I felt like it was only fair
to Miss Nancy to say that if a person comes here a certain
number of times, we don't ever let them leave. So just so you
know, y'all let her know. I'm not sure how close you are
to that point. I'll have to check on it. I'll
let you know. We love having you here, Miss Nancy. And it's
good to be here with all of you tonight. Are we back on our reading
schedule? Does anybody know that they're
reading tonight for sure? Let's everybody check and see
where we're at. I haven't looked at a calendar in a while. What
year is this? It doesn't matter. I'll read
our text. Luke 22. I shouldn't have brought it up.
Luke 22 verse 3 what we'll read from verse 1 You remember we're talking about
Judas and The title of the message was friend and devil. This will
be part 2 and unusual for us to have a part 2 but we'll See
a few more things about that. Chapter 22 verse 1, Now the Feast
of Unleavened Bread drew nigh, which is called the Passover.
And the chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill him,
the Lord, for they feared the people. Then entered Satan into
Judas, surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve.
And he went his way. I didn't comment on that last
time, but notice it says Satan entered into him. He didn't go
Satan's way. He went his way. It's the same
thing. It's important to understand. The
reason Satan enters people and controls them to whatever extent
the Lord allows him to is because Satan has something in us. Scripture
clearly says he didn't have anything in the Lord. He couldn't tempt
the Lord with anything. He didn't have anything in him.
He does in us though. He's got a kindred spirit in
us. He communed with the chief priests and captains how he might
betray him unto them and they were glad and covenanted to give
him money and he promised and sought opportunity to betray
him unto them in the absence of the multitude. Let's ask the
Lord to bless us this evening. Father, thank you again for bringing
us together and for all your many blessings, Lord. What a
time to gather and just count before thee the multitude of
blessings that you bestowed upon us, your people. How truly privileged
we are to be counted among your church. Pray you'd meet with us tonight,
Lord, and teach us by your Holy Spirit. We can't do anything. We can't learn anything. We can't
know anything without your grace. We need you to reveal yourself
to us and show us your way. We know that it's Christ, but
Lord, how can we know him or of him or the things of him without
you revealing it to us, your light, your scriptures, your
gospel. Thank you for him and for all
that he is to us, and may we worship. May we just bow tonight
and worship, and forget everything else, all of the vanity that
often occupies our thoughts, and fix our hearts upon the Savior
tonight. His precious name. Amen. Now it's just in very, very brief
review, this being part two of the study on Luke 22, three through
six on Judas, the subject friend and devil. The Lord called him
his friend, but he also said he was a devil from the beginning. One of the I guess the key thing
that we saw in the first part and If somebody's hearing this
for the first time they could go back and listen to the first
one but one of the key things was simply that Satan having
entered into Judas Didn't cause Judas to be or do any of the
things that this world associates with Satan. I The simple result
of satanic possession was he betrayed the Son of God. He despised
the Son of God. He counted Christ as expendable. He saw money as being more valuable
than him. In fact, we're going to see something
tonight that I think is key. He didn't just You know, people
can dismiss the Lord and just kinda like, like they do a lot
of other things. It's just not important until
they're confronted with him. And then when you can't dismiss
him anymore, when you can't just out of hand shrug off the Lord
Jesus, you're either gonna fall in love with him or you're gonna
hate him, one of the two. And we're gonna see how Judas,
we're gonna see some more about Judas. Turn to John chapter 12. Because he actually walked with
the Son of God. He couldn't just dismiss him.
And we see that that's part of it, that he just wasn't worth
anything to him. It didn't mean anything to him. But there was more to it than
that. Look at John 12, 1. Then Jesus, six days before the
Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, which had been dead,
whom he raised from the dead. And there they made him a supper,
and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the
table with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment,
of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus. and
wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with
the odor of the ointment. Then saith one of his disciples,
Judas Iscariot." Now, we read another similar account to this
in the previous message, but it didn't identify who it was.
