Alright brethren, let's go to
John chapter 3. I'll go ahead and apologize to
you up front. I may cough a lot. And I've been
down for the count since I got back from Danville. So, we'll
see where this goes and we'll see how it goes. John, I'm sorry, John 13. Is
that what I said? John 13. Let's go to the Lord before we
begin. Our great God and our Father, we do thank you for your
sovereign power, your holy reign. Thankful, Lord, that everything
you do is right. We do thank you for your saving
grace. Lord, help us to see now. Give us your Spirit and a double
portion. Help us to enter into the Word
spoken. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Alright, verse 13. Now I want
you to just imagine. This is at the house of Simon
the leper. two days before the Passover.
He came to Bethany six days before the Passover, two days before
He went to the house where they made Him a supper. This is the
house where Mary poured out the ointment on Him, where He commended
her and Judas got upset. And He said, same place, same
place. Now imagine you're sitting there
and you're having supper with the Lord Jesus. And then you
hear him make this statement. Verse 18. He said, I speak not
of you all. 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. Look at verse 21. When Jesus
had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified and
said, Verily, verily, I say unto you that one of you shall betray
me. Can you just imagine if he were
sitting there and you heard him say that? Verse 22, Then the disciples
looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake. Now there was
leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus loved.
Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him that he should ask who
it should be of whom he spake. And he then lying on Jesus' breast
saith unto him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, he it is
to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped it. And when he
had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of
Simon. And after the sop, Satan entered
into him. Then said Jesus unto him, that
thou doest, do quickly. Now no man at the table knew
for what intent he spake this unto him. For some of them thought
that because Judas had the bag, he was the treasurer, that Jesus
had said unto him, buy those things that we have need of against
the feast, or that he should go and give something to the
poor. He then, having received the sop, went immediately out,
and it was night. It was night. Now, two days later,
when our Lord was at the Passover, they had two days to think about
this. And two days later, when He was having the Passover with
them, He made this statement again. In Matthew 26, 22, He said to them, one of you shall
betray me. And in verse 22, they were exceeding
sorrowful. And began every one of them to
say unto him, Lord, is it I? And they all went around saying
this. And then verse 25 says, Judas, which betrayed him, answered
and said, Master, that is teacher, is it I? He said unto him, Thou
hast said. Now you just try to imagine you're
there eating with the Lord and you hear Him say, Verily, verily,
I say unto you that one of you shall betray Me. He didn't say
somebody shall betray Me. That could have meant it was
somebody out there. It could have been one of the
Pharisees or somebody. He said one of you shall betray
Me. And each of them looked at each
other doubting. It says they each looked at each
other doubting of whom he spake. That is one by one. You take
Peter for example. They are all sitting at the table.
Peter looked at James and he thought within himself, it can't
be James. Peter looked at John and he thought,
it can't be John. And he looked at Andrew. thought
within himself, it can't be Andrew. And on down the line, even to
Judas Iscariot, Peter said, it can't be Judas. And they each
did this. They each were looking on one
another and doubted it could be the other. And then as it
set in on them, they had two days to think about this, and
that night of the Passover, he said it again. And they've been
thinking about this. And he said, one of them would
betray the Lord, and it made them exceeding sorrowful to think their Lord would be
betrayed, first of all, and then secondly, to think one of them
would be the betrayer. It made them exceeding sorrowful. Now there's three questions that
were asked, and I want to use these as our divisions. We'll
see first of all, each asked a question. Each asked a question. And then secondly, we'll see
Judas Iscariot's question. And then thirdly, we'll hear
John's question. Now this is not the order these
took place, but this is going to be the order we're going to
look at them. First, the question each asked of the Lord. In Matthew
26, 22, they were exceeding sorrowful and began every one of them to
say unto Him, Lord, is it I? They had looked at one another
and each thought within themselves and doubted, it can't be Him.
And they became exceedingly sorrowful and each one of them, one by
one, went around the table saying, Lord, is it I? Not one of them said, Lord, is
it Judas? And not one of them said, Lord,
is it one of these others? They all said, Lord, is it I? This is a good thing the Spirit
of the Lord works in His people. and only the Spirit of the Lord
can work this in us. This is what Paul was talking
about in Philippians 3.3 when he said we're the circumcision.
This is a mark of the truly circumcised child circumcised in the heart
by the Spirit of God which worship God in the Spirit rejoice in
Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. That's why they
asked this question. They had no confidence in their
flesh. When something's wrong, the Spirit
of God makes us question self first. And you know why this
is a good suspicion? You know why? It's because those
that are born of the Spirit of God, and this is why we suspect
ourselves, Those born of the Spirit of God are taught of God. We have two natures in us. There's
two nations in us, two natures, like two nations, warring, two
men. We have a holy nature born of
the Spirit of God called the new man. And we have a sin nature
born of Adam called the old man. And they're diametrically opposed.
