Luke chapter 22 Verse 21 Luke 22, 21, 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 began to inquire among
themselves which of them it was that should do this thing. Now
think about verses 20 and 21 together. I didn't read verse
20 just now, but it was what we looked at last time that we
were together on Sunday morning. Look at these together. Likewise,
also the cup, the Lord took cup of wine after supper saying,
this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for
you. And then there's that word upon
which a lot hinges in the scripture, but Behold the hand of him that
betrayeth me is with me on this very table the hand of him That
betrayeth me the the Lord and his disciples. They just went
from sunshine to shadow in an instant didn't they? Verse 20
describes just about the brightest most wonderful scene imaginable
Can you imagine sitting at the table with the Son of God and
Him saying, this is my blood, drink all of it. This is the
new covenant. This is how you're saved. This
is why God expects nothing of you, because I've accomplished
it. This is why your sins are gone, because I shed my blood
for you. This is it right here, this is my blood. Drink it, drink
all of it. That's about as beautiful as
it gets. Can you think of anything more precious, more special,
and more uplifting and enjoyable than celebrating the greatest
thing ever done with the one that did it? And he did it for you. He said,
this is my blood which is shed for you. And the result of him
doing that for you is that you will be forever with him in perfect
glory and happiness. Forever with him. Then in the
next moment, verse 21, the darkest possible subject is brought up. The betrayal and death of him
who is altogether lovely. The brutal, ugly murder of the
prince of life. A man who was a devil. And the
Lord called him a devil. I don't believe the Lord ever
exaggerated, do you? He said, Judas the devil, the
son of perdition, who was highly favored and honored by the Lord,
was being chosen as one of his 12 disciples. And the Lord, of
course, declared all along, I've chosen you 12, but one of you
is a devil. He knew who it was from the beginning who would
betray him. But that devil is gonna sell the Lord out. He's
sitting at the table with the light of the world and had walked
in the light, but his heart was full of darkness. And for him
was reserved the blackness of darkness forever, and rightly
so, because he was about to commit the most horrible thing ever
committed. We go from the most wonderful thing ever done to
the most horrible thing ever. And what is amazing is that they're
the same thing. They're the same thing. The death
of Christ Jesus, the Son of God. They celebrated it together in
one verse and it was ominously foretold in the next. How can
the same thing be the very brightest glory ever displayed by God and
at the same time be the darkest of evils ever perpetrated? I
believe the answer to that question is found in Genesis 50 and verse
20. Let me read it to you. You'll
know this verse as soon as I start it. In Genesis 50, verse 20,
where Joseph is speaking to his brothers who had left him for
dead and who were now being saved by him, his brothers who had
betrayed him, just like Judas betrayed the Son of God, and
they had left him for dead. They hated him so bad they wanted
him gone. But here Joseph is speaking to
them as their savior. And here's what he said. As for
you, you thought evil against me, but God meant it for good. God meant it unto good to bring
to pass as it is this day to save much people alive. Judas had nothing but evil in
his heart. But God meant it unto good and
he's gonna save much people. He has saved much people from
their sins. By that same blood, what was
in Judas's heart was the most evil of all evils. It just is
now, that's the condemnation. It was enmity and hatred itself. What was in his heart? The death
of Jesus Christ. What was in Christ's heart was
pure, infinite, divine love. And remember, the Lord has given
us some good things now, but the greatest of them is love.