It was particularly, and others may have chimed in, but particularly
Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him. And
here's what he said, why was not this ointment sold for 300
pence and given to the poor? Now we see what we've already
seen, that the Lord just didn't mean anything to him. He just
didn't mean, here's, this woman is doing something clearly, an
expression of love for the Lord Jesus Christ. Deep love for him
and adoration and humility before him and that didn't mean anything
to Judas. It meant nothing to him This he said not because he cared
for the poor and religion they do that don't they they talk
about they They call it virtue signaling now, I don't like what
does that even mean? It's just bragging, isn't it? It's being proud before other
people and looking down on them for not being as good as you
are. Well, if it was up to me, we would have given this to the
poor. That would have made a lot more sense. Religion does that. And it's not because they give
a hoot for the poor. That's clearly revealed here.
Look, they have ulterior motives just like Judas did. It says,
he said that not because he cared for the poor, but because he
was a thief and he had the bag. He was the treasurer. He had
the bag of money for the group. And he bare what was put therein. Then said Jesus, you leave her
alone. I love that, don't you? Leave her alone. You know, when
the Lord was talking to his disciples about religion, do you remember
what he said about them? Leave them alone. And when he's talking
to a fake, phony, religious idiot, talking about us, he says to
him, you leave them alone. That's how that works. Got nothing to do with them. You leave her alone. Against
the day of my burying has she kept this for the poor. You have
with you always. Always you have with you, but
me you have not always. And we see here in this account
how Judas, he second-guessed, didn't he, what somebody else
did. Somebody else did something that
the Lord counted as precious. that the Lord called a good work.
We're going to read a little bit more about that in a minute.
But the Lord defended her. But Judas was judging her. What did you do that for? That
wasn't the right thing to do. That was a waste. That was a
lot better. You could have done a lot better
with what you had than that. And that's typical of those who
are religious but godless. And so we see that there. That's
satanic, isn't it? That's satanic. Adam and Eve
were obeying what God said and Satan said, are you sure that's
the right way to handle this? Pretty much what he said, wasn't
it? Is that what he said? Are you sure that's what he meant
by that? Because this is good food. It's desirable. He made himself a judge of what
is good and right with the Lord standing right there. Rather
than just deferring to the Lord, if somebody needed to be corrected,
did you think it was Judas' place to do that or the Lord Jesus
Christ that's standing right over there? Which do you think
it was appropriate to judge the matter? They didn't need Judas's input.
That is a living version of Romans 14, four. You know what I'm fixing
to read, don't you? You want to see what it looks
like? That's what we just read it. Here's what Romans 14, four. Who are you that judges another
man's servant? To his own master he standeth
or falleth. There's her master standing right
there and she's, he's her judge, not you, Judas. Why are you judging? She's not your servant. She's
not accountable to you for what she does with that spike nerd. Yeah, he shall be holding up
for God is able to make him stand. And what are you going to say
about that? That's what that looks like.
It looks like Judas and those like him religious. Oh, we could
have done something so good with that. We could have helped people,
poor people. But we also see that Judas really
didn't care for the poor. Self-righteous, religious people
never really care about what they say they care about. You
know what they care about? Going to heaven when they die.
They care about themselves. That's what they care about.
They do good deeds, supposedly, in order to benefit themselves.
Judas was a thief and so is everybody. that's religious, a religious
pretender, but they're in it for themselves. Even their giving. You would think giving would
be one thing that would be sacred in worship. Give, not expecting
anything in return. You know what they say? Oh, if
you give, that's a seizure plan. You're going to get a whole bunch
back. That's giving? All of their religion is phony.
