And with me in your Bibles, back
to John chapter 13. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
you've promised to be the teacher of your people and the Holy Spirit,
the revealer of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we open your word,
aware of our complete and utter dependence upon you. to do the
things that you have promised our father we commit ourselves
into your hands and pray these things for the glory and in the
name of your dear and precious son our lord jesus christ i mean
well i think There was a famous novelist who
opened his book with the best of times and the worst of times,
and here we have to come and spend a little bit of time looking
at Judas. Verse 2, we read it beforehand,
the supper being into the devil, having now put into the heart
of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him. Jeremiah 17 says that our hearts
are deceitfully wicked, and beyond cure they have a disease that
cannot be healed except by the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, I speak not of you
all, but I know whom I have chosen, but that the scripture may be
fulfilled, he that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel
against me. And the picture there is, and
John Muir will tell you all about this if you ask him, it's a picture
of a horse or a cow or a mule or something lifting up and kicking
you. Oh, it was read on a dairy farm,
I know what it's like. That's the picture. That's the
picture. He that eateth his bread with
me has lifted up his heel against me. But I love what verse 19
says. Now I tell you before it come,
that when it come to pass, that you may believe that I am. I am of all the scriptures. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth
me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me to
receive the Lord Jesus Christ, and to receive the Father is
to receive those who he sends on his behalf. And he's speaking
of his apostles and all who have continued to preach the same
gospel that they proclaim. When Jesus had thus said he was
troubled in spirit and testifies and said, verily, verily, amen,
amen, truly, truly, I say unto you that one of you shall betray
me. Then the disciples looked one
on another, doubting of whom he spoke. Now there was leaning
on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore beckoned
to him that he should ask who it should be of whom he spoke. He then, leaning on Jesus' breast,
said unto him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, He it is to whom
I shall give a sop, just a piece of bread to be dipped in some
sauce or something. And when I have dipped it, and
when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the
son of Simon. And after the sop, Satan entered
into him. Then Jesus said unto him, That
thou doest do quickly. He commands him to go. Now no man at the table knew for
what intent he spake this unto him. For some of them thought,
because Judas had the bag, that Jesus said unto him, Buy those
things that we have need of against the feast, or that he should
give something to the poor. Then having received the sop,
he then having received the sop, went immediately out, and it
was night. He went out into the darkness. Nicodemus came from the darkness
at night into the light. Judas went out into the night,
and what a night, what an extraordinary night. Satan, in verse 2, put into his
heart to betray him, and that betrayal had begun some time
beforehand and had infested in Judas' heart, and how it should
be a warning to us that the Scriptures say, you guard your heart. Guard
your heart. There are, Judas's name is famous,
isn't it? You just mention the name Judas
and you think of betrayal and deceit and hypocrisy and he's
one of those names that has come down through history like Hitler
and others that just evoke the most extraordinary things, don't
they? There's a whole Psalm 109 that's
written about him and he's mentioned in other passages of Scripture,
but I think Ecclesiastes 6 verse 4 gives one of the best descriptions. For he cometh in with vanity,
with emptiness, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall
be covered with darkness. And that's been the case for
this last 2,000 years. There are a variety of responses
that I hear from people when I speak about Judas. And some
of them say, poor Judas, he was just a pawn doing God's will
and therefore we ought to feel sympathy for him and he ought
not be blamed for what he'd done. There are those who have a harsh,
cold judgement and say he just got what he deserved. The Pharisee
says, there but for the grace of God and my efforts go I. The believer says, Judas reveals
what I am as a fallen child of Adam. And the believer cries out when he
sees The events of Judas's life lead me not into temptation.
I know what happens if I'm led into temptation. I'll fall 100%
of the time, and so will you, brothers and sisters. Lord, save
me, says Peter. There are so many lessons that
we get from Judas. It's an extraordinary thing,
isn't it, to think that it's possible for someone to preach
the true gospel and go to hell. It's possible for someone to
perform miracles, to cast out demons, to spend three and a
half years in the personal company of the Lord Jesus Christ as God
Almighty, to be fed by him, to be taught by him, to see him.
