The better question, perhaps, is who will you turn to with a troubled, guilty conscience? Brothers and sisters, this text this morning ought to cause us to ask this question, to cause us to look not only to Judas, but to Peter, and to see what these men, in their guilty consciences, in the great sin and evil which they have committed, Who do they turn to? And what is the end of this? What are the end of these things? This text is meant to cause us to compare Peter and Judas, both who have denied and in some way betrayed Christ, but yet whose outcomes, whose eternal states, whose hopes and mercy and atonement are completely different. If you would, open with me to Matthew chapter 27. Matthew chapter 27, and if you would open and follow along with me as I read Matthew chapter 27, the first 10 verses. When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. And they bound him and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate the governor. Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. They said, what is that to us? See to it yourself. And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed and he went and hanged himself. But the chief priest, taking the pieces of silver, said, it is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money. So they took counsel and bought with them the potter's field as a burial place for strangers. Therefore, that field has been called the field of blood to this day. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, and they took the 30 pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, and they gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord directed me." Pray with me. Oh Lord, as we seek to answer this question, where will we go with our sins? When our consciences are troubled, when we see the great guilt of the ways in which we live, of the ways in which we treasure and value things of this world above Christ, when we see these things, where will we turn with them? When we look at this question of who is our master, are we slaves of sin or are we slaves of righteousness, Lord? I pray for your people that they would see the fittingness of bringing their sins to Christ. The goodness and mercy and hope that they have found in taking their sins, Lord, taking all of our sins, our sins, and bringing them before Christ. Seeing Christ hung on the cross, His blood shed for His people. for their redemption, for their atonement, and for their salvation. O Lord, would we all this morning glory and rest upon Christ and his fittingness and his ability to save. And would we tremble at the thought of neglecting, of betraying, of leaving our Savior Jesus Christ and becoming slaves of Satan, that master which gives no hope. and gives only condemnation, death, and destruction. Lord, please help me this morning as I speak these words. Help my words to be clear, Lord. But it be you that speak forth from my sinful lips, Lord. And I pray for your people, that they would cherish these words, that they would see the glory of Christ, that they would rest in him this morning, that they would be quick and eager to take their sins and to lay it at your feet. Not that we may sin, that grace may abound, but that when we do sin, we have an advocate with the Father. And would we glory in these things this morning. in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Savior, our Atonement. Amen. So as I've said, when we look at this, we are meant to compare Peter and Judas. And we may say, where do we see this? Matthew does not give us explicit commentary. He does not tell us, look back to Peter and compare it to Judas. He doesn't say this explicitly. But through the ways that he structured his writing to us, we ought to see that this is the case. As Brother Caleb took us through the end of Matthew 26 previously, we see that there is a counsel. That the high priest, the Sanhedrin, meets together and seeks witness against Christ to condemn him to death. And then finally, by Christ's own words, they find reason to condemn him. Not truly, but in their sin, they find this. There is a counsel. And then we read of Peter's denial, his threefold denial of his master, of his teacher, of his savior. And when we notice this morning, as we've read together, we see the same structure. We see another council. We see the Sanhedrin come together again to condemn Christ. This time in a probably more official sense. Now that the light of day has come up, the rooster has crowed, as we've seen at the end of Peter's denial, the morning has come, and therefore they have this official, in the daylight, council to condemn Christ. And then we read of another betrayal, another denial of Christ. These things ought to draw our eyes to compare, to look back to the denial of Peter, look back to the work of Christ in both of the lives of these men, but more importantly than this, to look forward to what is to come. To look forward to the Christ, to look forward in this text to his crucifixion and what that means for those who believe in him. And the paradigm that I want us to look at this morning is that of two masters. In Romans 6, Paul makes it clear to us that we are either a slave to sin, we are either a slave to evil, of Satan, or we are a slave of righteousness, the righteousness that comes by Christ. The righteousness that we are compelled to do by our faith and hope and love that is given to us in Christ. So this is the question that we must answer. Where do we turn with a guilty conscience? Do we turn to evil? Do we turn to Satan? Or do we turn to Christ? This is the question we must answer this morning. And all men, are not all men's consciences troubled? We may say, yes, as Christians, oftentimes the Spirit convicts us of sin, and oftentimes we see our sinfulness, but I would say, that, and I think God's word would say, that all men's