Really is good to hear your voices. Sounds really good. Turn with me to Matthew chapter 27. Some weeks ago I was reading in Matthew's gospel, spending some time there. In Matthew chapter 27, when I got there and I got to verse 25, of Matthew 27, I was struck. Really struck. And I thought, this really needs to be expounded. And because Scott had preached on glorification and said a lot about the resurrection, I thought I would preach this morning on some of the days leading up to the death of Christ and his resurrection. From Matthew 27, 11 through 26. Let's read beginning in verse 11 of Matthew 27. Now Jesus stood before the governor And the governor questioned him, saying, are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus said to him, it is as you say. And while he was being accused by the chief priests and elders, he did not answer. Then Pilate said to him, do you not hear how many things they testify against you? And he did not answer him with regard to even a single charge. So the governor was quite amazed. Now at the feast, the governor was accustomed to release for the people any one prisoner whom they wanted. At that time, they were holding a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. So when the people gathered together, Pilate said to them, whom do you want me to release for you? Barabbas or Jesus, who is called Christ? for he knew that because of envy they had handed him over. While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him a message saying, have nothing to do with that righteous man, for last night I suffered greatly in a dream because of him. But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to put Jesus to death. But the governor said to them, Which of the two do you want me to release for you? And they said, Barabbas. Pilate said to them, then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? They all said, crucify him. And he said, why, what evil has he done? But they kept shouting all the more and saying, crucify him. And Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting. He took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd saying, I am innocent of this man's blood. See to that yourselves. And all the people said, his blood shall be on us and our children. Then he released Barabbas for them. But after having Jesus scourged, he handed him over to be crucified. The title this morning, The Most Condemning Words Ever Spoken by Man. The Most Condemning Words Ever Spoken by Man. I call it eternal, envious, self-condemnation. Even Pilate knew they were envy, and Matthew records it. He knew they were envious, and Matthew records it. This morning when we look at this text, we take care to see that there is motive behind all that we do. There's not one thing in life that we do not have a motive for it. We must be careful and thoughtful, not only about our actions, but about our motives. Because the Lord God not only sees our actions, he knows our motive. He knows the very motive of everything we do and say. This morning, I'll give you four thoughts from the perspective of the unrighteous. And in closing, I'll give you three observations about our award from the text. Firstly, the unrighteous hurl accusations at the righteous with no hesitation. the unrighteous hurl accusations at the righteous with no hesitation. We have to recognize that this text gives us an indication in verse 12 that Jesus was being accused by the chief priests and elders And that furthermore, in the previous chapter, 26, in verse 59, it tells us that they had schemed against Him falsely and accused Him falsely. They had brought all kinds of people around to try to scheme against Jesus and have Him put to death. It's sad. when you can't find a real case, so you scheme one up falsely just to get what you want. This shows the real sinfulness of our motives and our nature. The religious leaders of Jesus's day did not want to have a Messiah, the one that God sent. They wanted to have a Messiah that they could make up. And this is the way we are with God. We try to create as humans a God of our own making and liking. And it's all because of envy, the envy that came from the garden that we want to be like God. We want to be like him. But it's also a consideration for the very people of God. If unrighteous people schemed against Jesus falsely and accused Him falsely, well, why would God's people be treated any differently by the unrighteous? We have to recognize this is true. The Lord Jesus said, if they're going to do me this way, if they did me this way, they'll do you the same. We shouldn't be shocked when the world around us hates Christianity. Sometimes it hates it outright. Sometimes it comes out with bold language, false accusations in bold language. They take the exact worst extreme evidence of a so-called Christian and paint it all over social media and say, this is what they're like. That's false accusation. Not every Christian or professing Christian goes around screaming, frothing at the mouth at everything they see and do. Not every Christian is the exact same hypocrite. And besides that, If your accusation is that Christians are hypocrites, you've missed the point of the gospel. We shouldn't be surprised when the world acts this way. They hurled these accusations at the righteous Christ. Why would they not hurl them at a people who can only have hope in a righteousness imputed to them? Just kind of an aside thought. Righteousness in an earthly nation is often short-lived. I think we need to recognize that. Look at