We'll just sing that this morning.
It seems like the more, I believe this is true, the more a believer
does love the Lord, the more pitiful he sees his love to be.
If you sing, oh how I love Jesus, that doesn't bode well, does
it? Not a good song. But, By His grace, we do love Him.
I'm thankful for that. Well, it's good to be here with
you this morning, and let's turn over to our text in Luke chapter
22. Verse 3. We'll go ahead and read from
verse 1 just to sort of remind ourselves of the context here.
Luke 22, 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, because we know the
Passover must be killed, and Christ himself is our Passover. For they feared the people, and
then entered Satan into Judas, surnamed Iscariot, being of the
number of the twelve, And he went his way, 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. They were afraid to try to openly
oppose the Savior because many of the multitude were enamored
with his miracles Things like that, and they feared the consequences
of what they, the evil that they wanted to do, so they did it
secretly. They were glad that Judas came and proposed this
betrayal because they wanted to secretly. And that's how people
do it now. Nobody wants to openly just reject,
cry, well a few, a few do, don't they? But most who deny him do
so secretly in their heart. And on the outside, they're kissing
him. Well, let's ask the Lord to bless
us this morning. Gracious Father, thank you, Lord,
for bringing us together. How gracious you are to bring
us together, Lord, not just to fellowship with one another,
though our fellowship in you is sweet. But, Lord, this morning
to teach us, to be gracious unto us that we might take your yoke
upon us and learn of you. May your Holy Spirit take the
precious, wonderful, life-giving things of our Savior and reveal
them to us. And give us grace to worship,
Lord, how worthy you are of all praise and adoration. And how
unworthy we are to even speak your name, but by your grace
you've made this To be so that your people come together as
your family and your house and worship your holy name. May we be thankful in our hearts
for such a privilege. In Christ's precious name we
ask, amen. Well, when we. In verse three
there of Luke 22. When we read how that Satan entered
Judas Iscariot, your first thought might have been how scary that
is. That is a frightful thing, isn't
it, to think that Satan, that the most, the very embodiment
of evil and antichrist could enter into you and control you. Control what you think and control
what you do. That's frightening, isn't it?
And that's not speculation. We have clear revelation about
that. And that raises some questions, doesn't it, to our minds. Can
that happen to anybody? Can that happen to me? There's
some sobering and vital lessons in this little brief passage
of scripture. In fact, it'll be a two-part message, I believe.
I don't see how I can look at all of it today. But I want to
deal with this by answering the questions that are raised and
answered. Scriptures we answer the vital
questions and they are, the Lord asked a lot of questions didn't
He? Whom do you say that I the Son of Man am? What think ye
of Christ? Whose Son is He? And things like
that and the Scripture of course answers those. Paul asked a vital
question in Romans 7, who shall deliver me? Who's going to save
me from the body of this death? And he knew the answer didn't
he? By my Lord Jesus Christ I'll
be saved. So I want to deal with this by
answering with scripture. Only, really only scripture can
shed light on scripture. If I take scripture and try to
give you what I think about it, what difference does that make?
Somebody else may think something else. My opinion is not better
than anybody else's. Only scripture can shed light
on scripture. When we're preaching, we're rightly
dividing the word of truth. We're not, we're not giving,
The scripture is not, you know what the Bible says about that.
It's not of any private interpretation. You're not to interpret the scripture. They're not in a foreign language.
The Lord has seen to it that it's written in language we can
understand. I don't need to interpret it.
Don't tell me what you think God said or what he meant by
what he, just tell me what God said. That's how he saved sinners. Just tell me what he said. And
that's what we do. The Holy Spirit of God, as I
prayed, He takes the things of Christ, John 16, 15, and reveals
them to us. But He doesn't do that while
you're sleeping, through some kind of a dream or something,
or some random epiphany that you might have when you're driving
down the road. He does it by the Word of God,
which liveth and abideth forever. So let's look at scriptural answers
to these questions this morning. The first thing I want to say,
though, is that this is scary. It is scary. It's a fearful thing
that Satan has that kind of power. Not just to influence people.
He doesn't just whisper things in your ear. He enters in. It says in 2 Timothy 2.26 that
they are taken captive. Those who don't believe on Christ.
Not just evil people. All people are evil people. You
know you look at what we call bad people. It's not talking
about that. It's talking about people who all are bad. They're taken captive by Satan
at his will. And men want to boast about their
free will. There's your free will. You're taken captive by
Satan at his will. And the only remedy to that is
not you doing battle with Satan. You know, religion loves to talk
about that. By their own words, they're condemned, aren't they?