It's self-interest. He wasn't a giver, he was a taker. And all who give anything in
the name of religion are thieves of God's glory. You think about
that now, thieves of the glory of God. Self-righteousness in
any form. Self-interest, promotion of self,
denies the necessity of Christ. If I see myself as good because
of anything I've done, then that supersedes the necessity for
Christ. Why did Christ die if I can do
something good? Rob's God of His very glory. But it's with a little bit further
study that we see I think the heart of the problem. Look at
Matthew chapter 26. Matthew chapter 26 and verse
6. Matthew 26 6 Now when Jesus was
in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper there came unto him
a woman having an alabaster box a Very precious ointment and
poured it on his head as he sat at meat But when his disciples
saw it they had indignation saying to what purpose is this waste
it says the disciples there Because they were probably all thinking
that Don't you think? Maybe not for exactly the same
reasons that Judas was, it wasn't all, but we know it was Judas
particularly that was verbal about it. To what purpose is
this waste? For this ointment might have
been sold for much and given to the poor. When Jesus understood
it, he said unto them, why trouble ye the woman? For she hath wrought
a good work on me. A good work on me. I'm pretty sure that's what a
good work is. Now does that have to do with
others too? He said when you've done it to
the least of one of these my brethren you've done it to me.
So yes it does. But it better have something
to do with him and not just you getting to heaven when you die. She wrought a good work upon
me. For you have the poor always with you, but me you have not
always. For in that she hath poured this
ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. Verily I say
unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole
world, there shall also this that this woman hath done be
told for a memorial. Her that's coming to pass that
prophecy came true tonight, didn't it? Then one of the twelve here
we go called Judas Iscariot Went unto the chief priests and said
unto them. What will you give me and I will
deliver him unto you Now think about what happened here He just got his hat handed to
him by the Lord and He just got rebuked in front of everybody,
because we know it was Judas that was the one that came out
and said it from the other account. And it says, then, right then,
when the Lord called him out, when the Lord revealed what was
in his heart, and that though he'd looked to everybody else
like the good guy, the Lord put his finger on the truth. Religion
is not good. The sickly smiles on their faces
and the good deeds that they pretend to do, it's satanic is
what it is. It's trampling underfoot the
blood of God's son to do anything whereby you think you're recommending
yourself to God. If you keep the first tenet of
the law, or any of the rest of it, to justify yourself, Christ
shall profit you nothing. Christ profiting you nothing
has a name and its name is Judas. How can you walk with God's Son
and hear him teach and not be profited? How can you preach
the gospel yourself and not be profited? How can you be rebuked by him
like this and not profit from it? You know, a true believer
says it's good to be rebuked. It's a kindness to be rebuked
by a friend. It's a blessing. No profit. And clearly the Lord's rebuke
made him angry. Because it says, then he went
to the chief priest, he said, how much will you give me? Think about Remember we said
this is tragic. It's scary to think about Satan
entering somebody. It's a scary thing and it's a
horrible thing to see. But how sad also, how sad. He left the one who made him
and everybody else and everything and the world and the universe
and all the silver he said is mine and all the gold is mine.
He walked away from him and went to the world, went to the enemies
of God and said, what will you give me? This world has nothing to give
you. You left the one who gives everything,
who gave himself for sinners. Eternal life, he said, I give
unto you. My peace, I give unto you. And look what it said, they covenanted
with him. The last part of verse 15, for
30 pieces of silver. And from that time, from then
on, the Lord rebuked him. And boy, I've seen that. I've seen it happen. I've seen
the gospel spoken, whether by me or somebody else that preaches
the Lord Jesus Christ. I've seen the veins sticking
out on people's necks. I've seen their face turn red.
I had somebody tell me one time, I don't want anything to do with
a God like that. The problem is, it's not up to
you whether you have something to do with him or not. You're
going to have something to do with him, whether you like it or not. From that time, he sought opportunity
to betray him. You see where Judas is? The Lord's
rebuke made him angry. You know, the Lord, if he called you an unworthy dog, If he said it wouldn't be right
for me to do anything for you. You're miserable and wretched
and vile and hopeless and helpless and that's right where you ought
to stay. Like he told that woman of Canaan
in Matthew chapter 15, I'll tell you this, you'll either say truth
Lord Or you'll say, that's not fair.
That's not fair. That's what most people say now
when they hear the gospel. That's not fair. That's what
Satan said in the garden. That's not fair. Is that what
he said? That's not fair. You want what's
fair or you want mercy? Which one are you after tonight? The gospel rebukes our self-righteousness
and our judgmental, proud spirit and heart by declaring that Christ's
righteousness alone is the only righteousness in which we can
stand before God. You don't need to be as righteous
as Christ. You need Christ. Is that clear? There's a big difference. You
don't need a righteousness like it, you need His. You need Him
to be the Lord your righteousness. The gospel rebukes our sense
of free will. And how proud is that? I have
a free will. I'll do whatever I want to do.
Not in God's world you won't. Not as long as Satan, you're
a puppet of Satan by nature, you won't. But the gospel rebukes our sense
of free will and pride by declaring that salvation is by Christ in
him crucified. His atonement being fully effectual
and not dependent upon your free will decision. He don't need
any input from you. He'll either save you or he won't
at his pleasure and you'll bow. And you'll either say that's
not fair or you'll bow when confronted with him. Until you're confronted
with it, you'll just dismiss it. But when you can't do that anymore,
it's one or the other. The matter of who lives and who
dies spiritually was settled on Calvary. Not by the decision of man. The
gospel rebukes man's religion by declaring that nothing is
up to you, nothing. It was up to Christ and he redeemed
all for whom he shed his precious blood and them alone. So when rebuked by the gospel
in that way, are you the woman of Canaan or Judas? You're going
to be one or the other now, aren't you? You're going to be one or
the other. Truth, Lord. Truth. If I went to hell tonight
in the shoes I'm wearing right now, it'd be the right thing.
You'd be doing the right thing. But I need mercy. Have mercy. Have mercy on me. That's what Christ must cast
out of you now. The other spirit. The spirit, well that's not fair.
I believe everybody deserves a chance. Christ has got to cast
that out of you. That's your only hope. He's got
to rebuke and cast out that spirit. That's a satanic notion. The
satanic notion that you have anything to say or do in the
matter of your salvation, in the matter of your standing before
God, he must cast that out of you. And only he can do that. If left to yourself, you're Judas. If interceded for by Christ,
you're Simon. Satan hath desired you, he not
gonna have you. Because I, because I. This was Judas's problem now,
he would not bow to the Lord Jesus Christ. We read from Matthew
26 just a minute ago, but I want you to notice something particular
that we read earlier in verse 20, beginning with verse 20. We read before that, but look
down to I should have told you to stay there in Matthew 26,
but look down to verse 20. It says, now when the even was
come, he sat down with the 12. And as they did eat, he said,
verily I say unto you that one of you shall betray me. And they
were exceeding sorrowful and began every one of them to say
unto him, Lord, is it I? And he answered and said, he
that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray
me. The Son of Man goeth as it is
written of him, but woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man
is betrayed. It had been good for that man
if he had not been born. Then Judas, which betrayed him,
answered and said, Master, Is it I? And he said unto him, thou
hast said. I want you to notice something. The word in verse 22, when the
other disciples asked the Lord that question, they said, Lord,
is it I? That word, Lord, there in verse
22, means he to whom a person or thing belongs. You see what they're saying?
And look, you look it up now. Look it up in the original Greek.
