The lesson this morning will
be taken from Luke 22, verses 2-6, and verses 21-23. The subject is the mighty hand of
God. Let's read these verses together.
Luke 22, verse 2. I've got my verses mixed up,
I'm sure. And the chief priests and the
scribes sought how they might kill him. For they feared the
people. Then entered Satan into Judas,
surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve, And he
went his way and communed with the chief priests and captains
how he might betray him unto them. And they were glad and
covenanted to give him mercy or to give him money. And he
promised and sought opportunity to betray him unto them in the
absence of the multitude. That is, they wanted to hide
what they were doing. from the multitude, and that's
always the way of false religion. And then having established the
Lord's Supper, our Lord said in verses 21 through 23, but
behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the
table. And truly the Son of Man goeth
as it was determined, but woe unto that man by whom he is betrayed. And they, that is his disciples,
began to inquire among themselves which of them it was that should
do this thing. Now I first titled the lesson,
The Work of Satan. A satanic work. And truly it
is the work of Satan who entered into Judas Iscariot and caused
him to betray the Son of Man. Satan, I don't know the particulars
of how he does it, but Satan, I can show it to you in the Scriptures,
Satan works in men. He works in men in a similar
way to how the Holy Ghost works. He works in men and men aren't
even aware of it. He said, you hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sin, wherein in time past you
walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit, which now worketh
in the children of disobedience. He works in them. How does he
do it? I don't know. I don't know. I don't want to know. But it's not His work that I
want to promote. I want to promote the work of
God. And I want to look past the working of Satan in Him and
show you the mighty hand of God. Turn with me to Acts chapter
4. We'll begin our lesson right
here. This is an accurate account of the death of Christ. It tells
us plainly how and why it took place. It tells us who was involved
and how that involvement came to be. Acts chapter 4, verses
25 and 26. They quote Peter and John quote Psalm chapter
2. Why did the heathen rage, and
the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth stood
up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against His Christ. For of a truth, against thy holy
child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were all gathered
together. for to do whatsoever thy hand
and thy counsel determined before to be done." There can be no
doubt that those involved in the death of Christ, His rejection,
those false convictions, those men were sons of their
father the devil. How do I know that? Because that's
what the Lord told me. They said, we'd be not born of
fornication. We have one father, even God.
He said, if God were your father, you'd love me. I proceeded forth
and came from God. And then he tells them, you're
of your father the devil, and the lust of your father you will
do. And not only the death of Christ, but the whole of antichrist
religion, both then and now, is ascribed to Satan, who takes
men captive at his will. And we're warned about it. We're
warned when we go to somebody, and we know that they've run
aground, they've made shipwreck of the faith, and we're going
to go to them, and we're going to restore such a one. He said,
be careful. Be careful. Satan's working in him. This
is not him. You don't have to worry about
his clever answers. You've got to worry about who's
working in him. Because he takes men captive
at his will. He takes men captive at his will
and convinces them to do his bidding by making them believe
that they're serving God in whatever it is he has them to do. His
work is described as a great falling away. The coming of Christ
is not He told those disciples way back then, it's not coming
tomorrow or next week. He's not coming. There has to
come a great falling away first. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Falling from what? Falling from
the Word of God. The Gospel of Christ, the means
of grace. A falling away. It is 2 Thessalonians 2, 9, after
the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders.
With all deceivableness of unrighteousness and them that perish. Let me
read you just a few chapters here and there in the Bible.
I want you to see that this is not something I'm trying to pull
out one verse over here in the New Testament. This runs all
the way through the Bible. In 1 Chronicles chapter 21 verse
1 it says, And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked
David to number Israel. You remember how much trouble
he got in for doing that. Why'd he do it? Satan provoked David to do it.
And then in Job chapter 1 verse 6, There was a day when the sons
of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came
also with them. He came with it. David prays
in Psalm 109 concerning his enemies, the enemies of God, and no doubt
speaking the very words of Christ. They rewarded me evil for good
and hatred for my love, sent them a wicked man over them and
let Satan stand at his right hand. Zechariah was moved by the Holy
Ghost to write, he showed me Joshua the high priest standing
before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right
hand to resist him. And what was he then to resist?