loving his owner in the world, to see him receiving every single
person that came to him in need and seeking mercy. Not one is
ever turned away. To see him performing the most remarkable
miracles that reveal that he is just God Almighty. He created
He healed, he raised the dead. It's possible to have all of
those things and have the companionship of the apostles and be accepted
as one of them. No one knew right up until this
very moment, not a single one of the other 11 suspected him
at all. And it's a remarkable picture
of how the Lord Jesus Christ deals with people in this world
who will eventually be lost. So much won't be revealed until
they come to meet him. You read Matthew chapter 7 verses
21. Those people turn up there, and they've got a bucket load
of good works. They've got a bucket load of good works, and they
do them in his name, and the Lord Jesus Christ turns to them
and says, I never knew you. That doesn't mean he didn't know
about them. He said, I never had a love relationship with
you. Judas had seen others cast away. In John chapter 8 the Lord spoke
of the Pharisees and said, you are children of the devil and
you are doing the works of your father, the devil. Ultimately,
as we have seen earlier, it is possible to have your feet washed.
By the Lord do we pass over supper to hear the warnings of God. John chapter 6, there was a warning. He says, have I not chosen you
twelve? That's when a great crowd of people that possibly started
with 15 or 20,000 people and they were fed in the most remarkable
ways by God Almighty just creating food that there was so much left
over. And then when he, they were happy
to have the food, but when he declared who he was and how he
saves sinners, they found that that God was offensive to them.
And he said to the twelve, you can go, the door's open. I've chosen you and one of you
is a devil. Jed has heard those warnings
two years before this particular night. But the response that I find
most enlightening and encouraging in so many ways is in verse 21
of John 13. He said that there is someone
going to betray him, that someone is not only just going to betray
him, but he'll lift up and kick his heel against him. And then,
when Jesus has said thus, he was troubled in spirit. May the Lord grant us the mind
of Christ when it comes to these matters, that we don't just walk
away coldly from them. But one of the first lessons
is, isn't it, that Lord, please save me from presumptuous faith. Lord, please save me from people
who wander around this world and to me, myself, and declare
peace to ourselves and others when there is no peace. If God
gives you peace, no one will ever take it away from you. And
God gives you peace, he'll reinforce that peace time and again. Lord,
remember us. Lord, save us. Lord, chasten
us. make us to bow and to kiss and
to come. It's extraordinary. Judas's name
means praise. It comes from the tribe of Judah.
So there were many, many people. So that's why he's continually
called Judas Iscariot. Judas betrayed the Lord with
a kiss. He sold the Lord for 30 pieces
of silver, the price of a slave. And he did exactly what Zechariah
11 verses 11 to 13 were saying. So here in this one evening and
this one particular event we have this extraordinary battle
that so many of us have in our minds of the intersection between
the absolute sovereignty of God, the absolute perfection of His
Word, and it must be fulfilled. Every single word must be accomplished. We have the reality of human
responsibility, we have the mystery of Satan's working, and all of
them come together in this one person and these events on this
dark night. Was Judas just a pawn moved by
the powerful forces of God and Satan? What did Judas do that he wanted
to do? I'd like us to pray that we might just learn some of the
lessons from this. In verse 18, let's look at it. He says, I know him I have chosen,
but the scripture may be fulfilled. The scripture must be fulfilled,
and the scripture is in Psalm 41 verse 9. and God promises. The reason
he does so is that so when the Lord's words are fulfilled, we
might just believe that he is God Almighty and that all of
these things are done under his hand and people are made responsible
by his declaration of the fact that they're responsible. That's
the reason why, isn't it? And verse 31, if you have your
Bibles open in John 13, tells us another reason. When Judas
had gone out into the night with Satan in him, he says, Now is the Son of Man glorified,
and God is glorified in him. Why? So that we will know that
the Lord Jesus Christ is God Almighty and that the Son of Man is glorified.
Let's also remember another lesson from Judas. Where did he go?
Did he go to a bar and get drunk? Did he go to a brothel to satisfy
the lusts of his flesh? He went into the very epicentre
of human, man-made works religion and joined himself with those
people who the Lord Jesus Christ had previously called, in John
chapter 8, the children of the devil. And they all joined hands
together in that wicked conspiracy, doing exactly what they wanted
to do. Listen to Judas's responsibility,
verse 27. It says, that thou doest. He doesn't say you're being coerced
into this. Judas did exactly as Judas wanted
to do. He was uncoerced and uncoopted. He did what he wanted to do.
