The sermon titled 'Two Kinds of Sorrow' by Jason Dohm explores the differences between godly sorrow and worldly sorrow, using the biblical accounts of Peter and Judas as examples. Dohm explains how Peter's bitter weeping represented true repentance and saving faith, while Judas' remorse was self-centered and counterfeit, leading to his demise. The sermon references Matthew 7 and Matthew 13 to highlight how not all external displays of faith signify genuine belief or repentance. It draws upon 2 Corinthians 7, where Paul distinguishes between godly sorrow that leads to salvation and worldly sorrow that leads to death. Dohm emphasizes that the promises of sin and idolatry ultimately lead to death, despite their allure of pleasure and gain. He encourages listeners to search their hearts for counterfeit repentance and seek God's mercy. The sermon also discusses the prophecy fulfillment in the purchase of the potter's field with Judas' returned silver, referencing Zechariah 11 and the complexities of scriptural interpretation.

Well, I was looking at my sermon, my finished sermon this morning, and I said that is two sermons. So, the good news is, at the very least, I've had the good sense to strip out one of those sermons. And so I'll only be preaching one of them today. And then we'll just have to see whether we linger on Judas one more week next week, or we just decide to forget that element of the text and move on. I'm not sure.

We'll know tomorrow morning. But the title of the sermon is Two Kinds of Sorrow. Last week's text ends with Peter going out and weeping bitterly. And this week's text begins with Judas being pricked in his conscience. The text actually says that He's remorseful.

And if you didn't know the story and you just read these few verses, you'd say this is the same thing. The bitter weeping of Peter is the same thing as the remorse of Judas. But because we know more outside of these verses, we know that they're not the same thing at all. We know that they look similar on the surface, but when you peel back a couple of levels, You have something which is fundamentally different. And so what we're considering this week is something that helps explain Matthew 7, where Jesus, the Judge, is going to say to many people, Lord, Lord, have we not in the list starts of the good things that happen.

But Jesus will actually look at them and say, I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. So There are many people who have the external things, who actually do exploits for the Gospel, who will be told by Jesus the Judge to depart from Him, because actually in their hearts they practice lawlessness. And it helps explain Matthew 13, the parable of the soils, where two of these four soils actually externally have the appearance of growing healthy plants, but time and circumstances reveal that they're not growing healthy plants, that they're plants who will never be fruitful at all. There are different emotions and there are different motivations that lead people to become quote unquote Christian. That's what we're going to take from this text today.

There are different emotions and different motivations that lead people to become quote unquote Christian. But not all of these different emotions and not all of these motivations represent saving faith or true repentance. Sometimes It doesn't represent saving faith at all. Sometimes it doesn't represent true repentance at all. In Mark 1 verse 15, this is the very beginning of Jesus' preaching ministry.

In Mark 1 verse 15, Jesus says, repent and believe in the gospel. And the gospel really is that simple. That's all that is required to be saved is to repent and to believe in the gospel. But the problem is that there are counterfeits to both. There's something that looks like repentance externally, but it's not really repentance.

There's something that looks like believing the Gospel, that looks like saving faith, but it's not really saving faith. They're counterfeits. And we see this on display in the life of Judas. He looks like he's repented and believes the gospel, but he's never repented and he's never believed the gospel and he's not regenerate. So there are two kinds of sorrow that we have.

One kind that is typified by Peter who really repents. And one remorse that is being felt in the heart of Judas and yet it's not saving faith or true repentance. Let's go right to the text. And let's read and consider verses 1 and 2. This is the conclusion of the Jewish trial in the transfer to Pontius Pilate.

Matthew chapter 27, 1 and 2. When morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people plotted against Jesus to put him to death. Some translations render that a took counsel against Jesus to put Him to death. Verse 2, and when they had bound Him, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate the governor. In chapter 26, this chapter that we just got out of that we spent so many weeks in, in chapter 26 verse 55, Caiaphas the high priest has declared Jesus to be a blasphemer.

He's heard Jesus take upon himself the mantle of Messiah and the mantle of Son of God. And Cephas says that's blasphemy, that's speaking against God. And in the very next verse, in chapter 26 verse 56, the rest of the council proclaims that Jesus is worthy of death. They say He is deserving of death. And this concludes the Jewish trial.

They have passed their sentence of death. And it signals the shift to the Gentile trial, which is going to include Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, and Herod Antipas, the tetrarch. And so Jesus is bound and sent to Pontius Pilate, not for another verdict, but for a validation of the verdict that has been passed down by the high priest in the Sanhedrin. Because they could pronounce a death sentence, but they couldn't carry it out under Roman law. So this death sentence has to be either validated or invalidated by Roman authorities in order for it to be executed.

And so Jesus is bound and sent to Pontius Pilate. Pontius Pilate is the governor of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea. So Jerusalem is in Judea. The district to the north is Samaria. The district to the south is Idumea.

So Pontius Pilate is the governor over these three districts. So you would have had Idumea in the far south, and then Judea where Jerusalem is, and then Samaria north of that, and then Galilee north of that. And Galilee would have been outside of Pilate's jurisdiction. So Pilate is the governor of these three districts from 26 to 36 AD, which means from before John the Baptist until after the resurrection of Jesus. So Pilate would have been the governor during all this time of the Gospel account.

And we're going to go into detail on Pontius Pilate next week. So that's enough said about that this week. Now let's look at verses 3-5, Matthew 27, verses 3-5. Then Judas his betrayer, seeing that he had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders saying, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. And they said, what is that to us?

You see to it. Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed and went and hanged himself. Judas sees that Jesus has been condemned to death. He was with the armed band that went out to arrest Jesus in Gethsemane. And probably he's been there the whole time.

The text doesn't say, but probably he went with this band and he came back with the band and it's possible that he's been there throughout the trial. But whatever the case, he understands, he sees that Jesus has been condemned and the text says this results in two things. Okay so Jesus is seeing that, excuse me, Judas is seeing that Jesus has been condemned and this is resulting in two things. First, he is remorseful. Second, he brings back the money.

So let's look at both of these things first. He is remorseful. Something has happened in the conscience of this man. Something has happened that didn't seem to be there, didn't seem to be happening when he was negotiating with the chief priests and the elders to betray Jesus. But now that he sees Jesus condemned, his conscience has been awakened, and there is sorrow over what he has done and what it is leading to.

He is sorry for the bargain. He is sorry that he has traded the betrayal of Jesus for 30 pieces of silver and he wishes that he had never done it. Now why? Why does he feel sorrow? Verse 4 tells us, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.

This man who has spent three years with Jesus knows that Jesus isn't guilty, knows that Jesus represents innocent blood and that it would be a crime to condemn him and to take his life. And we even see that there is an acknowledgement of sin here. I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. So you'd say on the surface, Judas has the marks of repentance. There's an acknowledgement of sin.

I have sinned against innocent blood. And there's remorse. There's a sorrow for it. Turn in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 7. 2 Corinthians chapter 7.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 7, Paul speaks of the two kinds of sorrow that we see between Peter and Judas. Same on the surface, fundamentally different once you peel back a couple of layers. And Paul talks directly about exactly this thing in 2 Corinthians chapter 7. So hopefully you have your Bibles open there. I'll begin reading in 8.

2 Corinthians chapter 7 verse 8. Paul writes, for even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it. For I perceived that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while. Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing.

For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted. But the sorrow of the world produces death. Paul is teaching directly about these two kinds of sorrow that we are seeing at the end of Matthew 26 and the beginning of Matthew 27. And what he is teaching is this, it's not enough to be sorry for sin. Do you get that?

You should get that from Matthew 26 and 27 And you should get that from Paul's direct teaching in 2 Corinthians 7. It is not enough to be sorry for sin. The sorrow must lead somewhere redemptive. And so Paul talks about a kind of sorrow that does lead somewhere redemptive, and to the kind of sorrow that does not lead to somewhere redemptive. Paul talks about godly sorrow.

