Mark chapter 14. Mark chapter 14. I'm just going to read two verses
of scripture. You all remember last week we
talked about the woman anointing the Lord Jesus Christ for the
burial and how upset the other disciples got. But in verse 10 and 11, Mark
14, 10 and 11, and Judas Iscariot, One of the twelve went unto the
chief priest to betray him unto them and when they heard it they
were glad and promised to give him money and he sought how he
might conveniently betray him. Our gracious, gracious Father
in Heaven, our glorious God, and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, how blessed we are to be able to gather together this
morning to worship you, to call on you, and look to you, and
acknowledge our need of you and our dependency upon you, to acknowledge
that you're our strength, our comfort, our stay, our shield,
our buckler, our hiding place, our defense. Lord, you're everything to us.
Indeed, Lord Jesus Christ, you're all in all to us. You're all
we want and you're all we need. And Lord, help us to glorify
and honor your holy name. Lord, bless the people that's
gathered here today. Please open our hearts, open
our minds, open our understanding. Give me grace to bring the message
today and do it in a gracious, loving, kind, merciful way. Bring
glory to yourself through us today. Save people in this place. Save sinners in this place. Make
them understand their lost condition. And Lord, once again, we pray
for our children, our grandchildren that have no need of you. But
Lord, there was a day I had no need. And everybody in this building,
one time there was a time they had no need until you created
the need. And so, Lord, create a need in
our family's hearts and lives and do it for Christ's sake.
Please forgive us of everything that's unlike you. And again,
please come among us for Christ's sake. Amen. Let's all stand together as we
sing the hymn of the day in the bulletin. of Jesus alone. The weary, the
tempted, the burdened of sin are never excluded. ? Come entering in ? This refuge
for sinners ? God's love did ordain ? In Jesus the Lamb ?
Shall return the Redeemer, who lived and who
died, God's law and His truth. Good conscience accuses us as
often it may. The blood of our Savior has put
sin away. In Jesus' name. The sinner can view the city
of refuge and righteousness too. Be seated. I feel like I have an unusual
message for this morning. I'm going to deal with Judas,
Judas Iscariot. His name is synonymous with betrayal. When you think about a Judas,
everybody says, well, he's a Judas. He acted like a Judas. Well,
Judas, his name is mentioned throughout all the scriptures.
He is prophesied to be who he was and what he would do. The
Old Testament told us what he would do, how he would betray.
He said, it wasn't mine enemy, but my own familiar friend that
lifted up his heel against me. And that's what it says here
in verse 10, Mark 14. And Judas Iscariot, and this
is what I want you to notice, one of the 12, went under the
chief priest to betray him. unto them, and when they heard
it, they were glad and promised to give him money. And he sought,
he sought how he might conveniently betray them. The first thing
you see here about him is he was one of the 12. He was one
of the 12. He was just, nobody, none of
the rest of them had any idea who he was and what he was fixing
to do. When our Lord chose these twelve apostles, these twelve
disciples, none of the rest of the disciples had any idea who
He was and what He would accomplish and what He would do. He was
one of the twelve. He heard Christ preach. He heard
Him preach countless times. He sat and listened to Him on
the Sermon on the Mount. He saw Him raise Lazarus from
the dead. He saw Him cleanse lepers. He
saw Him open the eyes of the blind. In fact, our Lord Jesus
Christ washed His feet. Do you remember when He washed
the disciples' feet? And Simon Peter said, Lord, don't
wash everybody else's, but not mine. No, no. He said, If I don't
wash you, you have no part with me. He said, well, then start
at my feet and wash me all over, wash me all over. So he was one
of the 12. He enjoyed everything that all
the rest of the disciples did. He enjoys Christ's presence.