If you have a Strong's Concordance, this is word for word, word for
word. I didn't change it at all. He
to whom a person or thing belongs, comma, over which he has the
power of deciding. Is that who he is to you? It
ain't about me deciding anything. Lord, if you will, if you will, Now the word master there in
verse 25, it sounds good, doesn't it? Master. You know, the way
we use that word, you know, it's like a slave, you know, a servant. It would be certainly, even then,
I think it was an expression of respect. But here's what the
word master there means, teacher. It's not quite the same, is it? It's not quite the same as the
one I belong to and the one who decides for me. Not quite the
same thing. It don't mean that. It was an
expression of respect, I'm sure, but it don't mean Lord who decides
everything and to whom I belong. It don't mean that. Satan entered into Judas Iscariot
and his head didn't turn 360 degrees on his neck and nothing
green came out of his mouth or any of that. He didn't start
shouting obscenities. He just hated Christ. That's
what happened. He hated God's son and he sold
him out for 30 pieces of silver. And before Satan entered into
him, the truth of Christ, which glorified Christ alone, what
Mary did, was right because it honored the Lord Jesus. That
was offensive to him and not precious. So here's the question again
that we asked in the first part of this message on Sunday. What
think ye of Christ? Is he Lord or teacher? Is he to be respected or bowed
to? Do you love him? Do you love
him? Do you love his gospel? Do you
love him in his sovereign power and will? Do you acknowledge
that he owns you and you wouldn't have it any other way? Do you acknowledge that it's
his decision that matters and not yours and you wouldn't have
it any other way? Judas couldn't go there. He couldn't
go there. Do you trust him as your only
righteousness and sin offering? You need to be perfectly holy
before God and here's the thing. You can't just start now. You've
already messed that up. You need Christ. You need him. as your righteousness and your
representative before God. And you need to sin. You've got
to pay for the sin you've committed now. You're going to have to
pay. And the wages of sin is death, eternal death. There's only one that was able
to pay it. So you'll either be making installments on that throughout
all eternity, or Christ will be your sin offering. May God give us grace. Is salvation
of the Lord plus what he's left up to you
or is salvation of the Lord? May God give us grace to say
and to know salvation is of the Lord. Four things. What do we mean when we say salvation
is of the Lord? Here's what we mean. And it particularly
applies to Judas in the negative sense. Look at John 13. John chapter 13. Just four things and I'll be
through. John 13 2 Supper being ended the devil
having now put into the heart This is worded a little differently
in it Whether it is a frightening thing in it the devil having
now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray
him. Jesus, knowing that the father
had given all things into his hands and that he was come from
God and went to God, he riseth from supper and laid aside his
garments and took a towel and girded himself. And after that
he poureth water into a basin, he began to wash the disciples'
feet and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.
Then cometh he to Simon Peter. And Peter saith unto him, Lord,
dost thou wash my feet? And Jesus answered and said unto
him, What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.
Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. And we understand
that, don't we? If you knew who he was. I'm not
sure if this is before or after, you know, the Lord Told them
to cast on the other side and draw in the net and the boat
was sinking because of all the fish. And Simon fell on his knees
and said, Lord, depart from me. I'm a sinful man. I'm a sinful
man. He knew something of who he was.
Now he said, you're not going to wash my feet. But look at
what the Lord, that Jesus answered him, if I wash thee not, Thou
hast no part with me. You know, Simon said the same
thing about the Lord Jesus Christ going to the cross, being betrayed
and crucified. He said, no, never, let it never
be said. And that's when the Lord said,
Simon, he didn't say Simon, he said, get thee behind me, Satan.
Because thou savest the things that be of men. And I could see
somebody thinking that. He's the Lord of Glory. We're
not going to let anybody lay a hand on Him. He's worthy of
all glory and honor. He's got to come down though. He's got to be humiliated. And
washing feet is nothing compared. to being spit on and having his
beard ripped out and his back beaten and a crown of thorns
pressed upon him and being mocked and ridiculed and murdered in
such a horrible. He said, if I don't wash you,
you're a goner. You see the picture here? Thou hast no part with me. In
verse 9, Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only,
but also, he couldn't even think about that, could he? If that's how it is, Lord, wash
me all over. And you know what the Lord said?
I already have. Isn't that what he said? You look at it with
me. Jesus saith unto him, he that is washed needeth not save
to wash his feet. He's already washed him, hadn't
he? He hadn't even gone to the cross yet. Chris, what do you
mean? He's the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
His blood is eternal blood. But look, he said he's clean
every whit, every whit, every whit. You've never been every
whit clean, unless you're in Christ. And you are clean, but not all,
not all of you. For he knew who should betray
him. Therefore said he, you are not all clean. So after he had
washed their feet and had taken his garments and was set down
again, he said unto them, know ye what I have done to you? You
call me master and lord and you say, well, for so I am. That's
who I am. You should say lord. If I then
your lord and master have washed your feet, you are also to wash
one another's feet, for I have given you an example that you
should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
the servant is not greater than his Lord, neither he that is
sent greater than he that sent him. If you know these things, happier are you if you do them.
