have to go after truth the way the Savior went after it. I see. He is not the God of the dead. but of the living. I'm the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He doesn't speak of them as gone non-editive. He said, all live unto God. And when he got through, even the enemies of Christ said, Master, thou hast well answered. And I say, thank God. And so there is ever so much in the Old Testament that is there that we pass over.
We do not even see what God wants us to see factually, historically, in a literal way. Once you learn that, then God says, now start looking at it in a figurative way. This is what I mean. Here is Moses. He's putting together the tabernacles. He has the veil. He has the fine, fine linen, the blue, the purple, the scarlet. He has all of these things. He has the articles of furniture, the mercy seat. and I look at it and I say, so that's the tabernacle that they met in. Here in Raleigh at Faith Bible Fellowship, we have the wood, we have the cloth, we have the pulpit, so I know that. And God says, that mercy seat is my son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Where does it say that? It says it by comparing Romans three and Hebrews nine. It speaks about the mercy seat and Paul says, whom God has set forth Christ as the propitiatory, the pitiation, the mercy seat. Why, that mercy seat is Christ. Yes, in figure it's Christ. And the author of Hebrews says, the veil, that is his flesh. I said, why, the veil is the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course. But it's still a piece of furniture, and it's still material. But while liberally material and a mercy seat, At the same time, they depict Christ, the mercy seat, and they depict Christ, God, manifests in the flesh.
And if you don't see it that way, and you say, well, I don't accept that kind of teaching, well, you'd better toss your Bible away, because ever so much of it is that way. And when Christ was walking on the road to Emmaus, The modernists and the liberalists would say to they, please quit talking to me about the Old Testament that way. There's nothing to it. That's what you call the typical interpretation, the figurative interpretation. I don't accept that interpretation. Here is one who's died and been raised from the dead and is telling you the interpretation of the Scriptures and you say, I don't accept that kind of teaching from the Bible. The folly of it, the Savior said, is Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness? Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
And so I said, Think of that. When Moses lifted up that serpent in the wilderness, that was a figure of the Lord Jesus being lifted up on the cross of Calvary. Who would have known such a thing? The Lord Jesus did. Who would have seen resurrection in Exodus three? What? The Lord Jesus did. And who would see what Matthew sees in Zechariah and in Jeremiah unless the Spirit of God had guided him. I would not have seen it. And so again, I'm abbreviating and I'm making it simple. And so remember these chapters. What I've done is to read from Jeremiah and from Zechariah, and I'll give you this hint, that you cannot read Zechariah and find these exact words in them.
You'll find the gist of them there, and yet you'll find some things not in Zechariah that are in Matthew's Gospels. And I said, well, I'm going to look for those things in Jeremiah. And you look in Jeremiah, and you find those things in Jeremiah that are not in Zechariah. And so I said, this is conflation. It's evident. This is a conflation. It is taking Jeremiah and Zechariah, elements of both of them, conflating them, combining them, and telling us how it speaks of Christ. And having said that, this is what you have to do. You have to find these elements in the prophecy of Jeremiah.
And I told you I'm suggesting this. It isn't infinity. When it says the veil, which is his flesh, that matter is ended. When it says the mercy seat, Christ is the propitiatory, then the matter is settled for anyone who believes the scriptures as we do. But in what I'm telling you, I'm simply trying to see how Jeremiah and Zechariah fit together in this. And this is the marvel. Let me tell you, remember these things. In chapter eighteen and nineteen and thirty-two, you have remarkable chapters, because in chapters eighteen and nineteen, you have Jeremiah visiting the potter's house, first of all, seeing him with a work on the wheel, and while he's working on it, it's marred, and then he goes to work again, and he repairs the marred vessel.
And God says, I can do that to a man. But in chapter nineteen, he gets a potter's vessel, a bottle, and he says, Now you take this bottle, and in the presence of the elders of Israel, break the bottle. And he said, Break it, and it cannot be put together. again. Notice something is marred in eighteen, but it's fixed. In chapter nineteen here is that vessel, and it's hardened, and it's broken, and it can't be repaired. And yet in chapter thirty-two another vessel is taken, and deeds of fields that were bought, a field that was bought, put into this bottle, and Jeremiah is told to put it away, keep it safe for many days, because in the future the children of Israel are going to buy fields and this shall be once again a place of habitation.
Now there are three truths. There are three truths that God brings to our attention there. And they are that Israel can be marred but can be corrected. Israel as a vessel can be broken and not be put together again. And then Israel as a nation can be restored again. and God teaches these three lessons. And what he does is this. In chapter nineteen, and I want to read you a few verses just to show you, turn to Jeremiah chapter nineteen now, because notice some of the elements that are so starting. In Jeremiah nineteen, thus said the Lord, go and buy a potter's earthen vessel, and take of the elders of the people and the elders of the priests and go forth unto the valley of the son of Hennam.