He enjoyed Christ's preaching or heard it. I should say, I
don't know if he enjoyed it or not, but everything that all
the 12 did, he did. Now, where they went, He went
with them. And I tell you what, and you know, and it says, when
they gathered together, and down in verse 17, it says, when the
Passover was being done, and in the evening, He cometh with
the 12. He took the 12 to take the Lord's
supper, to take the last meal, the last Passover that our Lord
would have. So He was one of the 12. And
that ought to tell us something. We may be one of many that professes
Christ, that enjoys presence, enjoys voice, and yet not know
Christ at all. What an awful thing it would
be to end up becoming a Judas. I remember one time in a group
of black and a group of black people, black church, they sung
a song. Lord, I want to be a Christian
in my heart. Lord, I want to be a Christian
in my heart. Lord, I want to be a Christian
in my heart. And Lord, don't let me be a Judas
in my heart. Don't let me be a Judas in my
heart. Don't let me be a Judas in my
heart. That was two verses that I remember
very well. Want to be a Christian in my
heart? Don't let me be a Judas in my heart. And then not only
was He one of the Twelve, but look what else it says, He went
unto the chief priest. He went unto the chief priest.
And you remember back up here in verse 1 of chapter 14, After two days was the feast
of the Passover, and the chief priest and the chief priests
and the scribes sought how they might take him and by craft put
him to death. He went unto the chief priests
to betray him unto them. He went unto religion, he went
unto all the people that our Lord Jesus Christ, he went to
those that hated him and betrayed him himself. He went to the chief
priest He went to the people that had the power. He went to
the people that He knew hated Christ. He went to the people
He knew that would seek Him to betray Christ, kill Christ, murder
Christ, if you will. And why did He go to these chief
priests? To betray Him. To betray Him. How could anybody
betray someone so gentle, so kind, so loving, so gracious,
so merciful? so powerful. And I tell you,
this is the difference. You know, everything that Christ
is, Judas was just the opposite, just the opposite. And oh, he
went to betray Him, went to betray Him. And oh my, and look what
it says in verse 11. And when they heard it, when
they heard Him come, said, listen, I want to betray Him. I want
to betray Him. I know you want Him, and I know
you desire Him, and I know you're plotting to kill Him." And he
said, I know you want to do that, and listen to what it said, And
when they heard it, could you imagine this? It says they were
glad. They were glad! They were glad! You know, Scott Richardson brought
a message one time on what would make you glad. Betraying Christ
to these men made them glad. But look over with me in John
20. I think Brad Priest read this last Sunday night, right
here in the building, right here in the service, in John chapter
20, and look with verse 19 with me. John chapter 20 and verse
19. This is where Scott preached
from. Then the same day at the evening, being the first day
of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were
assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst
and saith unto them, peace be unto you. And when he had so
said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. Then were
the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. That s what makes
us glad. When we see the Lord, that s
what makes us glad. When we see Christ and He says,
Peace be unto you. When we see His wounds for us,
we see what He did for us, and He appears to us when we re afraid. But over here, over here, these
men were glad when they were gonna betray Jesus and seek to
kill Him. And when they heard it, they
were glad. It said back over in our text,
they were glad. And oh my, and look what it says,
and promised to give Him money, promised to give Him money. And
he sought, sought how he might conveniently betray Him. You
know, I want you to, we're gonna look at several things today,
but I want you to first and foremost, look over in Matthew 26 with
me, Matthew 26. Look what it says over here about
our savior, about our master and what happened. Matthew 26
in verse 14. Then one of the twelve, this
is after he told wherever the gospels preached this woman would
be had for a memorial, what she did for Christ. Then one of the
twelve called Judas Iscariot went unto the chief priest and
said unto them, What will you give me? What will you give me? What will you give me? We want
grace. He wanted money. We want mercy. He wanted to betray. And look
what it says, What will you give me? What will you give me? And I'll deliver him unto you.