That thou doest, do quickly. As I read earlier in John 13-18,
he lifted up his heel against me. He did it. Judas did it. Acts chapter 1, if you read the
account there from verse 15 down to 25, it speaks of Judas and
his horrible, horrible end. It says, Judas by transgression,
his transgression, fell that he might go to his own place. The Lord in Luke chapter 22 says,
Behold, the hand of him that betrayed me is with me on the
table, and truly the Son of Man goeth as it was determined. But
woe to that man by whom he is betrayed. It's better if he hadn't
been born, Matthew goes on to say. Did Judas do what Judas
wanted to do? He did, absolutely. He did, absolutely. Was he warned? Yes, he was. Was he forced? No. Almighty. Absolutely. People want to try and reconcile,
put together God's sovereignty and human responsibility. They're
not enemies. They're not enemies. We just
have a problem. We have a problem, not Him. Our response to all of this doesn't
change God's purpose, God's will being done. And the believer
sees these things and is troubled in spirit by trust and says,
Lord, please don't leave me to my will. Please reign over me now and
always. Please keep me as you promised.
Make me to see that you alone make us to differ from one another. The only difference is the difference
of the grace of God. Was Judas 100% responsible? Absolutely yes. Are you 100% responsible for
your sins? Absolutely yes. Can we blame God ever? No, never. See, without these two truths
of human responsibility and God's absolute sovereignty, there won't
ever be a genuine confession of sin. Because if it's not my
fault, what on earth do I need to confess it? What on earth
do I need to come and seek God's mercy and grace and repentance
And without these things, the sovereignty of God being revealed,
there is no true object of faith. Salvation is calling on the name
of the Lord. Call on the name of the Lord, and that's to call
on God in all of his character revealed in the Bible. The issue
again and again is, what do you say of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Judas went to his own place, and our God is absolutely sovereign. If I'm saved, God does everything,
absolutely everything, all the time. And if I'm lost, I'm 100%
responsible for it. There will be silence on the
great day of judgment. Men have an opportunity to speak
now and complain about God. Not then. There'll be silence.
The Lord Jesus Christ remarkably called Judas a friend. He says
in verse 9 of Psalm 41, Yea, mine own familiar friend, in
whom I trusted, which did eat my bread, hath lifted up his
heel against me. So let's try very briefly to
learn some of the lessons from the life of Judas in the Gospel
accounts. He was someone who heard warnings
and never heeded them. The Lord had taught, and taught
so plainly. He had two years to contemplate
the warnings in John Chapter 6. We see, turn with me, in John
Chapter 12, We read of that remarkable meal where Mary anoints the Lord
Jesus Christ's feet. What reason did she have for
rejoicing in the presence of God with Lazarus sitting there
who had been dead for four days and rotting in a tomb? And the
Lord comes back some little time later and Mary took that pound
of ointment of spikenard very crossly and anointed the feet
of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair and the house was filled
with the odour of the ointment. What a glorious evening. The
ointment was there symbolising the burial and the
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then, verse 4, then one of his
disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him,
this is what he said, Why was not this ointment sold for three
hundred pence and given to the poor? He was critical and he was hypocritical. He said, this he said, not that
he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and had the bag
and bear what was in there. He was critical. He judged the
actions of one who loved the Lord and had such a clear reason
to be generous to him. He hated the worship of the Lord
Jesus Christ. In Matthew chapter 26, and you
don't have to turn it, I'll just tell you, you can go and read
it in verse 14, but this particular rebuke that the Lord gave to
Judas was the reason that Judas that night went to the chief
priests, and they were glad when Judas arrived. What a hypocrite to carry on
for this next couple of days with pretended piety and acting
so much like the apostles when this was in his heart. He was
a thief. He did no warnings. He was critical. May God protect
us and preserve us from critical spirits. It is such a thing that
eats away at our souls and eats away at our comfort in the Lord. He judged the actions of others
as being unworthy. He was a thief, he was a covetous
man, and he was a hypocrite, I said. He was insincere, wasn't
he? He just put on a show of piety. He had no respect or reverence
for the Lord Jesus Christ. When Matthew recounts this event
in Matthew 26, All of the apostles say, Lord is it I? All 11 of
them say, Lord is it I? Judas in verse 25 says, Master,
you're a teacher who imparts knowledge. You're not Lord to
me. Judas never referred to the Lord
Jesus Christ as Lord. He was someone who gave him access
to more information. Judas sadly had never been dethroned
from his natural place. We all will be as gods on this
Passover night. This is in the heart of all fallen
men, isn't it really? The words that echo what Satan
says in Isaiah chapter Chapter 14 and as repeated in the garden
in the fall of Adam and Eve and all of us in them, the enemy
said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my lust
shall be satisfied with them, I will draw my sword, my hand
shall destroy them. He was never dethroned from his
natural place as a child of Adam in this world. And he shows that
when he goes into the garden. Where did people kiss the Lord
Jesus Christ? All throughout the Gospel accounts. When Psalm 2 says, you kiss the
Son, lest his wrath be enraged. They kissed him on the feet.