You've heard of Gehenna? This is the valley of Gehenna, the son of Hennam, which is by the entry of the gate Hennam, and proclaim there the words which I shall tell thee. And say, Hear ye, the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, thus set the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, which whosoever heareth his ear shall tingle, because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and had burned incense in it unto other gods, that they knew not.
They and their fathers and the kings of Judah, and had filled this place with the blood of innocence, the blood of innocence. Do you remember? I betrayed innocent blood, the blood of innocence, and had built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not nor spake it. Neither came into my mind. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that this place shall no more be called Tophit, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter. And I will make void the council of Judah and Jerusalem in this place.
And I will call them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of them that seek their life. And their dead bodies will I give to be food for the birds of the heavens and for the beasts of the earth. And I will make this city an astonishment, and a hissing, and every one that passes thereby shall be astonished and hissed because of all the plagues thereof. and I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friends in the siege and into distress, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their life, shall distress them.
Then thou shalt break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee, and shall say unto them, thus that the Lord opposed, Even so will I break this people, this city, as one breaketh a pocket vessel that cannot be made whole again, and they shall bury in top it, till there be no place to bury. Thus will I do unto this place that the Lord, and to the inhabitants thereof, making this city as top it, and so forth, and so on. All right, notice. Here it speaks about a place of burying, and it calls it top it, Gahemma, and when you put all these things together, I believe what happened is this.
Now, I'm just suggesting it. Please, you think it through yourself. And if you have searched it out, then you prove to be a better king than I am. But what I'm telling you is just suggesting. But here, here is a field, and here is a place that is no longer called Tophit, that is smiting. It's no longer called the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but it's called the Valley of Slaughter, and it's for a place of burying. And so you just think in your mind, you think about a field, a field that's bought in chapter thirty-two, you think of a place of burying the blood of the innocent, and you take all of these elements and you conflate them with what you have in Zechariah, and what emerges is the picture that we have in Matthew twenty-seven, and in Acts chapter one, what happened to Judas.
And this is the marvel, that some of the things that the priests did, they thought they meant one thing, but in another it meant something else. When he read his garment, he thought it was because of the blasphemy of Christ. But when he read his garment in reality, this man was showing the destruction of the priesthood and of the temple and all that he stood for. He thought it meant one thing, it meant another. When they took counsel together, and this is the marvel, all of the counsel that they're taking, what are we going to do with this money? The counsel that they take, God is just waiting for them to take the counsel, and when they figure out what they're going to do, they do exactly what God prophesied they're going to be done.
That's the marvel. All the things that men do perfectly according to their freedom, God isn't forcing them to do these things. They take counsel. They say, this is what we're going to do. And then we read in the Bible. We say, well, that's what the Bible said they were going to do. Well, of course. But this is what is so sad. Here is Judas, and with his money, that's how he bought a field. He didn't buy it himself, but they bought it with Judas' money through the priests. They bought the field. And this field turned out to be a field of blood for two reasons. Because it was bought with blood money, the precious blood of Christ. and it's called the field of blood, because the blood of Judas, I take it, in Acts one, also were shed in this field.
And the first one that was buried in it was Judas. But the sad thing is this. Now, I told you about the rending of the garment. It was not because of Christ and his blasphemy, but it was a figure of themselves. And they buy a field to very strangers in. But in reality, and just remember this, that a Jew looking at a Gentile, the Gentile is a stranger. But when the Gentiles, the Roman army, comes, they look upon the Jews and they are strangers. And this field in which strangers are to be buried, Gentiles, they come and destroy the Jews, and now they are buried. They are buried. They are killed by the thousands in AD seventy, so much so that there's no place to bury them.
And so all of this takes place according to a completion of Jeremiah and Zechariah. And you look at these elements, and you understand the marvel of it. And if you're able, and if we had the genius as Matthew did, we could put all these things together. But when you look at it, look at it with an open eye, and not with a narrow eye, and see the historical, but see the prophetical as well, and understand that what God says shall come to pass, shall come to pass. Trust in the Lord. Wait God's time. It shall occur. Time is gone. Let us pray. Our Father, we are thankful for the truth of thy word, the certainty of its predictions.
For us who are told that thus shall we ever be with the Lord, nothing shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We who are Christians, thank you for that. But our God, for those who are lost, let them look at thy word and understand that its predictions are true concerning them as well. If they trust Christ as Savior, then they shall forever be with the Lord. But if not, then they shall go to their place. They shall have an end similar to that of Judas Iscariot. And while they think that they are doing things for strangers, in reality they are doing things for themselves. So help us our God in all of these ways. Let us do good now and hope that something comes out of it in this life.
But if not, let our prayers go on after our death and let good come to pass. But let us look at Judas and fear, and let us look at the prophecies of God and take courage, because he who cometh will come and shall not tarry. Bless, we pray. In the name of Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen.