I'll turn with me in your Bible
back to John Chapter 17 and this remarkable prayer. If you have
taken any cognizance by the work of the Blessed Holy Spirit in
your life when we read those passages and think of those stories
and think of what was happening that particular night, you will
be crying out for mercy. You will be crying out that the
Lord is merciful to me and in this glorious prayer the Lord
Jesus Christ speaks of the wonder of this union that he has. I
want us to be reminded that when he says that while I was with them in
the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest
me I have kept, and none of them is lost. And I love what he says, but
the son of perdition. He's not talking about one of
the ones that the father gave him is lost, he's talking about
another group of people altogether. And that's exactly what we see
throughout the scriptures, that there are just And there will
be just a great division in humanity. There will only be two places.
There are only two origins. He speaks about people whose
origin is in the world and people whose origin is from heaven,
those that are born into this world and have an earthly birth
and earthly life will end up in the southeast of all places,
but God's children are perfectly safe and perfectly secure. And
he speaks so gloriously of that. That's why, I think, after he's
led his people back into those events in the days of Absalom
and of Hithopel and David's betrayal, and to the time that we now live
in and the times that he was in. In the midst of all that
he immediately says, he's writing these things, he's saying these
things that your joy, his joy might be fulfilled in thee. The joy. the joy of his words
of promise being fulfilled, the joy of his keeping his own, the
joy in the place to which he's going, the joy of the Scriptures
being fulfilled, the joy of glorifying his Father. So John 17 is just
a glorious prayer that describes this perfect and complete security
of the child of God. But we live in this world where
the Judas's and the Absalom's and the Hisapel's and the men
of sin are bound according to the word of God. And so these
things are written so that we might have the comfort of the
scriptures but also that we might be wise and that we won't fall
into their trap. There is just a glorious union
that the Lord Jesus Christ declares in this wonderful gospel declaration
in John 17. I love how he says, I've manifested
thy name and I've given them thy words. And the manifestation
of the name and the giving of the words is actually a declaration
of his union with his people. We have a union in God the Father
and God the Son. We have a union in the word received.
We have a union in his prayers for us. We have a union in our
origin in heaven being given by the Father to the Son. We
have a union in that we are kept. When you think of what goes on
and what we have read in 2 Thessalonians 2 and 2 Samuel, we need keeping. We don't keep Him, brothers and
sisters. We need to be kept from the evil one. We have union with
Christ in our sanctification. We have union in receiving the
glory of God and we have union in being loved by God Almighty.
That's where the essence of this prayer is. And so I'm praying
that our Lord's words will be comfort to us as we look at Judas,
the son of perdition, the son of destruction. Destruction is
where he came from, destruction is where he lived, and destruction
is where he goes to. The son of is just a figure of
speech. in that language, isn't it? He
spoke of James and John being sons of thunder because they
wanted the wrath of God to fall on that Samaritan village that
they didn't like very much. And people in the Scriptures
are talking about being sons of Belial. So we have to start
with the fact that none of God's children will be lost, but we
live in a lost lost world. Look, Judas fulfilled Scripture
in all that he did, and he did it knowingly, he did it willfully,
and he did it fulfilling his own heart's desire. But I pray that we'll rejoice
in the Lord's rejoicing. Once again, I'm reminded that
whenever you come to any passage of Scripture and any doctrine
in Scripture and any particular act of God in Scripture, the
result I hope is humility, a bowing before Him, and not raising ourselves
up in pride God has given us His word of
promise and given us these stories and these pictures and these
remarkable events to humble the pride of all flesh. Listen to what the scriptures
say in Proverbs 16 verse 5. Everyone that is proud in heart
is an abomination. Though he join hand in hand,
though he have many companions in his pride, he shall not go
unpunished. He that refuses instruction despises
his own soul, and he that heareth reproof getteth understanding. As the Gospel is first declared
in Luke's Gospel, it says that he has shown the strength of
his arm and he scattered the proud in the imagination of their
hearts. That's what the proud have, don't
they? They have an image in their hearts of who God is, and they
have an image in their hearts of who they are, and they have
an image in their hearts which is way, way out of line with
the reality that they're all just flesh, and they are but
dust. Listen to what James says. Wherefore
he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. He'd give us grace under the
humble. When, at the Last Supper, the