And what's in the heart of the Lord Jesus is pure, infinite,
divine love. What was it that was in his sinless
heart? The death of Jesus Christ. Now, this is us and God. It's not Judas and him. This
is all of mankind and God Almighty. Think about that now. This is
our heart and his heart on display. Evil and good. Evil's not a principle. Good's not a principle. Evil
is somebody and so is good. And here they are. It's you and
him. When the scripture says the carnal
mind is enmity against God, this is what it's talking about. Original
sin is not just a doctrine, it's a reality, and it's played out
here in our text. It's taken to its fruition here
in our text. The enmity that we're born with,
when it is finished, when it's fulfilled, We've killed God. That's what we've done. And they're
in the hearts of sinners. It's not just here in our text,
it's there in you and in me, in the hearts of sinners all
over this world. Do you want to know what sin
is? Look what happened here. Sin is Judas and us betraying
and murdering God's son in our hearts. And you want to know
what salvation is? Here it is, too. It's the heart
of God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in which abides the divine
love that bought us at infinite price. He's loved us with an
everlasting love. And therefore, with loving kindness,
he drew us. It's the Lord Jesus Christ betrayed
and being crucified on a Roman cross between two thieves. That's
what love is. That's what goodness is. That's
what grace is. And think about why he did that
now. Because make no mistake, he did that. He did that. He said nobody, the instruments
with which he was crushed were sinners like you and I and Judas. But the hand that crushed him
was God's. no man takes my life from me
he said I lay it down on myself and this is the gospel it's us
and him and it's the gospel now you say well the good parts the
gospel yeah but here's the thing you're not going to give a hoot
about the good news until you know the bad news the bad news and the good news
we have it here in two verses The bad news is you sold out
God's son and murdered him in your heart. You've been doing
that as long as you've known that there was a God. When is
the age of accountability? I don't know. But as soon as
you knew there was a God and who he was, you hated him. That's
when it was for you. The good news is God meant it
for good. to save much people alive. The question is, will you die
forever in hell for murdering the prince of life? Or will you
live forever with him, washed in that precious sin-atoning
blood? Now, we can look into all of
the doctrines that men, you know, make complicated. The doctrines
of Christ, when I'm talking about doctrine versus a person, I want
you to understand what I mean. Usually when people talk about
their doctrine, they're not talking about this. This is the perfect,
clear, plain, simple, gospel of God concerning his son Jesus
Christ. Every page of that book right
there says one simple plain clear thing. Go to Christ. Flee to
Christ. Christ is your hope. Christ is
salvation. You need righteousness. There
he is. You need a sin offering. There he is. You need peace.
There he is. Behold the Lamb of God that can
take away your sin now. It's not complicated. And you can talk about now, does
God love everybody? People write books about the
love of God. And there's nothing wrong with
that. I've read them. I've read a lot of them. Read some real
good books on that. But here's the simple thing.
You can find out whether God loves everybody or not. But what
you really need to know is, does he love you? Does he love you? And how in the world could he
possibly love you? Will you die forever in hell
for murdering God's son or will you live forever with him washed
in that precious blood? If that matters to you at all,
I have a message for you this morning from him, from the Prince
of Life whom you crucified. That's who, that's who was being
preached to now in Acts chapter 4 verse 10. Here's the message.
If it matters to you, the prince of life whom you crucified, and
this is the message, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
you'll be saved. Though you richly deserve the
blackness of darkness forever, though you are born a devil,
you say, well, no, Judas was special. He said this to Simon
too, didn't he? Simon was the one who said, Lord,
To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. But when Simon put himself at cross purposes with this right
here, with Christ crucified, the Lord Jesus said to him, get
thee behind me, Satan. Now that's us. We savor not the
things that be of God by nature, but the things that be of men. But listen, We deserve the blackness of darkness
with Judas forever. You and I do too. But there's
mercy for sinners with God. There is mercy. And it's found
in his son. It's found in the very one whom
we crucified. I don't know if irony is the
right word there, but think about this. Turn with me to Acts chapter
four. I believe that's the right word.
There is an irony in this. The one whom we killed is the
one that's got to give us life. The one that we hate the most
now. People hate each other. That's
pretty evident right now. People hate each other. Everybody's saying, well, black
people hate white, white people hate black. No, people just hate
people. They just do. They hate everybody. We hate
people. But the only reason we hate people is because we hate
God. We hate him the most. That's just us by nature now.
We'd have destroyed ourselves a long time ago if not for his
temporal grace upon us, his restraining hand, whatever you want to call
it. But listen, we're shut up to
the very one that we despise the most, and your only hope
is to love him, and to believe on him, and to trust him. Acts
4.10, be it known unto you all and to all the people of Israel
that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified,
whom God raised from the dead, even by him that this man stand
here before you whole. He's preaching Christ, isn't
he? You're all amazed at what's happening here. What you need
to be amazed about is him. He's the one that did this. Listen,
this is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which
has become the head of the corner. This is the prince of life whom
you crucified. That's what they preached in
another place. You killed the prince of life.
But listen, there is none other name under heaven given among
men whereby we must be saved. You're shut up. to the very one,
you've got to go to the last one you'll ever go to. You've
got to love the last one you'll ever love. You've got to trust
the last one you'll ever trust. You gotta bow to him who is the
very last one you will ever submit to. From verse 11, now look at what
he said there. This is the stone which was set
at naught of you builders, which has become the head of the corner.
Do you want the bad news or do you want the worst news? The
bad news is you killed him. The worst news is God put him
on the throne. You see that? The one that you
despised and spit on and tortured and killed in the most humiliating,
way that you could think of to kill him. He's in charge now,
and he'll do whatever he wants to do with you. That's who we're
coming to now. But then there's good news. The
word salvation appears in the next verse, but look at the context
in which it appears. All of the language of the verse
is negative. You see that? The words neither
and none It's talking about salvation. There's salvation in Christ,
but all of the language warns that there's salvation only in
Christ. You see that? There's no salvation
in anybody else. For there is no other name under
heaven. And you know why it's that way?
Because you're gonna take refuge anywhere else you can but him.
What did I say? The last place you're gonna go
now She spent all she had, didn't she? It was only worse. And then
she went to him. You're gonna do the same thing.
You'll take refuge anywhere you can before you'll ever flee to
the rock of ages. But if God is merciful to you,
you will flee to him sooner or later. Neither and none. And this is the miracle that
has to take place now. One who is by nature enmity. And think about that word by
nature. We get that, we use that term a lot in preaching because
Paul said, I believe in first Corinthians chapter two, that
by nature we're the children of wrath even as others. Who
were by nature the children of wrath even as others. By nature. What does that mean? The way
you're born into this world. your natural birth. That's why the
Lord said you got to be born all over again. If you're going
to see God and see his kingdom and believe on Christ. Because
your first birth was you were born dead spiritually in trespasses
and sins. So by nature, think of it that
way. Think of it as, oh boy, back
from the beginning, how I was when I came into this world.
But also think of it this way. Whatever you are by nature, you
plum are. You just are. It's what you are.
A dog is a dog and a cat is a cat. And they're not the same, are
they? They're different. They're not the same. A fish
is a fish. A bird is a bird. A fish ain't
ever going to fly. You know, they call them flying
fish because they can kind of like jump up and they're coming
down pretty quick, aren't they? A bird can just take off. They're not the same. And we are by nature the children
of God's wrath. Enmity against God. But he who
is enmity by nature against God and His Christ has one hope.
And that's faith in Christ and love for Him. Love for Him. The rebel against God's Son has
one hope of salvation, that's to bow. What you are is a rebel
and you've got to bow. I can't emphasize that enough.
That's why the Lord said, with men it is impossible, but with
God all things are possible. God has got to change your nature. Got to change your nature. Now the other thing I want us
to consider is in verse 22. I doubt if there's anybody here
this morning who does not believe that God has predetermined everything
that comes to pass. Everybody here I'm sure believes
that. Ephesians 111, he worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will. He's done it all. He purposed
it. He said, I've purposed it. I'll also bring it to pass. Again,
not complicated, is it? Books and books and books written
on the purpose of God. I'm sure they're good. Some of
them are. I know. I've read them. But it's
not complicated. I've purposed it. I'll do it.