history. For all the talk of this nation having righteousness and that nation having righteousness and our nation having righteousness in the past and all those kinds of things, historically, righteousness in an earthly nation is short-lived. The Jews themselves had all reason to try to follow God in His righteousness. But they're actually coming to a place after all their own traditions have truly just completely twisted the whole Old Covenant and its purpose and display to take these things out of such context that they've made up a whole world of their own righteousness that is actually false righteousness. Israel, the nation that God set aside, had a righteousness given to them in His law, and yet they, in their own world, in their own nation, did not live up to it. Righteousness in an earthly nation is often short-lived. But also, considering these accusations, we have to say that Unrighteous people will act, yet God is to be praised. Unrighteous people will act, yet God is to be praised. Sometimes the unrighteous act with intentional malice. Verse 12 makes this clear. The section in Matthew 26 makes it clear that these men had intentional malice against Christ. These religious leaders, they set out to get Jesus. They had a plan, they wanted to work their plan, and they were going to get Him. These religious leaders were not ignorant of what they were doing. They actively purposefully set out to set Christ up and have him murdered. Sometimes the unrighteous act with intentional malice. Sometimes the unrighteous act with indifferent malpractice. With indifferent malpractice. Pilot. He questions Jesus in verse 13. Do you not hear how many things they testify against you? And Jesus doesn't answer. And Pilate was quite amazed. He then goes after questioning Jesus and begins to question the people, the religious leaders mainly, but he's asking them, what do you want me to do? And they're saying, give us Barabbas. And Jesus is sitting there listening to all of this, the accusations against him, and not one of them being true in the sense of those false things schemed. The only thing that has been true so far is when Jesus was asked in another gospel account, are you the Son of God? And Jesus says, it is as you say. Pilate walks through a whole bunch of questions and never once is able to condemn Christ for anything and yet he goes through it with it anyway. Sometimes the unrighteous act with indifferent malpractice. It's as though, whatever, let's just get it done. I'm reminded of an account I heard one time of a doctor who had been apparently planning a vacation for a while, and he was, in the last couple of hours of his office day, seeing patients. And he was taking phone calls about his vacation while he was seeing patients. And one of his patients came in with some type of Mark on his face and. The doctor was looking at it carefully and he said, well, it's just staff infection. He gave the person some medicine. Went about the rest of his few other appointments. Left for his vacation and was gone for a couple of weeks. By the time he got back, the patient that he had seen and said that it was just staff infection. That Mark on his face just grew larger and larger and larger. None of the medicine helped. That was not staph infection, it was actually cancer. The doctor had gotten so concerned about the end of the day and was a little bit indifferent about the patient's situation, he was only thinking about something else. that he really didn't do his due diligence. Pilot's not doing his due diligence. It's indifferent malpractice. He's thinking about something else altogether. He's not thinking about the information that he's gaining by his own questioning. Well, that brings us to our second main point about the unrighteous. The unrighteous halt the unrighteous only for personal gain. The unrighteous halt the unrighteous only for personal gain. When you see a conflict between those who are unrighteous and another group that's unrighteous, how are they going to stop one another? Well, they only stop one another on the basis of benefit. Benefit of one group or the other. Pilate detected no fault with Jesus and still did not act according to his findings. He admits, I've questioned the man, I've heard your accusations, I've looked at the situation, and I'm yet to find any reason that he should be condemned. But he did not act according to his own findings. Not only that, but Pilate proceeded with no concern corresponding to his wife's caution. Pilate proceeded with no concern corresponding to his wife's caution. His wife tells him, don't mess around with this. Now, there's two places, especially you men this morning, in our worship service that it ought to be a little bit of a practical tip to you, that there are times you really need to listen to your wife. Here's one. Would have been wise had Pilate said, you know what? I don't know all of her reasoning of this, and I'm not really a dream interpreter, but all this is getting weird. I can't find any logical reason to condemn the man. My wife's saying this to me. Maybe I need to walk away. The other place was read to you by Robin. All the women came back from the tomb. He's not there. He's not there. What was Peter's thought, and some of the disciples? Well, that's nonsense. They go down there and investigate, and what do they find? He's not there! Practical tip. Husbands, think about what your wives say to you more than just glossing it over. There's noise in the background. If anybody loves you, it's your wife. If anybody loves you, it's your wife on this earth. And they have your best interest in mind. Now, that's a practical aside. But Pilate proceeded with no concern, corresponding to his wife's caution. He should have been more thoughtful. He had already been thoughtful in his own investigation, found nothing to condemn Christ. He gets these words from his wife, which were words of caution, and he does not deal with them. Ultimately, he gives in to the Jewish leaders, and we can say that Pilate behaved foolishly. with no fear of God. Pilate behaved foolishly with no fear of God. You know what Pilate should have been considering? If there is a God, does he have something to do with this man? I found no evidence. I've been cautioned by my own wife. Maybe I need to pause for a minute. But he doesn't. Leads us to the fourth point under this heading. Pilot calculated more personal gain in capitulation to the crowd. Pilot calculated more personal gain in capitulation to the crowd. The word capitulation means giving in. He just gave in. Who do you want? We want Barabbas. Well, why? We want Barabbas. Well, why? We want Barabbas. Well, why? They could give him no reason other than he knew their envy. Envy is very rarely a good starter point, beginning point for any action. Because envy's a sin. What Pilate began to do as the Gospels opened up for us, and all four of the Gospels, is he began to see the pressure from the crowd and dealing with the Jews as a nation more of the issue than actually dealing with the information in front of him. If you read the other gospel accounts, it becomes very obvious that Pilate is just giving in to the crowd because they're pressuring him. And to be a governor over this region, he has to deal with the Jews on a regular basis. And quite frankly, if you read historically, not only in scripture, but from the The silence of the 400 years, Josephus tells you, the Jews are a cantankerous people. And Pilate just gives in. He calculated in his mind that there was more personal gain by giving in than there was going ahead with his own thought processes. It begs a question for us. What's the most important influence in our lives? Is it truly the information we gain from God's word? Is that most influential? Or is it the culture? Is it the culture that influences us the most? Now in our minds we can answer that quickly sometimes and say, well no, I am a Christian. The culture does not influence me most. I think we need to be careful not to answer too quickly. We need to be very careful and thoughtful that we take the truth of the scripture so mindfully that we're willing to apply it rightly to our lives, even if it means putting the culture, our friends, and others, put their influence aside. That doesn't mean we put them aside necessarily. Now sometimes there are some influences you just need to get away from, right? You just need to get away from it all together. But certainly we need to put those influences aside and not have them so valued that our personal gain in the world becomes more important than our gain in Christ. What did Paul say? I count all these things as rubbish. I'll lose all of that. to gain Christ. You're watching Pilate just throw it all away. The world crashing in on him, pushing and pressing in the form of the Jewish nation, especially its religious leaders at the time, that crowd pushing in on him and him saying, I'll just give in. It's just easier to give in. While we're living on this earth, Christianity is not just a swim upstream in a small, nice, flowing creek. It is a hectic, hectic struggle for life in a torrent-raging river of sinfulness. But the glory is all in the gospel. Because all the things that I would gain from the sinfulness of the world, not the earth itself, it still has this great form of God's beauty, even though it's marred by the fall. But the sinfulness of the world, all that I would gain from the sinfulness of the world is nothing. It's rubbish. It's dumb, as Paul says. Thirdly this morning, the unrighteous hold themselves in higher esteem than credible. The unrighteous hold themselves in higher esteem than credible. Pilate washes his hands of the issue and says, I'm innocent of this man's blood. See to that yourselves. And this Jewish crowd, they cry back out to him, his blood shall be on us and on our children. Two things we can note here. Firstly, they heed the voice of their sin nature. Pilate listened to his reasoning in self-preservation. That's why he gave Christ up. It was a matter of him of self-preservation. I just want to get this thing over with and done. Status quo, leave it alone. I just want all of this gone away. Fine, I'll give this Christ to you. We'll crucify and be done with it. And you people just hush. Please. The Jews listened to their reasoning in envy. Envy. Pilate knew it. Verse 18, for he knew that because of envy they had handed him over. Envy. Their envy is so great coming out of their sin nature. that they come to this place to say, his blood shall be on us and our children. Now, I want you to think for a minute. I really want you to clue in and really take a moment and get your brain fired up. Wake up. Wake up. I want you to listen and think for a moment. They are saved that they are willing to accept responsibility for the very murder and shed blood of the very Son of God. That before God, they will accept the responsibility. And even put it on their children. You see once again, we talked about it in Daniel. You remember in Daniel how we talked about envy driving