Lord declared that someone was going to betray Him, what was
the response of all those apostles? Lord, is it I? Lord, is it I? Will I betray the Lord? If you know anything of your
heart, you would be saying, Lord, is it I? Judas's master, he didn't
ever call Him Lord. Lord, you have to keep me, you
have to keep me from this sin. So everything about our God causes
us to be humbled, isn't he? He's absolutely sovereign and
we're not sovereign over all the events. God is absolutely
just and we bow before his justice. The God of all the earth will
do right. God is absolutely sovereign and
we bow in humility. He's in charge of all events,
isn't he? God, now all of his acts from
the foundation of the world, God is love. How can you love
me? Please love me in Christ. Please
love me in Christ. God is wise. I'm such a fool. And our thoughts, our normal,
natural thoughts are so unworthy of God and so exalting himself. God is faithful. Make me to trust
everything about God, all of his acts. are there to lead his
people to humility, and particularly with this story. We looked at
Judah some time ago, but I'll just give you something of his
history. In John chapter 13, if you turn back a couple of
pages, it says in verse 2, the devil having put into the heart
of Judas Iscariot Simon's son to betray him. And then verse
27 of that same chapter. After the sop, Jesus indicated
who the betrayer was by handing him a piece of bread dipped in
some liquid. Then Jesus said unto him, and
Satan entered into him. Satan entered into him. And he went out, verse 30, he
went out immediately, and it was night. He left the light
and went out into the darkness. Judas was now entered into by
Satan and led by Satan to betray the Lord. Where did he go? Where
does someone who is controlled by Satan go? Religious people
would say, well he'll go to the bars and he'll go to the prostitutes
and he'll go to thievery and he'll go to murder and all that.
Where did he go? Where did he go? He went to the most religious,
knowledgeable, morally upright people that that generation had
ever even thought or heard of. That's where he went. He didn't go to the prostitutes,
but he went to those zealous, knowledgeable people. Those who
thought that they could keep the law and keep it perfectly. Those that were zealous for all
of their works. You can read about it in Matthew
23 and you can read what they did and you can read the Lord's
assessment of what they did with their Bible colleges and their
mission organizations and their huge success. They did as they
wanted to do in their rebellion against him and they joined hands
and they had been warned. Judas had been warned and they
had been warned. John chapter 8, the Lord told
them, you're children of your father the devil. They had time
to contemplate those things. The event that sparked The betrayal
of Judas, the betrayal of the Lord by Judas, was the event
which sparks all betrayals of him. When Mary anointed the Lord's
feet with that alabaster box of precious ointment, probably
$60,000 or $70,000 worth of ointment in our just to fill a house with perfume.
No, it wasn't. It's the only work in the scriptures
that's ever called a good work, because it relates to the death
and burial and the resurrection and the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Judas was enraged, just like
Absalom was enraged against his father, and he walked all the
way back those kilometers into Jerusalem. The pride of man is
on display in man's natural enmity against the Lord Jesus Christ.
You might have heard of those Invictus Games. Have you heard
of the Invictus Games? Here's an amazing, this is the
poem that they used, written by a fellow called William Henley. Out of the night that covers
me, black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods
may be for my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance,
I have not winced or cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance,
my head is bloody, bloody but unbowed. Beyond this place of
wrath and tears looms the horror of the shade. Yet the menace
of the years find and shall find me afraid. Unafraid, sorry. It matters not how straight the
gate, how charged with punishments the scroll. Listen to how he
finishes. I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul. There's a man who is proud. He had the most remarkable experiences. For over three years he was in
the very close company of the Lord and this other eleven. He
was sent out preaching. and performing miracles, and
no one suspected a single thing, nor did the Lord intimate that
there was anything amiss with him. He was allowed to go on
his own way. People think that keeping good
company is going to cause people to be born again and live Christian
lives. Judas had the best company you
could ever imagine. Judas had the best examples you
could ever have. But I want us to be mindful of
the judgment of Judas and I want us to turn in our Bibles to Acts
1.16. I want us to see that God's judgment is always in accordance
with perfect justice. Listen to what the Scriptures
declare about Judas. We'll go to verse 18 of Acts
chapter 1. Now this man perched a field
with the reward of iniquity and falling headline he burst asunder
in the midst and his bowels gushed out. What was the reward? Verse 25, and he speaks about
someone being replaced to take part in this ministry and apostleship.