Anybody got to think about that one for a while? Let's stop and
think about that. God said, I've purposed it. And
you know what he's purposed? All things. After the counsel
of his own, all things. He said, I'll do it and nobody
can stop me or even question me. I'm pretty sure y'all believe
that. Pretty sure you do. And that's good because I'm not
here to convince you of it this morning. But I do want us to
glory in it a little bit. I want us to rejoice in it. I
want us to boast in Him a while. Paul said, God forbid that I
should glory, saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
that cross is the fulfillment of the predeterminate counsel,
the predestinating grace, the eternal preordained purpose of
God's grace toward His people in Christ Jesus. That's what
that, it's the fulfillment of that. And I want us to rejoice
in that a little bit. It's a covenant ordered in all
things. And sure, and he said that cup
right there, that's the covenant. That's the covenant. The lamb
slain from the foundation of the world, that's the covenant
of grace. Just about everybody believes
that God knows everything, including the future. God knows
everything that's gonna happen. The ones that we call Armenians,
you may have heard the words Calvinists and Armenians. It's
not Armenians. Armenians, I've seen that so
many times. People say, well, you're nothing but an Armenian.
Well, all that means is you were born in Armenia. It doesn't have
anything to do with your doctrine. Armenians, because of a man called
Jacob Arminius, you've heard of the five points of Calvinism.
Well, they were in response to the five points that Jacob Arminius
came up with, all of which were anti-Christ, every bit of it.
Well, Jacob Arminius, they say that God, and those who believe
that nonsense, they say that God looked down into the future
to see what would happen in his world now. Think about that.
This is a world of things and people that he made And he had
to look down into the future to see what was going to happen
in his world so that he could ordain things the right way according
to what happened in the future in his world. Think about the
foolishness of that. Don't think about it very long
because it's not worth it. It's not worth the time. For example, he saw who would
believe. He looked down to see, is old
Chris going to believe in me? Well, I better purpose his salvation.
That's what they believe. I kid you not. It sounds impossible,
doesn't it, that anybody would think that. That's exactly what
they think. He purposed their salvation based
on their foreseen faith. That's how an evil sinner explains
away the electing grace of God because he will not bow to God
as God. That's how he does it right there. Our text this morning is a problem
for them, along with all of the word of God, by the way, because
this doesn't just teach that God knew who would betray him.
He did know that. He did know that. It says in
John 6, 64, he said, there are some of you that believe not.
For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not
and who should betray him. He knew. He knew who would believe,
he knew who wouldn't believe, and he knew who would betray
him. But how does he know what will happen? By looking into
the future and saying, wait a minute, what happens? Let's find out
what happens. No, of course not. Look at verse
22 again. And truly the son of man goeth
as it was determined. As it was determined. But woe unto that man by whom
he is betrayed. That word determined means to
a point. to decree, to ordain. Who ordained that God's Son would
be betrayed by Judas and crucified at Calvary? Who ordained that? Acts 2.22, you're familiar with
this scripture too. Ye men of Israel, hear these
words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by
miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst
of you, as you yourselves also know, him being delivered by the determinant
counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken, and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain, whom
God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it
was not possible that he should be holding of it. It was by God's pleasure and
purpose that his son was crucified and
slain. You remember he kept telling
his disciples, the Son of Man, we've got to go up to Jerusalem
because the Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands
of sinners. and crucified and he's gonna
rise again the third day. Did he know that because he was
a fortune teller? Or because he's the one that
ordained it? You don't have to read far into
scripture to answer that question now. You don't, you don't have
to go far. Those, listen to this now. Isaiah
53, 10. By the way, and this has been
bugging me because I told you a while ago, it was 1 Corinthians chapter
2. It was Ephesians chapter 2 where Paul said, you were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others. I wanted to correct that.