That's sad, isn't it? And fearful. But I hear a lot
of that in religious teachings, you know, rebuke the devil and
withstand the devil and, you know, fight the devil. That's
not your hope here. Your hope is to flee to the one
refuge from every enemy, self, Satan, every enemy. the Lord
Jesus Christ, flee to him. Think about that. Now the only
hope for a sheep is not to, you know, a sheep's not gonna sit
there and say, well that wolf is bigger, he's stronger, his
nature is just savage and mine's not, but I'm gonna train, I'm
gonna, you know, I'm gonna eat the best grass and I'm gonna
fight. No, your hope is the shepherd. Don't think, how can I fight
this wolf? Think, Lord, save me. Save me. But we need to see that more
than scary, this is sad, isn't it? It's terribly sad. How tragic. What a tragic thing. Judas is
the epitome of tragedy and heart-wrenching loss. and a heartbreaking sense
of what might've been. Here's a man who walked with
the Savior himself. Think about what might've been.
Well, Chris, there's no use thinking about what might've been. Our
Lord cried over Jerusalem and said, if you had come to me,
I would have gathered you like a hen gathereth her chicks. That's what might've been, but
you would not. You're the problem. You're the
problem. And Judas is just the epitome
of that, isn't he? He had every advantage, every
outward advantage that there was. Here's a man who heard the
teachings of the Savior from his own lips, spoken in the power
of the very Son of God. He saw firsthand his compassion
for sinners. You know, he saw the most wretched
of humanity. He saw the Lord Jesus Christ
with sweet compassion and tenderness go and heal them and have mercy
on them. He saw his power to save. He
knew what he was capable of. Most people don't know that.
Even in their mind, most people don't know that. Did you notice that phrase at
the end of verse three, being of the number of the 12? That makes it sad, doesn't it?
Being one of the choice few that was in the Lord's inner circle.
So I'm less scared by this than I am just deeply troubled and
heartbroken about it because I've seen this. I've seen it. And I know you probably have
too. This is not just a story. We experience this in our lives,
don't we? Do you know anybody or have you
ever known anybody that Satan has sifted his wheat? We can't be sure what's Satan
and what's just our wretched, evil nature that causes things
that happen to people, the sinful nature of man, but there's not
much difference, is there, in our nature and his. But here's what we can be sure
of. And listen carefully now to this. This is vital. We have
a detailed account of Satan sifting somebody as wheat here. And do
you remember where I got that phrase from? Look at Luke 22,
31. We haven't gotten to this in
our study yet, but I know you've read this before you've heard
this before And the Lord said Simon Simon I love that don't
you Simon Satan hath desired to have you
that he may sift you as wheat This is the same chapter now
where it says Satan entered into Judas Iscariot Satan hath desired to have you
that he may sift you as wheat, but There's a little problem
with Satan doing that I Prayed for you No key words there for
you I'm for you The Lord came for him. He prayed for him. He
died for him. He lived for him for you And I've prayed for you that
your faith fail not. Not that you'd get smarter. Not that your faith won't be
tried, because that's good for you. I haven't prayed that Satan would
completely leave you alone, or that you'd be taken out of this
world, better yet, better in a sense, right? But that your
faith fail not. It's going to be tried, but that's going to be for your
good. And when you are converted, strengthen your brethren. You
know, that, that, that might offend a believer to hear that
when, you know, when, when you're saved, because that's really,
you know, I'm sure Peter thought he was
already converted. Well, I used to not care anything about that.
I used to be this, I used to be that. We still ain't much, are we?
When you're converted, strengthen your brethren. I bet Simon remembered
that later in a little different light. And he said unto him,
Lord, I am ready. Here's how I know he felt like
he was in pretty good shape already. I'm ready to go with thee both
into prison and to death. He wasn't ready though, was he?
He just thought he was. And he said, I'll tell you, Peter,
the cock shall not crow this day before thou shalt thrice
deny that thou knowest me. Now Satan is going to have something
to do with that. Didn't the Lord say to Simon,
get thee behind me, Satan? He's not going to win because
of me. There's the only difference now
between Satan desiring to have you and Satan having you. I have
prayed for you that your faith fail not. Now what does that
tell you is gonna happen to my faith if the Lord doesn't intercede
for me and keep me and hold me and protect me? So think with me here. Not only
is Christ the only difference there, but the way that Satan
had his way with Judas. This is important lesson here.