I speak not of you all now. He's saying all these things.
You're clean everywhere. And the servant, you're my servant,
you're not greater than your master, but look, he said, I'm
not talking about all of you. And look what he said next. What
do we mean when we say salvation is of the Lord? 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. I know whom I have chosen and
Judas ain't one of them. Is he? I'm not talking about
all of them. I'm talking about the ones I've
chosen. And there's one here that's not among them. Salvation's
of the Lord. It's of his electing grace. I
thank God which hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth.
Salvations of the electing grace of God and we're chosen in Christ
from the foundation of the world and given every spiritual blessing
in him Before the world began What do we mean salvations of
the Lord look at John 13 10? Again, we just read it But I
want you to notice again Jesus saith unto him he that is washed
Needeth not save to wash his feet But he is clean every whit,
and you are clean, but not all. Who's he talking about there?
He's talking about Judas. You're all clean every whit. You don't
need to be washed anymore. But not all of you are. For he
knew who should betray him. Therefore said he, you are not
all clean. What do we mean, salvations of
the Lord? It was settled at Calvary. He either washed you or he didn't. He either did or he didn't. Well,
Chris, how can I know whether he redeemed me or not then? Come
to him. Believe on him. How do you think
you're gonna find out? You're gonna find out the same
way that leopard found out if he would make him whole or not.
You're gonna come and you're gonna worship him and you're
gonna say, Lord, if you will, you can save me. John 17, 12. Just a few pages
over. The third thing is this, what
do we mean salvation is of the Lord? Look at verse 12. While
I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me, I
have kept, and none of them is lost. But, you see how Judas, the study
of Judas shows us the dark and the sad and the tragic and the
frightening nature of our natural condition, but it also shows
us we see in the comparison here the glory of God in saving sinners. In every case he's talking about
Judas as the one that this didn't happen for. I didn't choose him,
I didn't clean him, and I didn't keep him. I've kept them all but the son
of perdition and That wasn't some kind of disappointment to
the Lord that Judas turned out. That's that the script the Lord
said a long time ago That's what would happen. Oh I'm just so sad, you know that
the Judas didn't turn out like I wanted him to that's how religion
presents the Son of God Chosen Cleansed, kept. Now look at Luke 21-31. We saw this not too long ago
in our study in Luke. Or actually we're coming up on
this part. I thought I said Luke 21. Luke 22-31. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon
behold, Satan hath desired to have you. I wonder if that's
true of me. You ever think about that? Does
he want me? Does he even know I exist? I suspect he knows.
I suspect he does. He was an angel of God before,
before the fall. Satan hath desired to have you,
that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you, that
your faith fail not, and when you are converted, strengthen
thy brethren. Chosen, cleansed, kept, and prayed
for. He ever liveth to make intercession
for me. I don't know whether Satan knows
I exist or not, but I know somebody that does. I know somebody that
does. He intercedes for me. And that's the difference between
me and Judas. Chosen, cleansed, kept. and prayed
for, salvation is of the Lord. You know, the disciple asked
that question, Lord, is it I? Is it I, am I the one that shall
betray you? But the truth, you know what
the truth of the matter is, I don't want it to be me in the reality
of it. I don't want it to be me in the
experience of it. But you know, by nature, it is
me. Let's just be, can we be honest
about it? Of course it's me. It's you too. And so what are you going to
say about that? What's going to be your response
to the truth about yourself and about the Son of God? That's
not fair. Or I've done my best, or I made
a decision, or I, me, me, me. or salvations of the Lord. Salvations
of the Lord. He's the one that owns me. And
it's because of His will that I'm not already in hell. He's
the difference. Salvation of the Lord. Let's
pray.