Now I want to ask you something.
Could any man from infancy to adulthood be surrounded with
more and greater spiritual privileges than Judas? Yet this passage says, The devil
literally having cast into the heart of Judas to betray him. The devil found in that man fruitful
soil to betray the Son of God. Why? All of that privilege, devoid
of the power of inward grace, was absolutely fruitless. I tell you it has made my soul
shudder as I've pondered this passage in the last couple of
days. All the others were clean, but
not Judas. You see where I'm going in my
application? I hope some of you children and young people are
already trembling. You, like Judas, through no choice
of your own, were born the elect among the elect. In a home where
the light of special revelation touches the entirety of the fabric
and climate and function of that home. You can't remember when
the Bible was not a part of your life. Mom and Dad, at great cost, time
and energy, some in the home, some by sending you to the Trinity
Christian School, have sought to give you a view of life that
is filtered through the light of God's Word in your light.
As we read this morning, we shall see light outside the light of
Scripture. All is darkness. You've had all of that surrounding
you. And though Jesus in the flesh
is not here, He is in a special way in the assemblies of His
people where two or three are gathered in my name, there am
I. You've been brought into the
orbit where Jesus is present, where Jesus speaks, where Jesus
exerts His power, not primarily in physical healings, but in
spiritual healings. He opens blind eyes and cleanses
defiled sinners. Have you seen His work in others? Yet you sit here this morning
and your heart is fertile soil for the devil to plant in you
betrayal of Jesus. Because you think Somehow or
other, with no effort and endeavor on my own, all of this privilege
will somehow produce something good. No, no, my friend. It produced
nothing good in Judas. It only increased his culpability
and his damnation. And that scares the liver out
of me. Does it scare you? Does it scare
you, children? Does it frighten you to where
you're ready to say, Oh God, I won't let this day close until
I know I have inward grace. Until I know that Jesus has washed
me and that I am clean. I won't pillow my head tonight
until I know that my heart is not fertile soil to betray Jesus,
but a heart so attached to Jesus that I'll confess Him, if necessary,
even unto death. The incident of the foot washing
sets before us this frightening reality that the best of spiritual
privileges is utterly fruitless without the transforming power
of inward grace. I'd hope to bring the flip side
of that in the life of Judas But in the interest of time,
I won't. But let me say this. One of the most frightening things
in the experience of the past weeks, when I had that excessive
hemorrhaging in my right eye and was virtually blind, could
only see light and darkness, that's all. Couldn't see my hand
that far in front of my face. Because I was blind looking out,
The eye surgeon was blind looking in. He didn't know what was going
on. And one of his fears was that the retina might be detaching.
And so I had the four ultrasounds of the eyeball trying to see
if the retina was still intact. And then he said to me this,
he said, Reverend Martin, he insisted calling me Reverend.
I didn't want to be called Reverend, but he called me Reverend. He
said, you must call me on my personal beeper number day or
night if you begin to see a dark curtain coming down gradually,
call me immediately. It's an indication your retina
is detaching and you must undergo emergency surgery to address
it. What's it mean when the retina
is detached? You go blind. That thing that God has made
with its cones and rods to receive the images and transmit them
by the optic nerve to the brain. When that is detached, sight
is gone. There were several times when
the hemorrhaging formed clots that looked like the curtain
coming down. I tell you, it was frightening.
I don't scare easily, but I tell you, I was scared. I confess
without shame the thought of going blind was frightening. But I tell you there's something
more frightening than physical blindness. To have the shade
of divine light. It enables us to grasp light.
To have God say, all right, you want darkness? I'll give it to
you. And for God to detach your spiritual retinas. And the Bible
teaches God does that. He hath blinded their eyes! And some of you shut your eyes
to the light that comes through the godly example of mom and
dad. The light that comes from family
worship. The light that comes sitting
here today. And you say, no light. No light.
I want no light. I want no light. The time comes
when God says, you want darkness? I'll give it to you. And your
spiritual partners are detached. And you'll sink into hell, blind
as a bat. That's what happened to Judas.
That's what happened to Judas. The scripture says he was a thief.
He was covetous. Where did it start? Maybe his
little boy saw a dime on his daddy's dresser. And when he
went to take it, he knew the law of God. Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not covet. And he turned away from that
light and took the dime, put it in his pocket. Had you or
I seen him taking him aside and said, Judas of Kiriath, you're
just a little boy, but I saw you steal that dime from your
daddy's dresser. Do you know that that spirit
of coveting and thievery, if you don't deal with it one day,
you will be prepared to hand over incarnate deity for 30 hunks
of silver. Little Judas would have looked
and said, oh mister, I wouldn't do that. But he did it. And there was a connection between
that first dime and the 30 pieces of silver. Just as there's a
connection with some of you sitting here! the lustful thought, the
glance in that catalogue, at that flyer that comes to the
house, and the lustful burning of thought. Some of you boys,
entertain! If I were to tell you, the day
will come when you'll sell your virginity, you'll violate your
marriage vows, break up your family. Oh no! Yes. Some of us know it all too experientially,
not in our own lives, but in those we dearly love. I tell you kids, you got to stop
messing about with these issues of the light that God is bringing
on your spiritual retinas. nudging you by his law, drawing
you by his gospel. It's time to stop mucking about
with these issues. When you find in your Bible that
there's a special hell for 8-year-olds and 10-year-olds and 12-year-olds,
come and tell me and show me where it is. I haven't found
it yet. It says Judas went to his place. And you'll go to the same place.
Now why? Jesus, as then, so now, is among
us with a towel in the basin and he says, oh my dear boy,
my dear girl, nothing would thrill me more than to wash you. Think of it. Jesus is glad to
wash us. It's got to go to him. I was
struck with that driving it today. Suffer the little children to
come to me and forbid them not. I said, Lord, we're not forbidding
the children to come. We're behind them, pushing them.
Nobody in this place puts a barrier between you kids and Jesus. That's
what the disciples were doing. Parents were bringing their kids.
They were apparently old enough to walk. brought them to him,
put them down, and when the kids began to come, the disciples
said, hey, get away, he's got no time for you. Jesus said,
no, no. Suffer the children to come to me. He didn't say suffer
the parents to bring them to me to get some water on their
head. Let the children come to me. Let them come and jump into
my arms. Let me smother them with the
tokens of my love and my grace. Dear children, you're not forbidden
in this place. Dear young people, nobody forbids
you, we nudge you, we urge you, we do everything but drag you
to Jesus. But we can't take you to Him. God help you. God help you. As you think of that upper room,
and the Jesus with the towel in the base, And in the midst
Judas, this greatly privileged man who didn't get there overnight,
there were signposts all along the way where he shut his eyes
to light. And as the light got brighter,
he had to shut them all the tighter until God says, darkness is what
you want. Darkness is what you'll have.