these men to want to put Daniel down? We see this envy driving again, driving. I want that person's spot. I want to be them. I want that. I'm envious of what they have. I'm envious of what they might be. I'm envious of what it looks like or who they are. Envy swelling up to its place to even have people take on the responsibility of saying, You just put his condemnation, the very son of God's condemnation on us and our children. Envy rising to the height of arrogance and stupidity. They heap coals upon their heads, assuming unmeasurable responsibility. They heap coals upon their heads, assuming unmeasurable responsibility. They have no idea what they're taking on. They enviously presume the responsibility of judgment. Let the judgment fall on Him, but the responsibility of it will be on us. Who are they to make the call upon whom the judgment will fall? You see, they're actually taking the place of God right then and there to say, you can put the judgment on us. You now all-knowing and sovereign and you can take on the judgment as if you had planned it? Who are they to make God's sovereignty so small? They are not all-knowing. They are assuming a responsibility for something that they do not understand its full implications. They are saying in the moment, we can handle this decision. We know what it means. We know it's right. We know it's good. We understand everything about it, everything that will happen because of it. And so you just put it on us and our children. They enviously presume the ability to accept judgment. They actually think they can handle the judgment themselves. Just put it on us. We'll handle it. It's okay. We can bear the weight of it. You mean to tell me you can bear the weight of the eternal God bringing condemnation upon you for putting his son to death? Is that what you want to do? They even think they can accept and handle the judgment upon their own children. Our children are precious to us, aren't they? To look at this text, and even in verse 25, it's almost utterly ridiculous to think that they would say something like this publicly. They issued a challenge to God himself that they could accept his judgment upon them eternally and upon their children for what they were about to do. Don't you worry, Pilot. We'll handle it because we're able, capable, and willing. We have the ability to bear the weight of this judgment. We have to see this. That they heralded the most self condemning words in history. This was envious, eternal self condemnation. Oh, and by the way. If you say to yourself. Well, I would never have done that. It's also the same argument that we often give for Adam and Eve in the garden, isn't it? I would never have done that. Adam was the best expression of created human mankind. His wife was formed from his very body, and God breathed into Adam his life. and he denied the very God that made him. If Adam is the best expression in first creation, does that. There is not one of us who could stand and say, in my own power, in my own ability, in my own sinful nature worked out in humanity, I never would have said something like that. That would make us just as arrogant as them. The only reason anyone else wouldn't say something like that is by the very grace of God alone. The reason when I brought to you these words this morning said they were so self-condemning, I heard a little bit of a grrr from you. Oh, how could they say such a thing? The only reason you can even feel that way is because of the grace of God. Lastly, fourthly, dealing with the unrighteous. The unrighteous hang the righteous. for being righteous. The unrighteous hang the righteous for being righteous. If you look at it, Pilate had no criminal reason for Jesus to be hanged upon a tree. He had no criminal reason for it. Pilate had no broken law to decide the death sentence in a Roman context. He had nothing there. with no criminal reason, then Pilate had no sensical reason for Jesus to be hanged upon a tree. Ultimately, Jesus was hung on a tree by the unrighteous because of his righteousness. He alone is righteous in his life on this earth. There has never been another person who ever lived like the Lord Jesus. Never. This is why the world really gets so frustrated and hateful towards Christianity, is because Christianity preaches a right, true Christianity, preaches a righteousness that is not our own. True Christianity says we as men and women are sinners and we have no righteousness in and of ourselves. We are not able to save ourselves. We are in need of an alien righteousness, a righteousness outside of ourselves to be put onto our account. And it can only be done by one who would come and live righteously. according to all of the law of God, and he would do so according to his person, his being, according to who he is in all of his activity through all of eternity. Pilate was so nonsensical. He had the power of Rome behind him. He could have squashed the Jews like a bug. Now, I'm not saying he should have done that. I'm not trying to be anti-Semitic and blah, blah, blah. But I'm saying he had the power. He had the ability. He had the very power of the crown. He could have given good reason to say, you know what? I'm just tired of these cantankerous, griping, complaining Jews. But he gave in. And he gave in because he himself did not know what to do with righteousness. Well, I want you to observe three things about our Lord this morning. Jesus was and is shameless. He had nothing to be ashamed of in life. Jesus was and is shameless. This is why he doesn't answer these questions. He has no reason to open his mouth. This is what is testified about him in the New Testament, but it's also prophesied about him in the Old. Isaiah 53.7, he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers. The Old Testament bears witness to who he will be and how he will live and act. And we see it played out right here. He did not open his mouth. Had he opened his mouth in any unrighteous way, he would not and could not have been confirmed as the very Messiah. You see the Jews are digging their own grave right here because the confirmation of who He is is being worked out before them in how the prophecy of the Old Testament exclaims who He will be and how He will act. They're not even paying attention to their own scriptures. And in the very moment Christ is confirmed, He did not open His mouth. He had nothing to be ashamed of, for he had never lived one sinful moment in his life, not even in thought. Number two, Jesus was and is blameless. He's shameless, nothing to be ashamed of in life. Jesus was and is blameless. If you think about it, because of the way he had lived his life, in full obedience to the very law of God, he had no reason to defend his actions. When he's being questioned here, in this text here, but in other places in the gospels, he has no reason to defend his actions. This also was prophesied in the Old Testament. Isaiah 53. Verse 9, the second section, because he had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth. This is what was prophesied of him in the Old Testament, and he lived it out perfectly. He had done no violence against the law of God. He had broken it nowhere. Even in getting the money changers out of the temple, he had not sinned. because he did that even in a sinless way. And there may be some discussion about all that took place, but even that he did in a sinless way. The New Testament is verifying these very things. Even Pilate came to this conclusion when he said in verse 23, when they wanted to crucify him, he says, why? What evil has he done? What evil has he done? And yet he walked through this blameless because if he had not been blameless, he would not and could not have been confirmed as the Messiah. Thirdly and lastly, Jesus was and is flawless. He's shameless, nothing to be ashamed of in life. He's blameless and he is flawless. Perfection in being. He had no unrighteousness in his being. He had no unrighteousness in his actions or thoughts. He did not even have a reason for unrighteousness. When he is tempted by the very devil himself, Satan tempts him in the wilderness. He was able, as the very Son of God, to reason from Scripture alone, reason from Scripture alone, why he would not fall to the temptation. This is why he's called the second Adam, because Adam didn't reason that way with the serpent. He didn't reason that way with Satan. He didn't come from the very Word of God and say, we will not eat of that tree because our God who made us said to us not to eat of it or we will surely die and we believe Him. They ate anyway. But Jesus stood at the temptation of Satan and uttered the very words of God, the scriptures themselves, reasoned from them, righteousness, and he acted in it. This also was prophesied in the Old Testament, Isaiah 53, 11. By his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, will justify the many, as he will bear their iniquities. God calls him, through the prophet Isaiah, calls him the righteous one, my servant. And in his life, it's verified in the New Testament. This is who he was, the righteous one, the very servant of God, never sinning in any way. We must recognize that he would not and could not have been confirmed as the Messiah had he not been flawless. You want to know what confirmed him? His holiness. He is righteous. The Lord Jesus doesn't just act righteously. He is righteous. He is holy as the Father is holy. Even when Peter would rightly, rightly, say to believers later, remember, be holy for I am holy. Peter's reasoning is all wrapped up in the person and the work of Christ. Because Christ did it. He accomplished it. Even to the point of death. When you think about the resurrection today, you glory in it. that they went to that tomb and he was not there. Even when the lady says he wasn't there and Peter ran down there because he said it's nonsense, Peter realized he's not there. And they all went running back, he's not there, he's alive. The glory of the resurrection is set up in the very perfection of the very being of our Lord and Savior. He is shameless, he is blameless, and he is flawless. Glory in the resurrection today because of who Christ is, not only because of who he was. Amen? Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we pray to you and ask your mercy upon us that you would help our unbelief. Lord, help us not to be like pilot. An ignorant and indifferent malpractice. And Lord, please. Please help us not to be. Like the Jews of that crowd. With their. intentional malice, that they would presume that they could take on the responsibility of the judgment of the Son of God. Please, Lord, help our unbelief. Give us strength to walk in this world according to your truths alone and nothing else. We glory in you through the person and work of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Praising you that he not only lived perfectly and died a sinner's death, but he was raised gloriously on the third day. Praise to the father through the son. by the power of the Holy Spirit and God's people said, amen.