But it was by God's pleasure, Isaiah 53.10, listen, yet it
pleased the Lord to bruise him. That word is crush. It's talking
about the same thing our Lord's talking about. When he holds
that cup and said this is for you, And he is betrayed. He's sitting at this very, his
hand is on the table with me. The one who's going to betray
me. Because it was determined. Because God had purposed this. It pleased the Lord to crush
his son. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper. It's by God's pleasure that this
is done, and God's pleasure is done by this. It's because of his pleasure
that the Lord was crucified, and when the Lord was crucified,
God was well pleased, utterly satisfied with the righteousness
The perfection, the spotless lamb was slain. And with that
precious blood as payment for all of our sin, he's satisfied.
Christ is righteous enough and he is worth enough to pay all
my sin debt. He's salvation by God's pleasure. And listen, those for whom he
died were chosen and ordained of God. The fact that he died
was ordained of God We just read it. Those for whom he died were
chosen and ordained of God. That was determined too. Second
Thessalonians 2.13, but we are bound to give thanks always to
God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. Ephesians 1, 1 through
11. I don't believe I'll turn there.
You know what, we're not meeting as often now. Let's turn over
there. Let's take a little bit longer. I'm already at Ephesians
1 because I was thinking that when I said that those words
by nature, you've heard me and a lot of other preachers that
we listen to say that by nature, by nature, this is how it is
by nature. That's because it's in the Bible. This is how we
are. We're the children of wrath by
nature because we're evil by nature. Because we're godless
by nature, because we don't know, we can't possibly know God. Neither
can he know them, because I'm pretty sure that is in 1 Corinthians
2. Neither can he know them, because they're spiritually discerned. By nature, we have to consider
what we are by nature, and then we see what God has accomplished
in giving us life. and giving us favor with him.
I just want to read verses one through 11. I want us to think
about this now. I want us to glory again. I want us to glory
in the cross, as Paul encouraged us and exhorted us
to do, beseeched us to do. Glory in that cross, and that
cross is the fulfillment of the ordered in all things insure,
predeterminate counsel and foreknowledge, ordaining grace of God, the eternal
grace of God in Christ. It's settled. This is not, now
God's done all he can do and now it's up to you. It's up in
the air, you know, until you do something. No, it's not. No,
it was done a long time ago. It was accomplished by him. Look
at verse one, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of
God to the saints, which are at Ephesus and to the faithful
in Christ Jesus. He's writing to God's elect.
Grace be to you and peace from God, our father and from the
Lord Jesus Christ and blessed be God. Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. He said, I
wish grace and peace to you in your experience in this world,
but his grace and peace were given to us a long time ago,
in an eternal sense. He hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love. That's what it says
there in Hebrews where it said, He hath perfected forever them
which are sanctified, holy and without blame before Him. How
did He accomplish that? Having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to
the good pleasure of His will. This is accomplished by His will.
It was determined as it was determined. That's the name of the message
this morning, right from our text, as it was determined. He's betrayed as it was determined.
He went of his own free will. The one who has a free will was
willing to lay down his life for his sheep. It was determined
as it was determined. And those for whom he did it,
or as it was determined. He predestinated us unto the
adoption of children, verse five, by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will. Man's will wasn't consulted in
it. Aren't you glad? I'm glad it don't depend on my
will. My will is depraved. It says concerning the crucifixion
that they released the Lord Jesus unto the people's will. And they did what we did. There's
our will. Here's His will. To the praise
of the glory of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved. And you can see the progressive
thought being expressed here. He's talking about us being accepted
in the Beloved. How are you going to talk about that without talking
about His blood? How are we accepted in the beloved
in whom we have redemption through his blood? There we are in our
text again. We never left it There it is this cup likewise
also the cup and after they had drank he said the hand of him
who Shall betray me is on the table with me and he goeth as
it was determined and All of this, all of the blood, and how,
and why, and what, is by his predeterminate counsel, his predestinating
grace, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness
of sin. This is some of those all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places he was just talking about. Redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his
grace, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according
to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself. Now
he talking about the will of God before this in this verse,
he did all this according to his will, right? He redeemed
a people according to his will and then it says there in verse
9 He was willing to do something else too. He was willing to let
you know about it That's what the gospel is it's
just letting you know what he did for you if it don't apply
to you then Then it don't But this is the gospel is him telling
his people what he did for him That's what it is which he hath purposed in himself.