This is the right label. This is the right label. Godly sorrow, which leads to repentance, which produces salvation. That's exactly what Paul says. I'm not even borrowing words from anywhere.

I'm only borrowing words from the text. That's exactly what the text says. Godly sorrow leads to repentance, which produces salvation. It leads to life. Because it's a sorrow that's focused on God.

It's godly sorrow. Do you get that? It's focused on God. And so there's no suffering of loss. There's actually gain with this sorrow.

It hurts, it's painful, but there is no loss suffered. In fact, quite the opposite. It produces salvation. There is life there. There is gain.

It is a grief that takes you to the feet of the transcendent God for mercy. It is a grief that plops you down right at the foot of Almighty God to beg for mercy. It's the grief that would have a man not even able to raise his eyes to heaven, but beating his breast and saying, Lord have mercy upon me a sinner. There's been a falling short of the glory of God. That's what sin is.

It's a falling short of the glory of God. And so, the regenerate heart grieves. The regenerate heart that loves God grieves, sorrows, that the glory of God has been cast aside for serving of self. God is at the center of it. There's a counterfeit.

Paul labels that too. There's been godly sorrow. That's not the counterfeit. That's the real thing. The counterfeit is called worldly sorrow.

And where the real thing leads to salvation in life, the counterfeit only leads to death. And literally in our text, the worldly sorrow of Judas literally, bodily leads to death. But even if it's another story and it's not Judas and there's worldly sorrow, even if it doesn't instantaneously lead to the death of the body and the expiring of a life. All the trademarks of death are there. Decay is there.

Despair is there. And worldly sorrow is leading to death because it's collapsing in on self. Remember, godly sorrow was centered around God. Worldly sorrow just collapses in on self. It's focused on self.

And so Peter had godly sorrow. He had fallen short in his denials of the glory of God and his spirit, his regenerate spirit, is grieved. Not that He's not what He thought He was, but that He has offended His God whom He loves. And He's restored by Jesus and brought back into the fold. And it leads to repentance and it produces salvation and life in Peter.

And he becomes this mighty apostle who is preaching the gospel like maybe nobody has ever preached the gospel before. And in Judas he has this counterfeit sorrow. It's a worldly sorrow. It's focused on self and it leads very literally, very quickly to death. So don't think that the unregenerate don't have active consciences.

Unregenerate people can have very active consciences, at least until the point where they become so seared and dulled through repeated sin, that they've beaten them down to quiet them and to take the sharpness out of their conscience. But don't think just because a person is unregenerate that they don't have an active conscience. They might have a very active conscience. They might have an overactive conscience. And they might have sorrow for their sin, but that's not the same as repentance.

Sorrow is an element of repentance, but it is not equivalent to saving faith or true repentance. What Judas had was a change in mind, not a change in heart. In fact, I believe it's the ESV that actually renders it, instead of remorseful, as a change in mind. That's what Judas has. He has a change in mind, but not a change in heart.

He's not grieved that he's fallen short of the glory of God. It's completely self-focused. So he's disquieted in his mind that he's not turning towards God and begging him for mercy. Brothers and sisters, search out counterfeit repentance in your heart. Know this day from this text that sorrow does not equal repentance.

Godly sorrow leads to repentance which produces salvation in life. But that's not the same thing as saying sorrow equals repentance. Search out counterfeit repentance, self-focused repentance, and make war against it. You say, how do I even make war against that? You beg God.

You do whatever you can to shift the focus of your sorrow off of yourself, and you try to generate grief in your heart that you've fallen short of His glory. You beg God. You take your eyes off of yourself and you, as much as you are able, you put your eyes upon God. And you try to see your sin in the light of its blackness in the eyes of your God. So the first thing that happens is Judas has remorse.

The second thing that happens is he brings back the money. Now we don't know all the reasons that Judas betrayed Jesus. The text doesn't say. You can guess. I think there are good guesses.

The text doesn't actually say all the reasons that Judas betrayed Jesus. But in John 12, at least we know this. In John 12, this is the same week in Jesus' life that we're in in our text. In John 12, Mary is Lavishing love on Jesus. She's taken maybe the most valuable, monetarily valuable thing that she has.

And she's broken this thing open and she's just pouring it out. Completely pouring it out on Jesus. And in Judas' eyes, she's wasting. She's wasting all this value. And in John 12, 6, John says, why Judas rebuked her for this?

It wasn't because he loved the poor. That's what he said. We could have given all this money to the poor. It wasn't because he loved the poor. That's what he said.

We could have given all this money to the poor. It wasn't because he loved the poor. It's because he loved money. He was a thief and he had been stealing from the purse. So here's a man who loves money, at least this is a part of the puzzle of Judas and why he betrayed Jesus.

Judas wanted money from this transaction. When he goes to negotiate with the chief priests and the elders, he says, what will you give me? He's negotiating for money. And There's a promise of satisfaction. There's a promise of enjoyment.

There's a promise of gain that he's going to get from his labors. But what he finds is He can't enjoy his 30 pieces of silver. He doesn't even want it on his person. Not only can he not spend it, he can't get it out of his pocket and away from him fast enough. There was a promise of satisfaction and enjoyment and gain, but what he finds in the end is there is no satisfaction, There is no enjoyment, there is no gain from what he's done.

Even though he loves money, even though he's acquired money, there's no ability to even have pleasure in it. Listen to Proverbs 10 verse 2. Proverbs 10 verse 2 says, Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, but righteousness delivers from death. Judas should have thought on Proverbs 10.2. Treasures of wickedness profit nothing but righteousness delivers from death.

This is the way of sin and idolatry, period. This is the way of sin and idolatry. It promises pleasure, satisfaction, enjoyment, gain, and it delivers death. Sometimes that cycle is shorter and sometimes it's longer, but when that is the beginning, when sin and idolatry is the beginning, the end, sooner or later, will always be death. The wages of sin is death.

The treasures of wickedness profit nothing. So you won't even be able to enjoy what has been promised. You'll never be able to cash in on the promise, ever. The best you can hope for is for some period of time you can have a cheap thrill from your sin and your idolatry. But the end of it is death.

So what has promised you satisfaction, enjoyment, gain, pleasure? It has nothing to do with the ways of God. What is it that is calling out to you now saying pleasure, enjoyment, satisfaction? But it's contrary to the Word of God. You know it's sin.

But you have believed. And you're somewhere in that cycle between the promise and finding out that it leads to death. When we come to this text, we have to search our hearts for the false promises that have been made and can never be delivered and repent and turn around right now and run in the other direction because it will not end in satisfaction and enjoyment and pleasure and gain. It will not, it will not. I say to you, it is true, it will never lead there.

The most you can hope for is a few little cheap thrills out of your sin, but at the end of it is death. Repent. Search your heart for the things that have promised something that will never be delivered to you. The Bible is true. God's Word will never fail.

Those things, though you have indulged them with pleasure for a short period of time, That's not the end. Death is the end. In verse 4, we have Judas' testimony of the innocence of Jesus Christ. He says, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. Judas comes back to these men and he says, Jesus is innocent.

Listen to what J.C. Ryle says, if there was any living witness who could give evidence against our Lord Jesus Christ. Judas Iscariot was the man. A chosen apostle of Jesus, a constant companion in all his journeyings, a hearer of all his teaching both in public and private, He must have known if our Lord had done any wrong either in word or deed. A deserter from our Lord's company, a betrayer of Him into the hands of His enemies.

It was his interest for his own character's sake to prove Jesus guilty. If any man ever had an interest in the guilt of Jesus Christ for the sake of his own name and for the sake of his own character, it was Judas. Ryle ends this way. Jesus' guilt would extenuate and excuse his own conduct if he could make out that his former master was an offender and an imposter. Judas has every incentive in the world to keep his big mouth shut and let Jesus die as a common criminal and yet having lived with him for three years, having traveled with him everywhere, having heard all his teaching in public and private, he knows this is innocent blood.

And the money in his pocket will not allow him to keep his mouth shut. It's screaming at him. And It's forcing him to go back to these men to declare that Jesus Christ is innocent. Look at the reaction of the chief priests and the elders. What is that to us?

You see through it. What is that to us? These men who have been given the responsibility to apply the word of God. What is that to us if Jesus is innocent? Wait, you just condemned him to death.

What is that to you? Listen to Matthew 23. In Matthew 23, This is in the sequence of woes that Jesus was pronouncing in Matthew chapter 23, verse 23 and 24. Jesus says, Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith.

These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. Blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. What we're seeing in our text is the straining out of a gnat. These men are going to say, well, we can't use this money for the temple. It's blood money.

They're straining out the gnat. Meanwhile, the camel's halfway down, and they're trying to push it all the way down. They're straining out a nap. And they're swallowing the camel. And they're completely trampling on the weightier measures of the law.

Justice, These men are crushing the innocent. Mercy. These men are acting more ruthlessly than anyone you could ever imagine. Faith. These men are acting in total unbelief that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God.

In despair, Judas throws the pieces of silver into the temple and hangs himself. Jesus had said to Judas, directly to Judas In the last chapter of Matthew 26 verse 24, the son of man indeed goes as it is written of him. But woe to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed. It would have been better for that man if he had not been born. And Judas is feeling exactly the same way.

It would have been better if I had never been born. I can't even sustain my life for another day. Alright, back in our text, back in Matthew 27, look at verses 6-10. But the chief priests took the silver pieces and said, it is not lawful to put them into the treasury because they are the price of blood. And they consulted together and bought with them the potter's field to bury strangers in.

Therefore that field has been called the field of blood to this day. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet saying, and they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of him who was priced, whom they of the children of Israel priced, and gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord directed me." The money has been chucked into the temple. That's really what has happened. It's slung into the temple. The chief priests and the elders won't accept the money and Judas cannot keep the money.

And so he throws it in the temple in fulfillment of prophecy. And the chief priests are having to decide what to do with these 30 pieces of silver that are scattered on the floor of the temple. And they know Deuteronomy 23 verse 18. Listen to this verse. Deuteronomy 23 verse 18.

You shall not bring the wages of a harlot or the price of a dog to the house of the Lord your God for any vowed offering. For both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God." So Deuteronomy 23, 18 establishes this principle that things Gain that has been acquired through things that are abominable to the Lord cannot be used as an offering to the Lord. They can't come into the temple treasury. So this blood money, this ill-gotten gain, can't go into the temple treasury. But in all likelihood, the same 30 pieces of silver came out of the temple treasury.

I don't think they did this with their personal money, do you? So this Money that has come out of the temple treasury is now blood money. It's been used to pay Judas to betray an innocent man. And so it can't go back into the temple treasury and they can't just keep it for personal use and so they decide to buy the potter's field as a burial place for foreigners. Now the text doesn't tell us much about the potter's field, but it's probably a field owned by a potter that he's been mining clay out of for his pottery.

He's been digging out clay from this field. So it's probably a field with a bunch of pot holes in it where he's dug out materials for his pot making. And so it's not very valuable property because here it is. It's got all these pot marks in it. Church tradition, early church tradition has this field in the valley of Hinnom which would be just south of Jerusalem.

If that's true, there's a lot more to say about this place. But the text doesn't say it, so I'm not going to dwell there. But in any event, it's not very valuable property. 30 pieces of silver won't buy you a lot of land in or around Jerusalem. And so probably it's a field that the potter has been taking his materials out of, there's not much value to it, and so they need a place to bury foreigners so they buy this field.

Completely by the providence of God, under the hand of God to fulfill a prophecy of God. Now let's read verses 9 and 10 again because this is a very difficult passage. Passage. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet saying, and they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of him who was priced, whom they of the children of Israel priced, and gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord directed me." There are several difficulties that are represented here. First of all, these exact words are found nowhere in the Old Testament.

You'll not find them anywhere in the prophets, exactly as it's stated here. Secondly, particularly, there's nothing in Jeremiah that is close. I've got a cross-reference Bible, and they reference Jeremiah 32, 6-9. But it's not Jeremiah 32, 6-9. I think they put it in there because they're defending the inerrancy of scripture.

Praise God that they are. But I think that's a misfire. Jeremiah 32, 6-9 is just about buying a field. And it doesn't read like this at all. There are other places in Jeremiah where you could say maybe this ties in, it uses some of the same words, but it's not close to things that are in Jeremiah.

Here's what J.C. Ryle says. J.C. Ryle lays out four possible explanations. And then he says this, I offer no opinion on these solutions of the difficulty.

A question of this sort which has puzzled so many interpreters is not likely to be settled at this period of the world. I'd like to say a big amen to that. I'm not here to settle exactly how this fits together. I'm going to offer you four possible explanations, and then I'm going to tell you which one I think it is. So, first of all, there are all sorts of explanations that are offered by unbelievers, people who don't believe in the inerrancy of Scripture.

And so they just say it's a mistake. Matthew just got it wrong. And they deny that Matthew was acting under inspiration in the writing of his gospel. So away with all that, I'm not even going to talk anymore about that. The Bible is the Word of God and When we find problems, the problems are with us, so we should be patient, and we should study more, and we should prayerfully consider.

But we don't throw out the purity of God's Word because there's something hard in the Bible. That's the principle. We don't chuck the Bible over our right shoulder or our left shoulder because we found a tough passage or things that are difficult to reconcile. So, possibility number one. Jeremiah said it, but not in Scripture.

That's very possible. In Jude 14, so Jude is a single chapter book, so it's not Jude chapter 14, it's just Jude 14. There's 25 verses I think in Jude. So it's one of the 25 verses. In Jude 14, a prophecy of Enoch is quoted.

There's no prophecy of Enoch in the Bible. It came from another source. But The inspired Jude accurately quoted a prophecy that is not in the Old Testament. That is not a problem by itself. The book of Jeremiah does not record everything Jeremiah ever said.

The book of Isaiah does not record everything Isaiah said. The book of Ezekiel does not record everything Ezekiel said, even what they said inspired. So it could be that Jeremiah said this, but it is not in Scripture. Secondly, it could be that Jeremiah said it and Zechariah recorded it. So that it's actually what the prophet Jeremiah said, but it doesn't make it in Scripture until Zechariah 11.

Zechariah is repeating the prophecy that God actually gave to Jeremiah. There's nothing in the text that says Zechariah is saying what Jeremiah said. But what is here in Matthew 27 is very, very close to Zechariah 11, verses 12 and 13. It's as sound a paraphrase as you'll ever get of anything. So it could be that Jeremiah said it and Zechariah recorded it.

They lived roughly a hundred years apart. Jeremiah prophesying before the Babylonian captivity and Zechariah prophesying at the time of the return from Babylon. Number three, an error could have crept into the transcripts. The Syriac and the Persian versions both say, buy the prophet And then it gives the quote. It doesn't say by the prophet Jeremiah.

It gives the quote. So I don't particularly like that explanation, but that's possible. The abbreviations of Jeremiah and Zechariah, the three letter abbreviations of those two words in the Greek are very close to one another. So it could have just been a transcription error. I doubt it, but it's possible.

Number four. For centuries, the Old Testament was grouped into three sections. The law, the writings, which would include Psalms, Proverbs, the history books, and the prophets. The section of the prophets was headed, was begun by the book of Jeremiah. So for a long time, saying what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet would have been equivalent to as it is written in the prophets because Jeremiah is the first book of the section of the prophets.

So three groupings of books. And the third grouping is the prophets. And the first book of that is Jeremiah. So if you wanted to say, as was said, in the prophets in this section, You could say interchangeably by the prophets or by Jeremiah because it's the first book. I'm not sure which it is.