When Judas came to betray the Lord Jesus Christ, he kissed
him on the cheek as an equal. What lessons, what lessons for
us, warnings not heeded, critical spirit, judgmental, covetous,
insincere, Lacking respect and reverence for the Lord Jesus
Christ. Failing to give him the glorious
title of Lord. Who did that? Judas did. And so did I. And so did every one of Adam's
children in this world. If you entertain a thought that
you are better than Judas and not capable of the things that
Judas did, you have a very serious problem with knowing who you
are. And I pray the Lord might show that to you. I love the
story of George Whitfield, used to staying in a house and his
preaching rounds in America and he was a young lady made in the
house. And she was discussing, and he
was discussing the things of the Lord with her, and he turned
to her and said, why don't you pray a prayer? Lord, show me
what I am. And Whitfield came back a week
or 10 days later, and the little maid was gone. And he asked the
people in the house, What happened to her? Where's she gone? And
I said she was in such terrible, terrible distress and anguish
of sorrow. gone away and Whitfield sought
her out and found her and then said, why don't you now pray
that the Lord might show you what a glorious saviour he is,
now that you've had some understanding of what you are. Judas, Judas
Iscariot. Who makes the difference? Who makes you to differ? 2 Corinthians
4 verse 7 Who makes you to differ? And he goes on to say, and he's
quoting Exodus chapter 11 there, it says, Who maketh thee to differ
from another? Who? It's not what makes you
to differ and what knowledge you've gained or what things
you've done. It's a who, for a start. This is salvation. It's
salvation's in a whom. I know whom I have believed. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? And what? Do you have? What hast thou that
thou did not receive? What do you have? Everything
that you have in spiritual life you have received as a gift of
God's free and sovereign grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
if you did receive it as a gift from God Almighty, why dost thou
glory? Why do you boast as if you hadn't
received it, it hadn't come as a gift to you? We are, brothers and sisters,
kept by the power of God through faith. Two men, 12 men behaved
appallingly that night. There's another one that behaved
just as badly as Judas in so many ways. In fact, when Christians
sin, their sins are much worse than the sins of the rest of
the world. Because we sin against light, and we sin against love,
and we sin more openly and more wickedly, and we hide it in better
ways than other people do. But there was another apostle
that night, wasn't there? And he did the most appalling
things. and expressed the greatest pride, didn't he? You're going
to deny me three times, Peter. No, I won't. Within hours, he
was cursing and swearing in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ
and saying, I've never known him, and I can show you by my
behavior that I've never had anything to do with him at all. That's why this opening verse
in John 13 is so remarkable, isn't it? Having loved his own
in the world, he loved them to the end. Who made the difference? You can read it in Luke's account.
The Lord Jesus Christ at that same supper says Satan's asked
to sift you. But, what is the one thing that
stops the sifting? Reaching the culmination of divine
judas. But, I have prayed for you. Does he ever stop praying for
his people? Isn't it remarkable that right now, seated on the throne of glory
in heaven is someone who is interceding for us and saying with his hands
and with his side this is what it cost. The price has been paid
and he's praying for us. He's praying for us. Who makes
the difference? The Lord Jesus Christ. How much of it? 100%. Did Peter need his feet
washing? Thank God for a saviour who washes
us clean, every whit, clean completely in his own blood. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do Pray that
you would just cause us to know what we are, Heavenly Father. But most especially, in knowing
what we are, to be made by that, to know how great and how glorious we need and we have and we pray
heavenly father that you would allow us by your grace to take
those elements that remind us of a broken body that was broken
for us and blood that was shed for us Oh our Father, open our
eyes and cause us to see from your word what it is to eat and
drink. remembering the Lord's death
and commemorating it until he come again. Come Lord Jesus,
teach us and guide us, save us and protect us. We pray in your
name and for the glory of our great and sovereign God. Amen.