How much is Christ worth? How much is He worth? How much
is He worth? It said here, And they covenanted with Him
for thirty pieces of silver. You know what thirty pieces of
silver is worth? That's the price of a slave in those days. And
Zechariah 13.3 says this, you can look at it, Zechariah 11,
13 through 14, it says there, what was my price that they set
for me? 30 pieces of silver. That's what
they said over in Zechariah. He'd already said how much he
was gonna be given for it. What is Christ's worth? What
is Christ's worth to most people? What is Christ's worth to your
heart and my heart? What is Christ's worth? Our Lord
said if it profits a man, if he gains the whole world and
loses his own soul, why should it profit him? And here they
said 30 pieces of silver. Reach in your pocket and see
how much he's worth. Look in your heart and see what
he's worth to you. Look at ourselves and see what
Christ is worth to us. If he's not worth everything,
if he's not all in all, if he's not worthy of our hearts and
our souls and everything of our being, then he's not worth anything. But these men said, whoa, listen,
we'll give you 30 pieces of silver, 30 pieces of silver. And from that time, he sought
opportunity to betray Him. Oh my, sought opportunity. And you know, this is what's
so sad. He was an instrument of the devil. You know, our Lord called him
the son of perdition. And like I said, I want you to
look with me in John chapter six. Look in John chapter six
with me. You need to see this. You know
when we dealing with somebody like this, and the first thing
I think of, I don't know what you think of, but the first thing
I think of, Lord, please, please, please don't let this be me.
Look what He said in John 6 and verse 70. Oh, when everybody was walking
away from our Lord Jesus Christ, a great multitude, and He asked
the disciples, He said, Will you also go away? And they said,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. And we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God. Our Lord answered them and said,
Have I not chosen you twelve? And one of you is a devil? And
listen to this, He spake of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for
he it was that should betray Him, being one of the twelve. Why would this man betray the
Lord Jesus Christ? Why would he do it? Why would
he do it? And here's the thing about it,
he did all this voluntarily, nobody compelled him to do it.
Nobody held a gun to his head. Nobody said, you got to do this.
He done this voluntarily. He done this willingly. He done
this of his own volition. But why did he betray him? Well,
first I tell you, he was selfish. He, first of all, he was a lover
of himself. He was selfish. Not only that,
but he was greedy. He was greedy. He was unwilling. Now listen to what I'm gonna
tell you now. And this is so. He was unwilling. Unwilling to
see Christ for who He really was. Everybody else saw Christ
for who He was. All the 11 saw Christ for who
He was. They saw Him for His love. Judas
didn't. They saw Him for His grace, Judas
didn't. They saw Him for His mercy, Judas
didn't. They saw Him for His miracles,
Judas didn't. They saw Him as the bread of
life, Judas didn't. They saw Him to be everything
and Judas didn't seem to be anything. And everything that Christ is
to us was not to Judas. And oh my, he saw the gentleness
of Christ. He saw Christ take a baby in
his arms and said, except you be as a little child, as this
child here, you cannot enter into the kingdom of God. He heard
our Lord Jesus Christ said, all you that weak and are heavy laden,
come unto me and I'll give you rest. But he never went to Christ
for rest. Oh my. He saw how giving Christ
was. He saw him feed the multitudes.
And I'll tell you something else about him. He was very, very
critical. He was critical. He was critical. You know, when Mary took that
box of ointment, and anointed the Lord Jesus Christ with that
box of ointment. You know what it says? You know,
let me show you where it's at, over here in John 12. You know,
in John 12, you know, he said, you know, our Lord, I think it's John 12, yes, I wanna
see, look at this here, John 12. You know, he was critical. He
was critical of Mary and what she did, he was so critical. Look what it said here in verse,
chapter 12, verse 4. You know, back in verse 3 it
says, that word Mary took that pound of ointment and anointed
the Lord Jesus Christ, wiped his feet with it, and the house
was filled with the odor of the ointment. Then saith one of his
disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him."