Get a smarter pastor, I guess. But I think what is being quoted here, I'm confident that what is being quoted here is related to Zechariah 11. Is related to Zechariah 11. So I'd like for you to turn there. Zechariah 11.

I'm going to begin, well let's read 12 and 13, which I believe are the closest representations of what you find in Matthew 27. Zechariah 11 verse 12, Then I said to them, If it is agreeable to you, give me my wages, and if not refrain. So they weighed out from my wages thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me, throw it to the potter. That princely price they set on me.

So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord for the potter. I threw them into the house of the Lord for the potter. So you can see all the touch points between what you see in Matthew 27 quoted and what's here. The 30 pieces of silver, The princely price the children of Israel had set on this one, and the throwing of the money into the house of the Lord for the potter. It touches almost everywhere.

I believe that Matthew is just paraphrasing Zechariah 11 verses 12 and 13. Now, if that's true, and I concede that it's possible that that's not true. That's my understanding of it. But if that's true, I want you to see how this would fit with the larger section in Zechariah 11. So now we're going to go up to Zechariah 11 verse 4, and I'll read through the end of the chapter, and then I'll make some comments.

Look at this. Zechariah 11 verse 4. And if you haven't been in the Minor Prophets lately, it's right at the end of the Old Testament. Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament and Zechariah is right next to Malachi. Zechariah 11 verse 4.

Thus says the Lord my God, feed the flock for slaughter, whose owners slaughter them and feel no guilt. Those who sell them say, blessed be the Lord for I am rich. And their shepherds do not pity them. For I will no longer pity the inhabitants of the land says the Lord. But indeed I will give everyone into his neighbor's hand and into the hand of his king.

They shall attack the land and I will not deliver them from their hand." So I fed the flock for slaughter, in particular the poor of the flock. I took for myself two staffs, the one I called Beauty and the other I called Bonds. And I fed the flock. I dismissed the three shepherds in one month. My soul loathed them and their soul also abhorred me.

Then I said, I will not feed you. Let what is dying die and what is perishing perish. Let those that are left eat each other's flesh. And I took my staff beauty and cut it in two, that I might break the covenant which I had made with all the peoples. So it was broken on that day.

Thus the poor of the flock who were watching me knew that it was the word of the Lord. Then I said to them, if it is agreeable to you, give me my wages, and if not refrain. So they weighed out my wages, out for my wages, thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me, Throw it to the potter, that princely price they set on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord for the potter.

Then I cut into my other staff Bonds, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. And the Lord said to me, Next take for yourself the implements of a foolish shepherd, for indeed I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those who are cut off, nor seek the young, nor heal those that are broken, nor feed those that still stand. But he will eat the flesh of the fat and tear their hooves in pieces. Woe to the worthless shepherd who leaves the flock. A sword shall be against his arm and against his right eye.

His arm shall completely wither and his right eye shall be totally blind." I want to begin by saying that Zechariah was prophesying around 520 to 510 BC. So that means as the people are coming back from the Babylonian captivity, this cannot be describing the Babylonian captivity because it's a prophesy given after the people have come back. So it can only be referring to something forward from there. So it absolutely can be and is about the time of Jesus. And I believe it includes 70 AD.

At least touches on it. Now Israel is the flock being fed for slaughter. I think that's clear here. And just think of where we are in history. The Messiah is being rejected and in 40 years the Romans are going to come and completely destroy Jerusalem.

So Israel is the flock that is being fed for slaughter. But their owners and their shepherds don't care anything about it. That's what it says in verse 4. Verse 5. Their owners and their shepherds don't care.

They are actually exploiting the flock for their own gain. This is exactly what's happening at the time of Jesus. The elders and the chief priests care nothing about the flock. They're only exploiting them for their own gain. Now Here comes a shepherd.

He's feeding the flock, particularly the poor of the flock. This is Jesus. Jesus is the shepherd here. And he's shepherding with two shepherding tools, with two Staffs. One called Beauty or Favor, depending on the translation you're reading.