consciences are troubled, that all men sense in some way that they live in a way that is not in line with their values, that they seek in some way to cover over their sins, that their consciences are troubled. All men, all women, all people experience these things, that our consciences are often troubled, and yet there is a way to go about covering this guilt in our conscience in a way that is fitting with the world, in the way that the world does things, and there's a way to do so as a Christian. There's a way in which we do so when our master is Christ that is fundamentally different than the world. So when temptation wins the day, when our guilt is made clear before our eyes, when we sense in a certain profound way that we've offended God, we violated his law, where will we turn? That is the question we answer this morning. Either to turn to Christ for salvation and life, or to turn to ourselves, to turn to the world, to turn to man-made religion, or to our own works, or comparing ourselves to the sins of our neighbor. All of these man-made, sinful, evil things that we do to cover over our own sins, these things will lead us only to destruction. It is to reject Christ. We are either a slave of the evil one or we are a slave to Christ. This is what we must look at this morning. So as we see first, we look to Judas and say, who is Judas' master? Who does Judas serve in this text? From the words of our own Savior, we see that Judas is the son of destruction, that he is one who is controlled by Satan. In John 13, it says that the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas to betray him. Luke 22 says that Satan entered into Judas. who was a number of the twelve. And this is when he goes to go to the chief priests, to go to these ones and to hatch this plan to betray Christ. We can say clearly that Judas' master, the one who Judas serves, is the evil one. And what is the result of this? What comes of this apostasy that he has left his teacher, he has clung to Satan, what is the result of these things? Especially when his conscience is troubled. Especially when he goes and says, I have sinned. What atonement is there for him? And we will see there is none. And we can also say, as we begin to look at this, in many ways it appears as though Satan has the authority here. That we begin and we see Jesus, we see Peter's master, Jesus, is the one who is bound. He is condemned to death. It appears as though for a moment that Satan is the one who has the upper hand, the one who is controlling these things, the one who has victory. And we know these things are not true. Again, we are meant to look forward to the victory of Christ, but yet for the moment it appears that this is what has happened. So we will look at these two masters, either serving and being a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness, a slave to Satan or a slave to Christ. And we will see this in looking at four different aspects of mercy, of hope, of atonement, and of eternity. And we will look at both of these men and what they cast themselves upon. what mercy is there to be found, what hope is there to be found, what atonement is to be found, and what eternity, what eternal state is to be found in these two men and who their masters are. So Judas, upon seeing his savior condemned, changes his mind. Certain older translations would translate this as repent, but I think our translation I appreciate and then it says he changed his mind. That in some way he says what I have done is wrong, that I have that the blood of an innocent man is on my hands, that Judas has seen all of the works of Christ. If anyone had a negative thing to say about Christ, if Christ was different in private than he was in public, if there was any condemnation or secret sin that could be revealed of Christ, Judas would be the one that would have some. And yet he does not speak up at the council. And even now he says, this is an innocent man. You are shedding the blood of an innocent man. His conscience is burdened. But yet, what is there for him? As he says, I have sinned, he returns to these priests, he returns to this Sanhedrin, this council, who themselves, we could say, are given over to the will of Satan. And there is no mercy to be found. And this again shows who Judas' master is. He does not have a true repentance. A true repentance is not simply a looking to sin and seeking to stop sinning. It's not simply to pump the brakes and attempt to stop this train that is already in motion of the condemnation of Jesus. It's not simply a saying, I have sinned, but it is a turning to God. It is a bringing these things before the face of God and trusting in His forgiveness and trusting in His mercy. And therefore we can say, is Judas's repentance true repentance? Or is it simply worldly grief? And we will say clearly that this is simply worldly grief. That he has seen his sin, and in some ways we could say it is good that he has understood his sinfulness, he has understood the guilt of what he has done, but yet what does he do with it? What he does is improper. He does not turn to God. He does not seek God. that mercy and hope that has been preached to him throughout the earthly ministry of Christ, that he was there through the proclamation of the gospel. He was there just as much as Peter was, and yet, in this time of great sin, he ought to know, where do we take our sin? Where do we take these things? And yet, he does not do this. His repentance is a half-repentance. He changes his mind, but yet he does not seek God for mercy. What mercy does he receive then? What does he receive from these ones he does bring his conscience, his guilty conscience, to? He goes to the priests, and what do they say? They say, what is that to us? See to it yourself. This is a, it almost ought to cause us to gasp, a thinking of the