This is so vital. We see that Satan entered into
Judas and utterly sifted him as wheat. And what did that look
like though? Did that mean that Judas went
out and got hooked on drugs, and started stealing, and killing
people, and going to bars, and using foul language, and things
like that? When you think of destroyed lives,
you may well think of somebody. I've seen some lives destroyed.
And we say, well drugs destroyed him. No, sin does that. Drugs is just a symptom of the
problem. So what is the problem? The way
Satan destroyed Judas was not by any of that stuff. It was
by working in him in such a way that Judas saw the Lord Jesus
Christ as an enemy and not a friend. He worked in him in such a way
where Judah saw Christ as a way to benefit himself and not as
worthy alone of all praise and adoration and glory. Would that
apply to the religion of our day? Satan worked in him in such
a way that Judah saw the Son of God as expendable and not
vital and precious and altogether lovely. That is the arena that
Satan works. He don't care about any of that
other stuff. He don't care if you smoke or say bad words. He
don't care about that. It's what think ye of Christ.
It was that in the garden, and it's that this morning now. You
mark it down. You mark it down. That's how
Satan worked now, and that's how he works today. And if you
see someone destroy themselves, and people do, with drugs or
greed or any number of the other ways that people tragically self-destruct,
those things are symptoms. But the disease is, what think
ye of Christ? That's the definition of all
sin. This is the condemnation, that God sent His light into
this world, and you despise the light because you love your darkness.
you showed what you think of God's light by spitting on Him,
and torturing Him, and nailing Him to a cross. That's the condemnation. And listen, if you just dismiss
Him, you're Judas. Judas just didn't think much
of Him, did he? Thirty pieces of silver, that
wouldn't have set Judas up for life even if he had lived. If you look at him as just a
way to get to heaven when you die, you're Judas. Can this happen to anybody? You
better believe it. By nature, the Lord said to Simon,
as I said, listen to what he said about that. He turned and
said unto Simon Peter in Matthew 16, 23, get thee behind me, Satan. He didn't say get thee behind
me, you that are acting like Satan. There's not a whole lot
of difference between us and Satan. Antichrist is antichrist,
isn't it? He's talking to Simon as Simon
right now. Thou art an offense unto me.
This is one, I presume, for whom the Lord shed his precious blood.
Well, I don't presume that. I know that's right, because
he said not one of them is lost save the son of perdition that
the scriptures might be fulfilled. Not two of them is lost, one
of them is. Get thee behind me, Satan, thou
art an offense unto me, for thou savorest not the things that
be of God. By nature, we're the children
of wrath, even as others. Thou savorest not the things
that be of God, but those that be of men. the things that be
of men. It's that simple, isn't it? Satan may or may not cause you
to murder somebody, but I tell you this, I guarantee you what
he'll do is he'll cause you to love you and not the Savior.
Every time. And the rest of it is just window
dressing. And the reason that didn't happen
to Simon And the reason it won't happen to you if it doesn't is
Christ himself. He is the cure and he is the
great physician. And this is important. We preach
Christ crucified for a reason. Satan has already wrecked you.
Now think about this with me. People say, well, I hope Satan
don't get me. He already did in the garden. This is something that happened
a long time ago. This is not an epic struggle between the
Lord and Satan over your soul. And if you don't know the Lord
Jesus Christ, there's no use sitting around saying, well I
hope Satan don't get me, you know, I can't let Satan get me.
He already did, he's already got you if you don't know Christ.
You're condemned already. You're already ruined and you
can't blame Satan for it, though he was instrumental in it. You
know what your problem is? You know what you can blame for
being a ruined, totally depraved, evil, God-hating rebel by nature?
Your free will. There it is. I don't think I'd
name my church that. Do you? Just call it Sin Baptist
Church. Let's just get right to the point.
You reckon? Just call it Evil God-hating
Rebel Baptist Church. Because that's what your will
is. Pilate released the Lord Jesus Christ to their will and
they nailed him to the cross. And that's us now by nature.
That's everybody here. By our own free will, man deliberately,
willingly, knowingly plunged himself into spiritual death
and we murdered God in the garden is what we did. And then that
was expressed at Calvary But we were plunged into godless
darkness by our own free will, and we haven't had one since.
You can mark it down. You haven't had a free will since.