From which Judas by transgression fell that he might go to his
own place. All God Almighty has to do for
people to go to their own place is leave them alone. The Lord
didn't chase after Judas that night. He told him to go and
go and do it quickly. What a shocking thing to think
of. His own place. So I want us to briefly look
at these scriptures that speak of this. The scriptures he's
speaking of, the Lord is speaking of here, are these scriptures,
and we'll start in Psalm 41. And I can read them out to you
if you don't wish to open your Bibles on several occasions.
But in Psalm 41, verse 9, it speaks of, Yea, mine own familiar
friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat my bread, hath lifted
up his heel against me. In Psalm 55 verse 13 it says,
But it was thou, a man mine equal, mine guide, mine acquaintance,
we took sweet counsel together and walked into the house of
God in company. Let death seize upon him, let
them go down quick into hell, for wickedness is in their dwellings
and among them. Psalm 69 speaks of let their
habitation be desolate and let none dwell in their tents. Psalm 109 is quoted in Acts 1. I love what it says in verse
4 of Psalm 109. He says, For my love they are
my adversaries, but I give myself unto prayer, and they have rewarded
me evil for good and hatred for my love. Then he prays, set thou
a wicked man over him and let Satan stand at his right side. When he shall be judged, let
him be condemned and let his prayer become sin. Let his days
be few and let another take his office. They are the scriptures
of the Lord Jesus Christ. is taking his people too. The
Scriptures must be fulfilled. The Scriptures are being fulfilled
now. Don't you love the Word of God? It's living and active. And we are living in the midst
of the Word of God being fulfilled in promise before us. And the
only reason we can't see that is because We spend so much time
looking at things other than the Scriptures and also the Lord
has to open the eyes. He's got to open our eyes that
we might see. If we had our eyes open and we
saw the glory of God and the angels encamping around His people
and the angels present with His people here and God absolutely
sovereign ruling over all things, It would be amazing. But we live
and we walk by faith and not by sight. Judas had the most
remarkable sight you could ever wish to have. Absalom and Ahithopel
were the recipients of the most remarkable sights that you could
ever see. They saw David pursued by Saul
for all of those years in the wilderness and triumphing. They
saw David and they heard the stories of David killing Goliath.
They saw and heard the stories of David defeating the Amalekites.
They saw David win victory after victory after victory. They saw
David pursued by Saul like a mad dog and they saw him triumphant
in victory. And yet, with all of that and
the anointing of God so clearly upon him, by Samuel they stand
opposed to him. As I said earlier when we were
looking at this, Absalom was exiled for several years because
of the murder of David's firstborn son. These Psalms that we have
just read, these scriptures that the Lord takes us back to, take
us back to Absalom and I want us to see something of Absalom
and Ahithopel and what the man of sin, the son of perdition
in 2 Thessalonians is. It says in 2 Samuel 14 verse
25, In all of Israel was none so much praised as Absalom for
his beauty. When you saw Absalom, you were
amazed. You saw a man who was perfect,
extraordinarily handsome, from the sole of his foot even to
the crown of his head. There was no blemish in him. Absalom was finally brought into
the presence of King David. In verse 33, it says at the end
of it, and he bowed himself on his face to the ground before
the king, and the king kissed Absalom. And what was in Absalom's
heart? Murder. Murder. In verse 15, if you go back and
read in 2 Samuel, you'll see that Absalom, when he was let
back into Jerusalem, he went out to the gates of Jerusalem
and anyone that needed any help in any matters, any matters of
judicial authority and kingly authority, Absalom took them.
And it says in verse, he took them and he advised them, he
counseled them, he usurped the authority of King David and took
it upon himself. and says in verse 6 of 2nd Samuel
15, and in on this manner did Absalom to all Israel that came
to the king for judgment. So Absalom, listen to what it
says, Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. Absalom stole the hearts. Don't
forget this is talking about the sun, the perdition. They're
extraordinarily attractive. They look as They steal the hearts of people
to follow them. That's what all false teachers
do, don't they? All false teachers want you to follow them. All
Christ's creatures want you to look to the Lord Jesus Christ
and follow Him. And at the beginning of Absalom's open betrayal, he comes to King
David and says, I vowed, I vowed, I need to go and worship God
and I need to honour my vow to God and I need to go to Hebron. And Absalom went to Hebron and
it says at the end of verse 10, chapter 15, Absalom reigned in
Hebron. He found a place to reign in
opposition to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's exactly what the
man of sin in 2 Thessalonians is doing, isn't it? He's setting
himself up in the place of God. Listen to the other one that
is spoken of there in light of this son of perdition. It's Ahithopel
in chapter 16 verse 23. The counsel of Ahithopel, which
he counseled in those days, was if a man had inquired at the
oracle of God, such was his wisdom and such was his knowledge, so
was all the counsel of Ahithopel, both with David and Absalom.