He's got a staff named Beauty, a staff named Favor. And The other is bonds or unions. So he is shepherding with favor and with union. With beauty and with bonds. And this is what Jesus Christ is doing in his ministry.

But this flock is going to be given over to be slaughtered both within and without. You see that both in the text. And that's absolutely what happens in 70 AD. The carnage internally is almost worse than any carnage that the Romans are able to bring. In verse 12, the owners are asked to value the shepherd's labor.

They say here have your 30 pieces. But in verse 13, it's clear that it is the value of the shepherd that is being described. Listen to verse 13 again. And the Lord said to me, throw it to the potter. In other words, reject these wages.

That princely price they set on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord for the potter." In Exodus 21 verse 32, 30 pieces of silver, you'll remember, is just the price of a slave. If a slave gets gored to death, you owe. If it was your ox that killed the slave, you owe the slave owner 30 pieces of silver. It's not very much.

This is a type. This is a type pointing forward to Christ. Christ is the shepherd. Israel is the flock. They are being fed for slaughter.

And he is particularly feeding the poor of this flock. And this is what Jesus' ministry, Jesus has been going to the poor. And they are the ones that recognize that this is the word of the Lord. This is about the rejection of Israel towards the shepherd and the rejection of these wages, these paltry wages. Israel thought Jesus Christ worth 30 pieces of silver.

They thought their Messiah worth the price of a slave. And Jesus takes those 30 pieces of silver and he throws those wages into the temple. It says have your wages back. You are rejected. It's a type.

And Jesus comes and he fulfills the type. And Judas is just a cog in the wheel. Judas is just a tool in the hand of Almighty God to accomplish his purposes. In closing, I want to ask you to consider three things. Search out counterfeit repentance.

I've already said this once, I'm saying it again. Search out counterfeit repentance. There are two kinds of sorrow. So look in your heart for sorrow that is completely centered on self and make war against it. Beg God that he would give you real repentance.

Real Repentance is a gift from God. Ephesians 2 was read this morning. God has to give you repentance. Beg Him for it. Number 2.

What has promised you pleasure, satisfaction, enjoyment, gain that can never deliver it? Look for those things. Hey, we have all bought the lie a hundred times. And we're all buying the lie right now in different categories in our lives. There are promises that have been made to us by sin and idolatry.

The devil uses this all the time to promise things that can never be delivered. This is relevant for every person who can hear the voice waves coming out of my mouth, including myself. You're buying the lie in some categories of your life. Where sin and idolatry have promised you things and the end is death. You think it's enjoyment, pleasure, gain, but it's death.

Search your hearts. Finally, I want to close by reading Isaiah 55 verses 1 through 7. You can turn there if you like. It's Isaiah 55 verses 1 through 7. Oh, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.

And you who have no money, come, buy, and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to me.

Here in your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the sure mercies of David. Indeed I have given him as a witness to the people, a leader and commander for the people. Surely you shall Call a nation you do not know, and nations who do not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God and the Holy One of Israel, for He has glorified you. Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near.

Let the wicked forsake His way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord and He will have mercy on him and to our God for He will abundantly pardon." Isaiah 55-6 says, Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Peter sought the Lord while He might be found. He called upon him when he was near, because of the grace of God.

And Judas never did. He was so near. The Lord was so near. Judas for so long, but he never sought the Lord while he was near. And he forsook his own mercy.

That's Jonah 2, verse 8. Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy. This is what Jonah's testimony is while he is in the belly of the whale. Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy. This is what Judas did.

Let's pray. Father I thank you that you bid the thirsty to come and drink, to buy without money. You know we have nothing to buy with, but you bid those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, whose sorrow, not selfishly but because the glory of God has been cast aside to come and to feed on you, to come to the waters and drink. Oh God, may we be a people who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Though we have nothing to buy with, at least we would be thirsty and hungry.

I pray for your help. I pray for the continued teaching time now that you would give men things to say that would be such a blessing, so helpful to your people. May it be so in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. I I have a history note and a question.

The owner of the flock, the owners of the flock Herod and Edomite and Caiaphas and Idumen. There is no...