And it's a good thing. But here's what I'm saying. We
preach Christ crucified, not so that Satan won't have you. You're ruined already. We preach
Christ and the salvation he accomplished on Calvary because it's by him
as your righteousness and him as your sin offering that sinners
are redeemed from the sin that we already are by nature. And by his righteousness imputed
to us, we can stand worthy, we do by his grace through his saving
precious blood stand worthy in the presence of God. In him,
in him, in him. Through Christ, what he did,
through faith in his blood and being his and in him, Satan don't
have any more power over you than he does him. He just don't now. You think about
that. Not that we ourselves have any
power over Satan. We don't personally have any
power, but the Lord is my shepherd. Don't even try it. You'll wish
you hadn't. Don't even try it, the wolves
don't get past him. He said, I'm the good shepherd,
and how does he save us? I lay down my life for the sheep. That's safety, that's security,
under the blood of Jesus, safe though the worlds may crumble. I am the good shepherd, and I
lay down my life for the sheep. And Him laying down His life
for you is the remedy to every problem that you have, internal,
external, in heaven, earth, or hell. It is victory. He giveth us the
victory by our Lord Jesus, for He shall save His people from
their sins. Christ, the anointed of God. over every enemy that we have.
Look what happened to Judas. Now we can learn some things
about what happened to Judas. He was a gospel preacher for
a while. He wasn't preaching ever. You reckon? Pretty sure
we would see something about that in the scripture that there
was some kind of, wait a minute, what are you talking about? They
went out and preached two by two. He wasn't preaching error, and
yet he obviously did not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ whom
he was preaching. Do you know that Paul feared
that about himself? Paul had no doubts about the
gospel now. He was pretty confident about
the gospel, didn't he? He said, if anybody preach any other gospel
unto you than the one we've preached, let him go to hell. May God cut
him off like a limb with gangrene in it, like a cancer. pretty
confident about what he preached, but when he looked at himself,
he saw the same thing you're going to see if you look at yourself. Here's what he said about himself
in 1 Corinthians 9, 24. Know ye not that they which run
in a race run all, everybody's running, but one receiveth the
prize. That's the way we run. There's
more than one that's going to, you know, that knows Christ and
is going to be found in Christ and is going to But the way we
run is as though there was just gonna be one winner. So run that
you may obtain, that you may obtain. And every man that striveth
for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it
to obtain a corruptible crown, but we, an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly. I'm not uncertain about where
I'm running to, Why I'm running, how to run, it's not by my works,
but by believing on him. It's through faith, by grace
through faith. So fight I, not as one that beateth the air.
It's not in vain, but I keep under my body and bring it into
subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to
others, I myself should be a castaway. Don't look at yourself. In Philippians
3, he said, I pressed toward the mark for the prize of the
high calling God. Where is it, Paul? It's in Christ
Jesus. That's where it is. And I renounce
everything I am, everything I've done, myself and everything about
me is done, that I may win Christ. That's how you run. Remember
when the Lord told the disciples that one of them would betray
him. In Mark 14, 18, it says, as they
sat and did eat, Jesus saith, verily I say unto you, one of
you which eateth with me shall betray me. And they began to
be sorrowful and to say unto him one by one, is it I? And another said, is it I? When you consider that question,
is it me? Is it me? Think about what we've
seen already in the word of God. The only way that it doesn't
turn out to be you is if Christ intervenes and intercedes for
you. The only way the wolf doesn't
devour you is if the Lord is your shepherd. The only way sin
shall not have dominion over you is if the Lord Jesus worketh
in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. The only
way you do not suffer eternal hell for your sin is if Christ
is your Savior, your soul-redeeming substitute. A song that we sing
sometimes says it this way, Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering
from the fold of God, and he to rescue me from danger interposed
his precious blood. Oh, to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee. Once the Lord Jesus Christ comes
where you are and saves you and enthrones himself in your heart,
then Satan has no place there. familiar with this, and it's
been years since I guess we looked at Matthew chapter 12. But listen,
the Pharisees accused the Lord Jesus Christ of casting out devils
by the devil. showed them the foolishness of
that. He said, they said, this fellow doth cast out devils by
the prince of devils, Beelzebub. And Jesus knew their thoughts
and said unto them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought
to desolation. And every city or house divided
against itself shall not stand. Why in the world would Satan
cast out Satan? If Satan cast out Satan, he is
divided against himself. How then shall his kingdom stand?