Verse 10, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might
gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in
heaven and which are on earth, even in him in whom also we have
obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel.
of his own will. You see how we started there
in our text as it was determined. Determined by who? By God. According
to his will it came to pass and that applies not just to Judas
but to everything around to Christ himself and what he came and
what he did. All the details of course were
preordained because the end, the means come to pass and bring
to pass the end which was also all of it is according to his
will. Listen to Acts 13 46 Paul and
Barnabas waxed bold in the preaching they said it was necessary that
the word of God the gospel should first have been spoken to you
Jews but seeing you put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy
of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath
the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light
of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends
of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this,"
now listen, he just quoted Old Testament scripture. I'm gonna
set you up a light to the Gentiles. And it just came to pass. When
the Gentiles heard what he said, They were glad. It was like a
light shining out of darkness and glorified the word of the
Lord. And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. Is that hard to understand? That's so simple, isn't it? That's
so simple. People say, well, we don't teach
that in Sunday school because that's kind of deep. No, it's
not. I want your five-year-old to
understand that God does what he says he's going to do. And
I want him to know what he said he was going to do. And I just say five years, I
think they can understand earlier than that, don't you? It's not
complicated. Are they going to understand all the depths of
it? No, and neither do you. How old are you? That old blind
man in John 9, he didn't know hardly anything. He knew who
made him see. Everything is either in God's
hands or it's in ours. Now, you think about that. I know I mock this a lot because
it's worthy to be mocked. God's done all He can do. Now
it's up to you. It's up to you. It's all up to
you. That means it's in your hands now. It's either in His
or it's in yours. I read something a couple of
days ago, I believe the day before yesterday, written by a fellow
I've known for many, many years probably, I don't know, almost
40 years. And he wrote this, and it sort
of broke my heart. He said this, the opportunities
that God gives me are his gift to me. You know where this is
going, don't you? I just read that part and I started
cringing already. Sure enough, the next part is
this, what I make of those opportunities are my gift to God. Do you really think God needs
anything from you? He said if I needed something,
would I ask you? My gift to God. That's heartbreaking,
isn't it? That's heartbreaking. If all you get out of that is
I know better than that, I think that's a bad reaction. It's heartbreaking. Everything is either up to you
or it's up to God. Let me ask you a couple of questions
about that in closing. Which is more appropriate? Which one is how you think it
ought to be? You know, things ought to be, it ought to be this
way, it ought to be up to us. Is that the way you think? Oh,
God forbid that he violate our free will. I can't even say free
will without doing that. I can't even say it. Which is more appropriate? Do
you think that the God who made everything and knows everything
and is infinitely wise should be in charge or sinners? Honestly. I've got another question
for you. Which is more hopeful? Which is more hopeful? Do you
feel good about God being sovereign or man? Have you seen the news lately? I saw the news a long time ago
by God's grace. I haven't learned anything from
this. If you think about what that, you know, people say, well,
I'm just in a watch and learn mode. What did you really learn
from what's going on right now? Did you learn that it's bad to
kill somebody? that it's bad to watch somebody
gasping for breath and watch them die and you're doing it
and you don't stop. Did you learn that was bad? I
didn't learn that. Did you learn it's bad to run
around just destroying stuff because you're mad? I learned
that from my mama when I was really young. I'm just in a watch and learn
mode. Really? We better get in bowing mode.