The bringing in of him whose name is the Branch, the promised
Messiah. In Matthew 16, our Lord began
in detail to show his disciples how he must go to Jerusalem,
how he had to suffer things at the hands of the priesthood and
the Pharisees and scribes and the elders, and then be killed, and then be raised again on the
third day. And Peter took him, and he called
him aside. Master, come here a minute. And
he called him Messiah. And he began to rebuke him, saying,
Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto you. That's why he came into the world.
Peter said, No. No, you can't do that. You can't
do that. Now watch this. But he turned. He looked Peter right in the
face. And he said, Get thee behind me, Satan. Where does Satan work? Well,
he was working in an apostle that day. He was working with
a high priest back there in Zechariah. He was working with Job. There's
not a more righteous man in all the earth than Job, but here
Satan comes with him. Where does he work? He works everywhere. The whole work of Antichrist
religion is the working of Satan, no matter how sincere the man
is that's doing the work. Can you picture Eve trying to
convince Adam that it was okay to eat the fruit? That wasn't Eve, that's Satan
working in Eve. Your enemies, he said, shall
be they of your own household. Satan's work is subtle, and he
works where it does the most damage. Satan never rests. He knows his time is short, and
he works in the hearts of perishing sinners, causing them to resist
the Holy Ghost. You do always, Stephen said,
resist the Holy Ghost, just like your fathers did. Paul writes
that the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God. Why not? Why not? Looks to me like they're pretty
plainly stated. Why won't they receive it? Because
it appears foolishness unto them. Listen to this. They were selling their houses
and lands and everything and just putting it in a big kitty
and whoever needed. That way they could all have
things common. Nobody did without. And Ananias and Sapphira promised
within themselves, is this how much we're going to give? And
they set it aside, but they didn't give it. One time come, they
held it back. And here's what the Apostle said, Ananias, why
hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost? Would a man lie to the Holy Ghost? He will if Satan works in him. Paul said God anointed him to
minister and be a witness of all that was revealed to him
and to open men's eyes and turn them from darkness to light and
from the power of Satan unto God. In 2 Corinthians 2, Paul
speaks of misunderstandings and things that cause divisions among
the brethren saying, let Satan, let Satan get an advantage on
us for we're not ignorant of his devices. Where does he work? He works in churches, he works
in believers, he works in apostles, he works in preachers, he works
anywhere he wants to. And anywhere that the Lord will
allow it. Peter said, no. The Lord said,
you're going to forsake me this day. Oh, no, not me. Now, they
might. Peter said, John might. These might, but not me. Oh, yeah. Fact is, you're going
to deny me three times. Three times. Oh my. Why did he say that? Why would Peter tell the Lord
that he wasn't going to do that? Because he couldn't see ahead. That's why. He couldn't see Satan
about to sift him as wheat. That didn't come into the equation. That wasn't part of the equation.
You know, we say things in this life, I'm going to do this, and
then something, boom, something happens and we can't do it. Why
couldn't we do it? Because we couldn't see that
thing, that's why. All through the scriptures we're
told about the working of Satan, and it's always Antichrist. He's
a powerful enemy. He's one to be feared and avoided.
But here's what I want you to see. I want you to see the hand
of God. Everybody that day was doing
what they wanted to do, and Satan was doing what he wanted to do.
Huh? Did God just let him do it because
he couldn't resist it? No, he used him to do it. There's no excuse for sin. Sin
lies at the door, our door. It's our sin. The soul that sinneth
shall surely die. There's no getting away with
sin. Sin has to be accounted for. But God overrules sinful
men and even Satan himself to accomplish his redemptive will.
And that's what was going on at this table. That's what was going on. The
mighty hand of God was overruling all. All of it. He did and continues
to do what His hand and His counsel determined before to be done.
In Romans 9, the Holy Ghost tells us that He endures with much
longsuffering the vessels of wrath. Now, He's not longsuffering
to them, but He's longsuffering to us, enduring those vessels. Why would God endure such things? Don't you sometimes wonder when
you see things, hear things, Things happen right here. Don't
you sometimes wonder why would God allow that to happen? I can't see what He sees. I can't see what He sees, but
I do know this. He endures them for our sake
and to accomplish His will. He endures them that we might
have a government put in place to constrain men from being as
evil as they could be. Don't have any misgivings about
it. Those are evil men. Those are fallen men in government.
You'd have to be blind not to see that. They're not upright. These are evil men. But they're
accomplishing a good service. There is no power but of God.