Every time Judas' name is mentioned, which should betray him. His
betrayal's always mentioned with his name. And they said, why
was this ointment, why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence
and given to the poor? You know why, look what it says
about him. This he said, not that he cared
for the poor, But because he was a thief, he said, I want
that money. And you know, and this is why
I was, and he had the bag. He was the treasurer. He was
the treasurer. He took care of the money. He took care of the money. Look
what he, and oh my, and I tell you, he was a thief, and he had
what he wanted in the bag. He was the thief, he was the
son of perdition, and yet he was the one that took care of
the money. Took care of the money. Our Lord said, one of you shall
betray me. Back over in our text. One of
you shall betray me. Look down in verse 18 with me
here, of Mark chapter 14. And we're gonna take the Lord's
table this evening. And as they sat and did eat,
Jesus said, verily, I say unto you, one of you which
eateth with me shall betray me. Wonder how many meals he had
with the Lord Jesus Christ. Wonder how many times he sat
at a table with Christ. But one of you which eats with
me, eats with me." Now tonight we're going to take the bread
and we're going to take the wine and we're going to do it as memory
of our Lord Jesus Christ. But He said, One of you which
eats with me shall betray me. This is the Passover. This is
the Lamb being slain. This was the night that Christ
was gonna be betrayed and kissed. And oh, look what he said. And
they began to be sorrowful. And Mark, it says that Judas
himself said, is it I, Lord? Is it I? And they began to be
sorrowful. I'd be sorrowful too. If I sitting
at the table with the Lord Jesus Christ, he said, one of you sitting
here gonna eat with me, he's gonna betray me. I'd be sorrowful
too. I'd be scared to death. I'd be
frightened. When you know your own heart,
when you're like Job, I abhor myself. When God said, you know,
I'll make a covenant with you, and one of the covenants that
I make with you, that you shall loathe yourself for the evil
that you've done. When you're like Isaiah, who
cried out, woe is me, I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean lips. And oh my, I'd be sorrowful too. I'd be sorrowful too. When you
understand something of your own ability and what you're capable
of, I'd be scared too. I'd be sorrowful too. I'd be
crying. And oh, they said to him one by one, I don't know
who said it first, but they said, Lord, is it I? If it is, please
tell me. If it's me, let me know. Is it
I? Lord, if it is, please, please
tell me. Don't let me betray you. And
they began to ask one by one, is it I? Is it I? And another
said, is it I? Do you think that it's possible
for somebody to do that? As a fellow said the other day,
there's been more lies told at a funeral than any place else.
And I told him, I said, any man that would lie on God from a
pulpit has no problem lying at a funeral. And if any man that
would not be honest with people from a pulpit would not be honest
at a funeral either. And I'll tell you what, and this
was a man, these fellows was being honest with themselves.
And one thing God does, I'll tell you, beloved, He makes us
honest. And you know where He makes us honest more than any
place else? Before Him. He makes us honest before Him. We got to come clean before Him,
and that's what these fellows are doing. Is it I? That's why Simon Peter, when
that multitude went away, and they said, this is hard sayings,
who can follow Him? Simon Peter said, Lord, he said,
will you 12 also go away? That's what he asked him, all
of you gonna leave too? And that's what he asked, he
asked me, I honestly asked him, he said, do you gonna leave too? This building would not hold
the people here. We'd had to expand this auditorium
if everybody was in here right now that's been here how many
times since I've been here. This building would not hold
them. Where are they at? What have they done? What's the
matter with them? Huh? Will you also go away? Lord, oh Lord, to whom shall
we go? You've got the words of eternal
life. I can't leave you. And they had
sense enough, and they were gracious enough, and didn't trust their
own hearts enough, and they said, Lord, is it I? Is it I? If it is, Lord, please tell me. Please tell me. And oh, look
what He went on to say. And they began to be sorrowful. And He said in verse 20, He answered
and said unto them, It is one of the twelve. It is one of the
twelve. No wonder they said it is I.