priesthood, of what the priesthood was meant to represent, of what the priesthood was meant to accomplish in the Old Testament, and yet this man who is guilty of sin, who is seeking to make his sin right in some way, again, not a full way, but in a way in which he's seeking to at least stop what's going on, perhaps not having a clear conscience before God, but at least seeking to stop what is happening so that these things can be made right, they say, what is that to us? But this is, it has everything to do with them. This is their job, is to make atonement for the people. And ultimately, through making atonement, through their priesthood, is meant to point them to Christ, yet they condemn the Christ. And there is no more hope for Judas in these things that they have said, what is this to us? There's no more mercy. There is no mercy to be found in this priesthood, in these ones that Judas has brought his sins before. It is merciless. He is prayed upon. He's given his payment, he's paid off, and now they are done with him. He is thrown out as garbage. He's left to his own devices. He knows the gravity of his own sin. He knows the payment due for his sins. He knows he has shed innocent blood. The blood of the innocent man is on his hands, and yet there is no mercy to be found for him. Because again, he does not truly turn to God in repentance. But he turns back to these priests, these ones who are being done away with as the true priest comes onto the scene. And therefore we say he is repenting in line with his true master, which is Satan. And this master gives him no mercy. So this is mercy. This is the mercy that is found for Judas. There is none. What hope is he given? What hope is there for Judas? And we see this again in his actions. That in despair he throws down the pieces of silver and he departs and he hangs himself. Brothers and sisters, what evil, what darkness there is in this passage in many ways. He sees no hope. He sees no mercy. He doesn't turn to God, and therefore he is left with nothing. He's not even left with the coins that he was purchased with. He throws the coins back. In some way, again, perhaps seeing the sinfulness of them, throwing them back, seeking to throw his sin off of himself, and yet there is no hope. He despairs of life itself. He throws the coins. He departs. He kills himself, he commits suicide. Again, we must, is this, who is this master? This is how Satan deals with his people. This is being, apostatizing from Christ, leaving Christ, being given over to Satan. This is the result of his actions, that he's once, He served his purpose, and he is now left without hope. There is nothing more for him. The purposes of his master are complete for him, and he is discarded. He's lost his money, he's lost his mercy, he's lost his hope, and as we will look at, he's lost his atonement and his eternal state. Atonement. We will now look at atonement. In some way we could say Judas seeks for atonement. He seeks for something to cover over his sin. The Old Testament law makes it clear to us that the sin that Judas commits is deserving of the death penalty. That Deuteronomy 27 is cursed is anyone who takes a bribe to shed innocent blood. Judas understands that he is cursed, that the actions he has done are horribly sinful, and that he deserves death. And more than this, in Deuteronomy 19, says, the judges shall inquire diligently. And if the witness is a false witness, and he has accused his brother falsely, as Judas has admitted to doing, then you shall do to him as he has meant to do to his brother. That the punishment, the condemnation that he has placed upon Christ, he understands and says, these things ought to be placed upon me. And yet, he finds no mercy. He finds no hope. And because he has abandoned Christ, he finds no atonement. He sees his troubled conscience, and he takes the law upon himself and is crushed by it. He takes his own life. He understands that he is deserving of death, and therefore he sees to it himself. He does not look to be reconciled to God, but yet looks inwardly to the ways in which he could cover his guilty conscience, and it leads to his death and to his destruction. This is his atonement. This is the atonement that is there for Judas. There is no atonement. It is a false atonement. It is a sense of atonement, yet it is false. Why? Because we know the eternal state of Judas. That he is destroyed. He is under the wrath of God for eternity. That he, his destination, is hell. that he is a son of destruction, as Jesus says in John 17. Jesus speaks a woe over him, that it would be better if he had not been born in Matthew chapter 26. These things ought to point our hearts to say, we can be confident of Judas's destination, of the destruction that he faces, not simply one of losing his earthly life, but of losing his eternal life, of losing his soul to his sin. Judas is not damned because he commits suicide. He is damned because he has lost hope. His master is Satan. It's an outpouring of what's already there, a complete rejection of Christ. We cannot say that he is damned to hell because of his suicide. Suicide is not the unforgivable sin that the Roman Catholic Church would try to get us to believe. The reason he is damned to hell is because he has rejected his Savior completely and fully to the end. I don't want to get too off track, but simply to say that. As I worked at City Mission, many people would ask me this question, is suicide the unforgivable sin? Can Christ have mercy on us in these things? And if our master is Christ, if in a moment of deep despair, one ends their own life, but yet their master is Christ, we could say, Christ is a master who can atone for even this. Yet this is not Peter's great sin. It is sinful by all means, but yet his greater sin is that he has rejected Christ, that he has apostatized