And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children
cast them out? Therefore they shall be your
judges. But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the
kingdom of God is come unto you." And then the Lord gave this strange
and beautiful illustration. Or else how can one enter into
a strong man's house and spoil his goods? Except he first bind
the strong man. And then he will spoil his house.
Those who know the Lord Jesus Christ have been spoiled by.
Utterly spoiled. In order to understand what he's
saying there, there's just three things you need to know. Who
the strong man is? who the house is and who is the one that was so
strong that the strong man had no chance against him. He tied him up and had his way
because he's the Lord. He's the Lord of glory now. That's
what happens when he saves a sinner. You don't belong to the devil
anymore. You belong to him and you never did really. You never did, but he took up
residence for a while, didn't he? Sure did. You know, the Lord
Jesus Christ called Judas a devil in John six and verse 70. Jesus
answered them, have not I chosen you 12 and one of you is a devil. Think about that for a second.
That was before where we read that Satan entered into Judas
Iscariot. It doesn't take Satan to make
you a devil. We were born devils, weren't
we? The Lord also said of Judas in
Matthew 26, 24, 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. Hmm. Hmm. But I want us to see this also
in Matthew 26, 45. Then cometh the Lord to his disciples
and saith unto them, sleep on now and take your rest. Behold,
the hour is at hand and the son of man is betrayed into the hands
of sinners. And then he came back and said,
rise, let us be going. Behold, he is at hand that doth
betray me. And while he yet spake, lo Judas,
one of the 12 came and with him a great multitude with swords
and staves from the chief priests and elders of the people. Now
he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I
shall kiss, the same is he. Hold him fast. And forthwith
he came to Jesus and said, Hail, Master, and kissed him. And Jesus said unto him, Friend, He's a devil, but he was also a friend. And they came, he said, friend,
why have you come? Wherefore are you come? And then
came they and laid hands on Jesus and took him. You think the Lord
knew the answer to that question? But here's the thing, did Judas
know the answer? Did Judas know? Later, he said,
I betrayed the innocent blood and went out and hanged himself.
I think he knew then, but he just knew it up here. He knew
who the Savior was, the innocent lamb of God, but he didn't ever
love him. He didn't ever love him. The
Lord Jesus Christ had been a true friend to Judas. You remember
the language concerning Judas in the Psalms? And looking into
Judas and what happened to Judas and what the Lord teaches from
that, I wanted to look at everything in the scripture about Judas,
if I could. If you're preaching on the subject
of the love of God, You can't do that. We don't have that kind
of time. But I thought maybe looking at
Judas, I could see everything the scripture says about that
and maybe present it in one minute. No way. There's way more than
you think there is, than I thought there was. But in Psalm 55, 12,
for it was not an enemy that reproached me, then I could have
borne it. Neither was it he that hated
me that did magnify himself against me, then I would have hid myself
from him. And clearly he's saying openly
and outwardly hated me because he's saying I would have hid
myself from him. Now the Lord Jesus would know anyway, right?
But you see the picture here. Then I would have hid myself
from him, but it was you. And David's writing this about
somebody we think it might have been a Hittifell. but it was you, a man mine equal,
my guide and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together
and walked into the house of God in company. That's who betrayed
the Lord. Psalm 41, nine, yea, mine own
familiar friend in whom I trusted. He sent him out to preach the
gospel, didn't he? The Lord didn't have any illusions
about Judas. He was the treasurer of the group
though, wasn't he? Which did eat of my bread. And
that teaches me something else, too. We think we look at problems
in the Lord's church. I know of quite a few, don't
you? Don't despair. Don't despair. Well, the Lord,
you know what's gonna happen to the church? I'll tell you
what's gonna happen to it. Whatever the Lord is pleased
to do with it. One of the 12 was a devil. It turned out all
right, you reckon? Turned out all right. It will
today. Because it's not in our hands,
it's not up to us. He entrusts us with his glorious
gospel in a sense, there's no question about that. But it don't
depend on us. He lifted up his heel against
me. So you see why the disciples asked, Lord, is it I? Because
whether it's you or not depends on him. And they understood that
somehow, on some level. If it's up to you, let me say
this as clearly as I can. If it's up to you, then it is
you. You don't want it to be up to
you. Here's who it's up to, and I'll close with this for now.
Usually my messages are 10 or 12 pages. I've got 20 this morning.