It is one of the twelve that dippeth with me in the dish. You know, they'd take bread and
they had that bitter herbs and things that they'd have to take
that unleavened bread and dip it in. And the Son of Man, listen
to this, the Son of Man indeed goes, that is, is written of But woe to that man by whom the
Son of Man is betrayed, good were it for that man, he had
never even been born." Oh, never been born, oh my. And oh my goodness,
what caused him, I asked again, what caused him to betray? Was
it pride, was his pride injured? Was his pride injured? Did he
get injured in his pride sometime? You know, I tell you what, people,
when their pride is injured, when you're injured and you injure
their pride, I mean, boy, they don't know how to say, I'm sorry.
You know, there's people that's too proud to say, I'm sorry.
Too proud to say, I, you know, too proud to say, listen, I was
wrong about that. Was he disappointed in some ambition
that he had? Did he feel like maybe the Lord
disappointed him? He had some ambition, and he
didn't attain his ambition. Is it greed? Was he afraid of
being put out of the synagogue? You all remember very well, you
know, that man that was born blind? And our Lord Jesus Christ,
He opened that man's eyes. He'd been born blind. He was
a grown man. Well, the Pharisees and the Sadducees
and the scribes got upset with Christ for doing that, and they come and ask Him and
said, Who done this? Who done this? And He said, Jesus! A man named Jesus did this! And
oh, listen! And they kept asking him, said,
you ask him yourself, because they had already told him, we'll
put you out of the synagogue if you say that this man done
it. They hated him so much that when he opened the eyes of a
man that was born blind, they said, if you say that this man
Christ did this, that Jesus did this, we'll put you out of the
synagogue. And they were afraid of being put out of the synagogue. Oh, my. I tell you what, you know, I've been pastoring
since 1979, maybe late 78, and I've never ever, ever, ever tried
to put anybody out of church. I've never even brought charges
against anybody or anything. If the gospel won't help you,
and the gospel don't reprove you, and the gospel won't rebuke
you, me calling you out, and here's the thing about it, This
place for sinners, and you know what do you expect a sinner to
do? He s going to do things that
sinners do, so why would you want to put them out? Why would
you want to put them out? But oh, my, they were afraid
of being put out again. But the basic, basic reason,
his selfish heart, and Christ is infinitely unselfish and outgoing. And I want you to look back over
in John 21 with me, or excuse me, John 13. John 13. I want to show you something
here again. In verse 21, verse 21. When Jesus had thus said, he
was troubled in spirit, and testified and said, Verily, verily, or
truly, truly, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray
me. Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom
he spake. Now there was leaning on Jesus'
bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore
beckoned unto him to ask John that he should ask him who it
would be that he spake, who is he talking about that is going
to betray him. Then lying on Jesus' bread he
said unto him, Lord, who is it? And our Lord answered, He it
is to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped it. And when
he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son
of Judas, Simon. And after the Sop, listen to
this now, Satan enter into him, then our Lord said unto him,
what you do, do it quickly. Do it quickly. And no man at
the table knew for what intent he speak this unto them. For some of them thought that
because Judas had the bag, that Jesus said unto him, buy those
things that we have need of against the feast, that he should give
something to the poor. And listen to this now, he then
having received the sop, they hadn't ate dinner yet, then having
received the sop, he went out immediately, and it was night.
He went out from the best company on earth, HE WENT OUT FROM THE
BEST COMPANY ON EARTH. HE LEFT CHRIST. HE LEFT CHRIST. HE LEFT THE BEST COMPANY ON EARTH.