fully from the gospel, that he has been sold over to Satan, and that he has given over to these things which are death and destruction. Looking at this darkness, let us brothers and sisters turn our eyes off of these things and look to the hope that is found in Christ. Let us turn our eyes and look to Peter's master, to look to this one who has likewise sold his savior for his own security, for his own safety before these people in the courtyard. But yet, his end is not the same end as Judas. Why is this the case? That they are similar in some ways, but yet, why are they different? And as we've talked about at the beginning, where do they take their guilty consciences? Where does this sin get paid for? Judas takes his sin upon himself and hangs himself and pays with his own blood the penalty for his sins and will for all eternity. But yet Peter, as we've spoken of in just a few verses, will see his Savior bleed for his sin. And as we spoke briefly of the authority of of Satan, that it appears as though Satan is in control, that we can say truly that Christ is in control. This prophecy, there's much to be said about it, and there's many sermons that could probably be preached, but simply to put it simply, we see that even then, Christ is in control. That even though Christ is bound, he is still seeing these things through. He is still having All of these things work together for the purposes of the salvation of his people. And even think of the foolishness of Christ being bound. That his hands are bound with earthly chains as though they hope that through binding him in this way that he may not escape, as though he has passed through the crowd before. No. Brothers and sisters, all the authority, all the power in this passage, though it appears as though it is with Satan, is with Christ. Jesus' authority is not questioned here. He's not bound by the chains of men. He's bound by the love of His people. He is not led by these evil men. Truly and fully, He is led by His desire, by the covenant He has made with His Father, the covenant of redemption to to die for his people. He is not delivered because he is condemned. In this way, he is delivered because he is condemned for our sins, brothers and sisters, that all authority, even in this passage, we see how Christ is working through the Trinity, is continuing to work these things out to show us that ultimately, he is the one who is in authority, that he lays his life down willingly. So let us look again to these categories, mercy, hope, atonement, and eternity. Mercy. Peter's master is not unmerciful, that Judas's master showed great disdain for him, gave him no mercy and no hope. But Peter's master, in fact, we read of Jesus praying for Peter. that Judas's master preys upon him, sells him for 30 pieces of silver. It is his own soul that is being sold in this. But yet, Peter's master preys for him, has mercy upon him, strengthens his faith by his intermediary prayer for him. Hebrews tells us in many places that Christ will be merciful towards our iniquities and that he will remember our sins no more. That he has been made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God. That we serve a high priest, we serve a master who is not unmerciful, who is exceedingly merciful to us in our sins. And Peter himself, as he writes his letter, His epistle to us shows the great hope that is to be found in Christ. In 1 Peter 1, verse 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Peter speaks of this hope, that he has not lost hope, that though he denies Christ, there is still hope for him. And where is this hope found? but by, as he says, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And this brings us back to atonement. The atonement that is made for Peter and the atonement that is made for all who believe in Christ. That their sins are paid for by him. Why is Christ merciful? Why does he give us hope? because he has died for our sins on the cross. As I've said briefly previously, Judas is hanged for his transgression. It is his own blood that is required of him now and for eternity for his sin. But yet, Peter is to see his Savior hung for him, hung upon the tree for his sins. It is going to be Christ's blood that is shed for him. Judas looks to his own hands, his own ability to clear his own conscience. Peter's master points to his own pierced hands, his own death to clear Peter's conscience, to show the forgiveness and the mercy and the hope that is to be found in him. Again, Peter, in his own epistle, says in chapter two, that he himself bore our sin in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed. This is true of all of us, brothers and sisters, but think of Peter saying these things. Peter has denied his Savior of done this great sin, but yet he can say that he has borne our sins in his body on the tree, that this sin of denying his Savior is borne in his sight as his Savior is hung upon the tree. as he sees these things come to pass. And then finally, we could look to eternity. That Romans chapter six, verse 23, I think is a very great word that could help us understand this passage perhaps more clearly. The wages of sin is death. The wages that Judas repaid, these 30 pieces of silver, his apostasy from his savior led to nothing but his death and destruction. that he was sold into the hands of Satan. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. To have Christ be our master, to be Christ who is the one who controls and is master of our life, the shepherd of our life, is to have eternal life, to be forgiven, to be atoned for, for these things. Because our sins have been forgiven, we can truly be made right before God. That our consciences are not cleared in some human way, but that they are cleared truly. That our sins are truly put far, far from us. Beware those who seek to cloud our affections for Christ. Beware of these things, brothers and sisters. Beware of those things that would lead you apart from Christ, the great danger of apostasy. Have we not ourselves done what these men have done? Have we not sold our Savior short? Have we not considered His friendship, His mercy, His salvation, His love as small things? made a choice to treasure other things over these things that Christ has done for us? Brothers and sisters, if you are anything like me, then yes, this happens every day. Is this not what sin is? In every time that we sin, in every transgression, but a selling short of Christ, of loving ourselves, of loving the world more than we love our Savior. Have we traded our enjoyment of these things for earthly pleasures? We must beware of these things. But more than this, and I hope that this passage has not crushed us, I pray that these things ought to cause us to rest in Christ. That above and over all things, to see the worthiness to cast our sins upon Christ. That as our consciences are burdened that our master is a merciful master. He is a master that gives us hope because he has died for our guilty consciences, that the sins with which we commit were placed upon him. Brothers and sisters, it is a good thing to rest in Christ. It is a good thing. It is a fitting thing to rest and to place our guilty consciences upon Christ. To do anything else is to bring destruction, but to do so is to bring life to ourselves. Thomas Brooks says that godly sorrow is a gift from God. These things, even ourselves, if we truly repent, if we see our sinfulness and we bring them in hope before Christ, we see even these things are a gift of God. Help us to be quick to cherish this gift, not to neglect this gift, not to be eager to sin, but when we do sin, to be eager to come before our Savior and to plead His righteousness, to plead His blood on our behalf, to take these sins before Him. Again, perhaps on our knees in many tears and in much disgust at our own sin and much guilt at our own consciences, but yet to come before him, to lay these things before him and see the great mercy that he has for us, the great atonement that has been made for our sins. Paul, in 2 Corinthians chapter 7, I think, again, another verse that helpfully brings this distinction to us, says, for godly grief, a grief that is godly, produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret. Brothers and sisters, let us have godly grief. Let us griever over our sins and to see the ways in which they insult and reject our Savior, the ways in which they bring reproach upon our Savior. But yet, let it produce in us a repentance that leads to salvation. Brothers and sisters, as we sin, let us grieve in a way that is godly, with true repentance. And Paul continues on, whereas worldly grief produces death. Let us not grieve in a worldly sense. When we look at our guilty consciences, when we sin, do not treat that sin as the world does, but cast yourself fully upon Christ. He is a willing and a fitting Savior. Be quick to bring your sins before Christ. Do this often. Do this daily. Do this in all times and in all places. Do not let your conscience be burdened. Do not let those guilts, those sins crush you any longer, but bring them to Christ. Cast them upon Him. Rest in His hope. Rest in His atonement. Rest in His salvation and His authority. When we sin, do not look to ourself. Don't seek to cover up our own sin, as these priests did, of taking this money and seeking to do something pious with it, of buying this field. But yet, even God reveals this by the people calling it a field of blood. That even this has not been covered over. That Judas' suicide does not pay for his sins. Do not treat these things as the world does. Do not look to earthly solutions or masters. Don't look to religion that seeks to cloud or undo the work of Christ, but look only to Christ in these things. Brothers and sisters, see his willingness. and His fittingness to take our sins upon Himself on the tree. Pray with me. Oh, Lord God, this text is difficult. It is most dark in many ways, Lord, to see the great Condemnation, the great damnation of Judas as he has sold his savior for 30 pieces, sold him as a slave and counted him as nothing and has given over to the hands of Satan, Lord. And that in this there is no hope for him, that there is no mercy, that there is no atonement, there is no price to be paid for his sins and that his conscience is guilty to death, that he has a worldly grief. But Lord, would this Further magnify, Lord, would this make even larger in our minds that crucifixion which is to come. To see the willingness of our Savior to take our sins in his body on the tree. The sin of Peter and likewise the sin of ourselves, Lord, as we often count you lower than we ought, that we often do not appreciate and love you as we ought, Lord, that often we sin. Help us to take our guilty consciences quickly to you, Lord. Forgive us our sins and help us to have great hope that you truly do take our sins away from us, that there is true cleansing for our consciences. Help us to have a godly grief, this grief that is a gift only of you, wrought only in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Help us to treasure these things, to glory in these things, and to make use of these things often, to bring our sins often before you and trust. that there is grace to be found. Not that we would continue to sin that grace may abound, Lord, but that when we do sin, we would have great confidence in bringing them before you. Help us to have hope in this, Lord. I pray for your people that they would rest in you this morning, Lord, that they would cast themselves more fully upon you and on your atoning work on the cross and by your resurrection from the dead for our sins. We ask all of this in Christ's name. Amen.