And then we find that Ahithopel is amongst the conspiracists.
And then God says why he's doing this in 2 Samuel chapter 17 verse
14. And Absalom and God turned through
David's spy in that court, David turned the counsel of Ahithophel
into foolishness. and they followed the counsel
of David Spyne there and it says, the counsel of Hushai, verse
14, the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel for,
and this is the reason for it, for the Lord had appointed to
defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel to the intent that the Lord might
bring evil upon Absalom. a strong delusion from the Lord. And Ahithophel saw that his counsel
was not followed, verse 23, and he rose and saddled his ass,
and went to his house, to his city, and put his household in
order, and he hanged himself and died. These are the scriptures
that the Lord Jesus Christ is taking his people back to in
this high priestly prayer. It's remarkable, isn't it? He
wants us to go back and see the betrayal of David, and to see
the betrayal of Isafil. but also by declaring that Judas
is a son of perdition. He's wanting us to look forward
to 2 Thessalonians 2. But before we go there, I want
us to just be reminded that antichrist religion is on display in all
of these events, in the events of what's going on with Judas
and the Pharisees. Antichrist freewill works religion
has thrived all through human history. It has its foundations
in Satan's activities. We often read Isaiah Chapter
14 and it's good to remember that the beginning of these things
begins in spiritual and heavenly places. He says, How art thou
fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, the sun of the morning? Lucifer
means light-bearing one. How art thou cut down to the
ground which did weaken the nations? For thou hast said in thy heart,
listen to Satan's words, I will, I will ascend into heaven. I
will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also
on the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north. I
will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like
the Most High." And when he came into the garden and deceived
us and Adam and all of his posterity, all those that were
in him, God really say? Hath God really said? He says, you will be like God. God does know, and the day you
eat thereof, if your eyes shall be opened, you shall be as God's,
knowing good and evil, and you'll be able to choose the good over
the evil. What was the lie in the garden? What is the lie in
2 Thessalonians? It is free will works religion. It's always been free will works
religion. That man's will is exalted above
the will of God. So to go back to Ahithophel and
Absalom and Judas, the Antichrist in Psalm 41 verse 9 talks about
my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread and
lifted up my heel against thee. Antichrist religion will be in
the company of the true children of God. Antichrist religion, like Ahithophel's
counsel, will appear to be very wise and worthy of following.
Antichrist religion will seem to be worshipping with true worshippers. Antichrist religion will have
a position of authority in the church and seek a position of
authority over other people to have them follow them, to have
them as another king. Antichrist religion will be very
familiar with the people of God. We began today by talking about
humility. Humility is where we began. Humility
causes the humble to cling to the Lord in utter dependence
for His grace and mercy. Judas was not exposed until the
Lord chose to do so. Ahithophel and Absalom were not
exposed until the Lord chose to do so. The son of perdition,
the man of sin, will be revealed at the Lord's time. So what does free will, anti-Christ
religion looks like in our day? So that we might be warned Anti,
the word Antichrist, the prefix anti means opposed to, but it
also means as a substitute to. It stands in the place of and
takes the place of them. Antichrist religion like Absalom
is attractive to look at. It's popular. Almost all of Israel
has won over to it. It has pretended piety and pretended
loyalty. Satan's free will antichrist
religion will snuggle up to people and offer them sweet things. Satan comes masquerading as an
angel of light. And Satan only has to do what
he did in the garden and repeat it again and again and again. And Satan's attacks always centre
on one particular thing. The one place where Satan was
defeated is on the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we
continually need to go and ask people and ask ourselves, are
we preaching the Christ of the cross with faithfulness? Are we declaring the real Lord
Jesus Christ? He made a mockery of Satan on
the cross, our great God and Saviour, and he took that law
And he says he blotted out the handwriting of ordinances which
were against us. When Satan comes accusing you,
he doesn't have to tell any lies whatsoever to accuse you. But
when Satan comes and accuses you, he can say, well this is
what you should do, and this is what God says you should do,
and look at your life. And the child of God goes humbly
like the publican. Let's have a break and may the
Lord add His blessing to our words and we'll come back and
look at the glory of the Gospel in John 17 and the Lord's wonderful
antidote to these things. Thank you.