That's what we better get in. We've got one hope and it ain't
people. It ain't people. It ain't that things are gonna
get better. That's not my hope. Our hope is Christ. It always
has been. Before I knew it, it was. So which is more hopeful? that
he's on the throne or that he's left everything up to you? Which is more comforting? How are you going to sleep at
night thinking, well, I believe there's good in everybody? I
think this will just turn around. People will realize, you know,
if we just love them enough, you know, it'll all change. And I don't want to, you know
I don't get political from the pulpit, but I do want to, I want
to tell the truth. I want to tell the truth. Somebody
said you don't stop violence by more violence. That's exactly
how God's going to do it. That's exactly how he's going
to do it. He's going to stop it by burning them all up and throwing this world away. How else are you going to do
it? Are you going to love them enough to make them stop? I wouldn't
try that. I think we're going to have to
look to the only one in whom is any hope at all. And the good
news is all hope is in Him. All of it. Well, are you comforted by the idea
that God would never violate your free will? Some people are.
That's very comforting. Oh, I'm just so thankful He wouldn't
violate our free will. Does that comfort you? Are you comforted by the fact
that He absolutely always has and always will do contrary to
man's will? Are you comforted by the fact
that nothing is left up to you or any sinner? That comforts
me. I'll tell you this, the Lord
Jesus Christ is just that. He's the Lord. He saves whoever
he wants to save. He said, I'll have mercy on whom
I'll have mercy and whom he will, he hardeneth. It is given by
him to his sheep to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God
and to others it is not given, Matthew 13, 11. John 5, 21, for as the father
raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the son quickeneth
whom he will. Why do some live spiritually
and some don't? Some die. He told the Pharisees,
he said, you're going to die in your sins. There was no if attached to that.
He said, because you believe not on me, you shall die in your
sins. Why do some live and some die?
Well, it says he gives life to whoever he wants to. Does that
answer your question? And think about this. This is
the eternal son of God who changes not who said this. Whoever he
wants to give life to this morning is who he wanted to give life
to before he made this world. He don't change. Same ones. And He'll give it to them. That's our hope. As it was determined. If it was Him that determined
it, then that's the gospel. And it was. Most of the 12, think
about this. In the next verse, the disciples
begin to wonder among themselves. And we're not going to talk about
that. I may preach a message on that next time. But the disciples
begin to wonder among themselves who it was that should betray
him. And I'll tell you this, Judas is not the only one. They
all forsook him, didn't they? In that hour, they all forsook
him. They didn't all betray him like Judas did, but I'll tell
you this, only one of the 12 but not the only one in the world.
Judas was the only one of the 12 that betrayed him, out and
out betrayed him, but he's not the only one in the world. You and I will either betray
him or we'll believe on him. There's nothing in between that.
You'll either hate him or you'll love him. You remember when we
talked about why Judas did this? Because the Lord corrected him
in front of everybody and it made him mad, didn't it? He said,
you leave her alone. You leave her alone. Your religion
is not only foolish, it's blasphemous. She did this for me. She did a good work on me. You
leave her alone. And he went out and began from
that moment to seek how he might betray him. That's our problem. We hate God's son. You mark it
down. That's man's problem. All the
stuff you see in the news is symptoms of that. And you either hate him or you
love him this morning now. You'll despise and reject him
or you will love him and you'll bow and believe on him. Now listen, think about this.
Most of the 12 were not Judas. Well, that's kind of obvious,
Chris. Yeah, I agree. Most of the 12 were not Judas,
but most of this world is. Lord is it I. Believe on, bow
to, come to, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and remember what
he said, him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. We haven't forgotten the first
part of that now either. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And I'm not adding this, I'm
just saying this in between here. As it was determined. Isn't that
right? All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. As it was determined. And him
that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. So what's our reaction to that?
How are you going to receive that this morning? Boy, we better
figure out who he died for and who he didn't die for. No. Just
come to him. Just come to him. Just bow to
him. Believe on him. Fall in love with him. When you
hear about him, you'll either cringe. Well, I don't know about
that. That doesn't sound fair. or you'll say truth, Lord. Truth. And I sure do need to eat at
your table one way or the other. All right, let's pray.