JOHN, PETER, MATTHEW AND ALL OF THEM THAT OUR LORD HAD CALLED,
HE WENT OUT FROM THE BEST COMPANY ON EARTH TO THE COMPANY OF GOD-HATING,
CHRIST-REJECTING MURDERERS. OH MY! HE WENT OUT FROM THE RULE
and the reign of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and went
under the rule and slavery of Satan. He went out from the place of light, the
place of life and the place of hope and went out unto darkness
and despair. He went out from the presence
of the eternal life-giving Son of God unto the place of eternal
doom, eternal doom. You know, one of the things about
Judas, like I said, our Lord, He treated
him like everybody else, treated him like everybody else, and
let me show you this, and I hope that I don't have to take much
more time, but listen, look in Matthew 27 with me. Matthew 27. You know, Christ was betrayed
over what they call Christmas. And I'm so thankful that God
saved us from that darkness, that darkness. excuse me, Matthew 26, I'm sorry. Did I say 27? Matthew 26. In verse 47. You know, he's off in the garden
of Gethsemane and they're coming. And while
he yet spake, rise up, let us be going, and he said in verse
46, let us be going before he, behold, he is at hand that doeth
betray me. And while he yet spake, Judas,
one of the 12, came, and with him a great multitude with swords
and staves from the chief priests and elders of the people. Now
he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, listen to this,
Whomsoever I shall kiss. You know, I kiss all my brethren. That's one thing I do. I've done
that for years. I hug one of my brothers. I generally
kiss him on the cheek. My son, James, Doogie was in
over the holidays. Every time he sees me, he squeezes
me real hard and gives me a kiss. And I kiss him back on the cheek. I've always tried to do that,
greet one another with a holy kiss. And we kiss one another
on the cheek because we love one another, that's what it means. And look what he says, he goes
on to say here now, gave them a sign saying, Whomsoever I shall
kiss, that same is he. Look what he
said here now, hold him fast. When you get a hold of him, hold
him fast. Hold him fast. Oh my. And look what he did now. Oh
my. And he, and forthwith he came
to Jesus and said, hail, master. Hail, master. Hi, master. Hail, master. And kissed him. And kissed him. And look what our Lord said.
And he said unto him, friend. Our Lord is gracious right up.
Oh, bless his name. And he said unto him, friend, wherefore art thou come? What
are you doing here? What did you come for? Then came they and laid hands
on Jesus and took him away. Took him away. And then look
over in chapter 27 and look what happens to him. Matthew 27 and
verse 3. We'll start at verse 1. And when the
morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people
took counsel against Jesus to put Him to death. And when they
had bound Him, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pontius
Pilate the governor. Then Judas, which had betrayed
him, when he saw that he was condemned, his life caught up
with him, his greed caught up with him, his selfishness caught
up with him, his pride caught up with him, his betrayal caught
up with him. When he saw that he was condemned
and repented himself, he had a change of mind. And he brought
that again, that 30 pieces of silver, brought it back to the
chief priest and elders, the one who bought it, brought it
up, the one that gave it to him. He said, Oh, listen. And he said
that one place, he said, he throwed it down, but he took it back. He took all that money back.
Here's this 30 pieces of silver that you gave me to betray him.
He says, what will you give me? 30 pieces of silver. He turned
around and gave it to the chief priests and elders, saying, I
have sinned, I have sinned. What did you do, Judas? I betrayed
the innocent blood. I betrayed a man that was absolutely,
utterly innocent. never done anything to me, never
done anything against me, was nothing but kind to me, nothing
but gracious to me, nothing but treated me like everybody else.
I betrayed the innocent blood. And look what he said. What's
that to us? I don't mean nothing to us. That
absolutely means nothing to us. And he cast down, you see to
that, You take care of that for yourself. And he cast down the
pieces of silver in the temple and departed and went and hanged
himself. Hanged himself. My goodness. His conscience bothered
him so bad. He knowed what he had done was
so bad. He'd done what he'd done was
so evil that he couldn't stand his conscience in what he'd done. And he said, I tell you what,
I'm going to end up in hell anyway. And he went and hung himself
and hung himself. And look what these, this is
religion for you. This is religion for you. And
the chief priest took the silver pieces And listen, this is how
depraved and how awful and how wicked these people, how really
awful religion is. And he says, not lawful. Now
there, they don't, it's all right to sell him for 30 pieces of
silver. It's all right to plot to put him to death. It's all
right to murder him and crucify him and mock him and slap him
and mistreat him in every way possible. But yet they said it's
not lawful to put them into the treasury, and listen to this,
cause it's the price of blood. We paid for blood. You know what
they done with it? Went out and bought a graveyard. Took 30 pieces of silver and
bought a graveyard. You know who they'd go put in
the graveyard? Poor people. People couldn't afford a grave.