If y'all are comfortable, I mean, I'm OK. I'm OK. It's a little
hot in here, though, even though I turned it down to 68 a while
ago. But it went back to 78. OK, that's a problem. Sorry about that, but it's hot. Here's who it's up to turned
with me to Matthew 17 verse 14 Matthew 17 14 When they were come to the multitude,
there came to him a certain man kneeling down to him, boy, and
saying, Lord, have mercy on my son. He came kneeling down, didn't
he? Kneeling down. We don't have to necessarily
physically kneel down before the Lord. in order to bow to
him in our hearts. But there's not a whole lot wrong
with kneeling down every once in a while, is there? I think
it'd be good sometime for us to hit our knees, don't you think?
Paul said, I bow my knees to the Father for you and pray for
you. A lot of times an outward thing
like that is an emblem of what's going on on the inside. It can
be, can't it? He said, Lord, have mercy on
my son. For he's a lunatic, he's crazy, he's plum crazy. And he's sore-fixed, he's disturbed.
You know anybody like that? I know people like that. They're
just troubled. They're like the raging sea,
the scripture says. They never rest. They're always
casting up mire. For oft times he falleth into
the fire and oft into the water. and I brought Him to Thy disciples,
and they couldn't do anything about it." You know when we can do something
about something is when the Lord uses us to do something about
it. That's it. And then Jesus answered
and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I
be with you? How long shall I suffer you? I know this, the Lord suffereth
long. He suffereth long and is kind. Bring him here to me. That's what you do now. You love
somebody? This man's son was crazy. And
he knew that it was Satan. He knew that it was just, it
was supernatural. It was something he could never
do anything about. So he came on his knees to the
Son of God. And the Lord said, bring him
here. Bring him here. Boy, there's
a lot of teaching there now. You've brought your children
to the Lord, haven't you? I don't believe you'll be disappointed. You don't just bring them to
church, you're bringing them to him. And Jesus rebuked the
devil. Well, that's anticlimactic. You think it'd take more than
that? No, it's him. It just takes him. He just spoke. That's what I pray will happen
here this morning, that he'll just speak and it'll be done. That's what I want. And he departed out of him and
the child was cured. By his straps, we are healed. Let me just restress in closing
and we will talk about this again and either Wednesday night or
next Sunday Lord willing either one. I'm not sure yet We may
just do this Wednesday night. So it's still a fresher in our
minds, but I want to restress this these physical manifestations
of demon possession of falling into the fire and cast himself
into the water to drown him To drown himself if they didn't
help him These are pictures of what sin does to us. It's not
gonna actually physically do that, but what it's saying is
this, we are utterly self-destructive. Do you know anybody that's just
killing themselves? And it's killing you to see them
killing themselves. Boy, I could give you names,
and I'm sure you could too. This man didn't know probably
a whole lot about what was going on in his son, but he could see
that. And we don't know people's heart, but we can see what we
see, don't we? It ain't good. It ain't good, is it? And what
are we going to do? We're going to cry to the Lord.
We're going to cry to the Lord. Have mercy on them. Have mercy.
They need mercy. The word lunatic there in verse
15, and sore vexed, meaning to suffer miserably, you're out
of your mind. That old demon possessed Gadarene
demoniac. When the Lord got done with him,
he was sitting and clothed and in his right mind. This is our spiritual condition.
What was wrong with Judas? The problem was not what people
say are sin, the outward symptoms. The problem is what was going
on on the inside. To despise the Lord Jesus Christ
and to reject the Lord Jesus Christ is not just crazy. Think
about this. You're saying to the one who
made you, I've got no use for you. That's crazy. You're saying to the one cure,
for your vital, terminal, eternal disease, your one hope, you're
saying, I've got no use for you. That's crazy. That's out of your
mind, but self-destructive too, isn't it? Self-destructive. So
this is just a picture of what we do by nature we we reject
despise And renounce the Lord Jesus Christ
who is himself Our only hope we see a lot more in Judas and
I guess we'll look at it Another time I hate to do that. I did
not want to do that, but I didn't want you to I to have to try
to listen for two hours either, so. Y'all agree with that? I hear it. That's the only amen
I got all morning. But you see what happened. Let
me just stress that in closing, that what did Satan do to Judas? Christ. It had to do with Christ,
didn't it? Nothing else. It had to do with
what Judas thought of God's son. That's what he still does now.
And there's still the same hope. It's a good hope. The very one
that Satan turned us against in the garden. He's our hope,
isn't he? Well, may the Lord bless his
word. Amen.