That's what he tells us over there. The powers that be are
of God. He endures them to provide us with jobs and food and things
that we need in our earthly sojourn, just like Abraham. He endures
them and uses them to assist him in his work of redemption,
just as he did on this day. And Jesus Christ, our Passover
Lamb, was taken and by wicked hands crucified and slain. He endures them that their sins
might pile up around them like hot coals on their head. Every man involved in the death
of Christ was used of God to manifest his purpose of grace
and accomplish the redemption of chosen sinners, every one
of them. They had no interest in it themselves. They had no
understanding of it. None of those things. Everybody
that was involved in it down here was ignorant. But God overruled
all the ignorance and they did exactly what God determined before
to be done. The Feast of Unleavened Bread
grew nigh, which is called the Passover. And here's the connection. And the chief priests and scribes
sought how they might kill him. Passover grew nigh, that is,
in its fulfillment, in its accomplishment, in its true manifestation. Then
entered Satan into Judas. Their name is carried. They would all do what they believed
to be right. They all thought that what they
were doing would be prosperous. They were all doing what they
reasoned best that should be done. And all their secret meetings
and communion decisions and all their dangling of the money before
Judas seemed perfectly logical to them.
Yet they did what God determined before them to be done. and overriding providence, though
they had no awareness of it, yet God used them as instruments
to do His will, and He does the same thing today. Peter put it
this way, Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God, you have taken and with wicked hands have
crucified and slain. Oh, how sweet the thought. How
comforting it is to see God's hand of providence. To see him overriding all things
to bring to pass what could never be apart from his intervention. There was no other way or means
to accomplish our redemption, and God overruled and used the
most wicked men and angels and the most wicked deed to bring
it to pass. And as our Lord institutes the
ordinance of remembrance, and he says, but, but, he passes
it out, and then he said, but, the hand that betrayeth me seated
at the table. He's with me on the table. He's
with me. One of the chosen twelve. One
who obtained a part of this ministry. One who preached in his name
and did many wonderful things in his name. He's with me. One
receiving the respect and honor of his people. Eating and drinking
the body and blood of Christ. And what a warning this is to
us. Truly, he said, the Son of Man goeth as it was determined. but woe unto that man by whom
he's betrayed. And they began to inquire among
themselves which of them it was that should do this thing. Matthew's
account says, and they were exceeding sorrowful and began to say unto
him, Lord, is it I? Is it I? Judas' apostasy stands
out as a glaring example of the fact that men and women who appear
to have a good profession of faith sometimes prove themselves
in the end to be reprobates of God. Huh? Oh, I don't need to
search my heart. Really? Maybe you ought to read
this account again. followed our Lord through the
full course of his ministry. And like the others, he forsook
all to follow Christ. The Lord himself chose him and
made him an apostle, and there was no outward evidence that
he was not a true apostle. Yet in the end, he betrayed the
Son of God." What are you saying, Preacher? I'm saying, what would
we do if God left us to ourselves? we'd do exactly what Satan influenced
us to do. That's what we'd do. And we'd
be absolutely convinced that we were doing this thing as a
service to God. The heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? And then let
me close with a warning. He says, beware. In John 12, Mary, the sister
of Martha and Lazarus, took a full box of spikenut and anointed
the feet of Christ a whole pound of this precious ointment. And
when she did, Judas said, why was not this ointment sold for
300 pence and given to the poor? Now watch this, John 12, verse
6, this he said, This is why Judas said what he said. Not
that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief. That
was money in his pocket. But he couldn't tell them that. He said this because he was a
thief and had the bag, and boy what was put there in. That's
why he did it. When did he become a thief? Oh,
he was always a thief, same as we are. And while we might not
steal that, we'll rob God of His glory. Out of the heart proceed evil
thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts. All of
these things ought to shut us up to Christ alone. and know
that He alone can keep us from falling. When our Lord prayed
for His people, He began with the twelve, put into His care,
and then He said to His Father, Those that thou gavest Me I have
kept, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition. Why
him that the Scriptures might be fulfilled? God help us as we sojourn here
on this earth to look alone to our God and Savior and His Spirit,
which works with us. If not, by the grace of God,
every one of us would be doing this. Every one of us. Every
one of us. And I know, we read it in the
paper, we hear it on the news, I see it all the time, and we
say, oh, how horrible, and you're just shocked. I'll tell you what you'll say
after a while, there go I, but by the grace of God, that's me,
that's me. There's nothing we won't do.
But here's my hope, the mighty hand of God. That's it, that's
it. Had nothing to do with you, had
to do with him.