That's what they'd done with it. And oh, my. And they bought
and they said they'd bury strangers in it. That's what a potter's
field to bury strangers in. You know, the ruin, I tell you
what, his end, he ruined both body and soul. And I tell you
what, he was All of us need to guard our hearts
and our souls. And let me close with this. You
know, Jesus sold Christ for money. Sold Christ for money. And what a powerful, powerful
thing, the love of this world. And this money, there's nothing
wrong with money. It's the love of money, and He
loved money. And He sold Christ for money.
And what a powerful, powerful thing, the love of this world
and the love of money. How many have fallen because
of it? The Bible is full of people that sold it, lost their soul
for these kinds of things. Paul called them by name. He
said, Hymenaeus. Called him by name, Hymenaeus
and Philetus. And they're about Ananias and
Sapphira. They went and, you know, everybody
else was bringing their money and laying it at the apostles'
feet to use it to feed the poor and take care of people and the
widows. And Ananias and Sapphira said they sold a piece of ground
and said, Now listen, we're going to keep this much of it. We sold
it for $100. We're going to keep $25 and give
$75 of it and put it at the apostles' feet. Well, here they come. And they said, tell them if they
ask how much it was, you tell them, because we're gonna keep
some of this money for ourselves. Simon Peter said, why, if you
decide to deceive the Holy Ghost? He's holding for, why did you
do that? And they both died over lying to God Almighty. Both died
for trying to be covetous, died for being greedy, died for the
love of money. He said, It was YOURS! You could
have kept every penny of it! You didn't have to give any of
it! But when you plotted to deceive God, when you plotted to deceive
the Lord, when you plotted to lie to God Himself, He said,
The men that carried your husband out is going to come in here
and carry you out too. They both died! Oh my, and then what about
Demas? This is what happens to people.
And this scares me, I don't know about you. Demas, having loved this present
evil world, hath forsaken me. Having loved this present evil
world. I don't know what you all think.
I don't know what you feel. Maybe you think, man, he ought
to preach on anything besides that. But I'll tell you this. It ought to be in every one of
our hearts. Lord, please, please, please,
please, please, Lord, don't let us go. Please never turn loose
of us. Never leave us to ourselves. Never let our hearts go after
something that would dishonor you. Oh Lord, don't let us, please
don't let us be deceived. Don't let us be deceived. And Lord, don't let me be a Judas.
Please, Lord, don't let me be a Judas. Let me be a John. Let me be a Simon Peter. Let
me be anything, anything but someone who would deny you or
betray you. When you know yourself, you're
scared for yourself. You know who you're afraid of
more than anybody else in this building? Yourself. Every believer
in this building is more afraid of their self than they are of
anybody else. Our Father, in the precious,
glorious name of our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, Lord, thank you. We're like Simon Peter, Lord,
to whom shall we go? Whom shall we go? You have the
words of eternal life. You have the words. You have the life. You've got
all the grace. You've got all the strength.
You've got all the power. But, oh Lord, please, For Christ's
sake, O God, our Father. O Lord, we not only want to cleave
unto you, but want you to cleave to us. O Lord, cleave to us. Lord, we desperately, desperately
need you. God bless these dear saints.
Lord, encourage them. meet the needs of their hearts,
meet the needs of their home, and as we meet this evening,
please be with us. God, bless the gospel, bless
the truth. Make Christ real, real and vital
to our hearts. Above all other things, it's
vital in this world. Make Christ to be the most vital.
May Christ be the most vital thing in our hearts and in our
lives, to our understandings. For his name's sake we pray,
amen, amen. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Oh Lord, let us turn them. Oh
Lord, let us look, let us look. all the things of this world. Amen. See you tonight, God willing.