And knowing we have a sin nature, God teaches us that we ought
to never have confidence in ourselves so as to say, the sin my brother commits, I'll
never commit. Or to hear something like what
our Lord said and say, I'll never do that. Each of us have different temperaments.
as children of Adam, we all have different temperaments. There's
sins we're each more inclined to and there's sins we're less
inclined to. But that ought to never give
us confidence in ourselves. Not at all. We each have a sin
nature and it's the fountain of all our sin. Our Lord said
out of the heart, He's talking about the sin nature, proceed
evil thoughts. And there's sins. murders, adulteries,
fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things
which defile the man. And besides this, to break God's
law in one sin, in thought, is to be guilty of the whole law. James said, whosoever should
keep the whole law, yet offend in one point, he's guilty of
all. Every sin is in one sin, even
in one sinful thought. That's so. Every sin is in one
sin, even one sinful thought. The law was given at Sinai that
the offense might abound. And that law given at Sinai by
God shows us that when Adam broke one transgression, he broke every
one of those laws and committed every sin that's a violation
of every law by that one transgression. And so did we in him. And this
is what the Lord teaches us when He teaches us the gospel. The
same is true of the believer. Nobody commits only one kind
of transgression. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. The same sin is in the believer's
sin nature as is in the reprobate. The same sin. It's what your
nature is. It's what my nature is. It's
all that comes from our sin nature. The exact same sin as is in the
reprobate, the profligate, sinner that is just base and never even
would consider coming in this place. Same sin that's in his
nature is in your nature sitting right there and mine standing
right here. And it's the same sin that comes
that comes out of our nature that comes out of His. One reason
that Judas betrayed the Lord Jesus because he was covetous.
He'd been stealing out of the bag the whole time. And he betrayed the Lord for
30 pieces of silver. That really wasn't that much
money. Cain killed his brother because
his heart was full of jealousy. And David, the man after God's
own heart, sinned because of pride and lust coming from a
sin nature. That's not to excuse anybody
for their sin. That's to make you understand
you are a sinner. They have to have God to save
you and do all the saving. These sins, as well as every
other, come from the sin nature in every believer. And this is
the reason the Spirit of the Lord teaches us not to trust
self. He said in Isaiah 2.22, cease
ye from man whose breath is in his nostril. Where is he to be
accounted of? Let him that thinketh he standeth
take heed lest he fall. A man who trusts his own heart
and his own attainments and his own graces, he's a fool. Under the present circumstances,
we may not be inclined to sin, but you let the circumstances
change. You let the Lord take His hand
off of you. We'll find out we're capable
of any sin. I mean any. There's one sin a
child of God cannot commit, the unpardonable sin. God will not
let you cease trusting Christ. You'll try, you're full of unbelief
and we'll see that, but God will keep faith in the heart of His
child. So knowing this, we cry, Lord
is it I? And the Lord is teaching us by
this that that's a better thing to ask than to speak of some
sin and say, I'll never do that. The better thing is to say, Lord,
is it I? Now, there's an amazing contrast
here to see these apostles, each one questioning themselves before
the Lord. And then just a little while
later, just a little while later, the devil can't do anything but
what the Lord permits him to do. God's not in competition
with the devil. The Lord was in control of everything
taking place here. The devil didn't enter Judas
until the time appointed. But not long after this took
place, our Lord permitted the devil to start sifting his apostles. He said that. to Peter, but it
wasn't just Peter, it was all of them. And a little while later,
they all made this same mistake, saying they'd never be offended
and they'd never deny the Lord. They all said it. Peter led them,
but they all said it. The devil appeals to the pride
of our sin nature. And we start thinking, I won't
do that. I won't do that. He put betrayal and devils in
Judas' heart, but Judas did willingly what he wanted to do. And you
and I have a sin nature, and we're willing to sin. And he sifted Peter and these
other apostles, and it began, it had already begun when they
started saying, Lord, we will never deny you. It's here at
the end of John 13, but I want to read it to you out of Matthew
26, 31, because I want you to hear what the Lord said. Matthew
26, 31, then saith Jesus unto them, all ye shall be offended
because of me this night, for it's written. This is a scripture. It's going to come to pass. I
will smite the shepherd and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered
abroad. That's the scripture. But after
I'm risen again, I will go before you into Galilee. The Lord says
the same thing. I'm not going to preach this
right now, but I do want to point it out. He tells Peter in John
chapter 13, Peter, you're going to deny me three times before
the rooster crowed. And don't stop reading there.
Because the Lord says in verse 1 of chapter 14, let not your
heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe in
me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not
so, I would have told you, I am going to this cross to prepare
a place for you and when I am done, I am coming again to you
and I will restore you. And that is what He is saying
to them here in Matthew, after I am risen again, I will go before
you into Galilee. Peter answered and said unto
him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet
will I never be offended. That's a whole different spirit
than saying, Lord is it I? That's a whole different spirit
than saying, Could it be John? It can't be John. Could it be
James? It can't be James. Now he's saying,
Yeah, they all might do it, but I won't do it. You see the different
spirit here? Jesus said to him, Verily I say
unto thee, that this night before the cock crow thou shalt deny
me thrice. Peter said unto him, Though I
should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also
said all the disciples. Judas went out and betrayed the
Lord. Peter denied the Lord and he
went out. So did all the other apostles. Peter said, I'm going
fishing. He said, I'm done with this preaching.
I'm done with this ministry. I'm going back to my occupation.
It was easier, wasn't any pressure, wasn't any rejection. Men liked
to see me coming in the shore with a boat full of fish. I'm
going back to my fishing. And other disciples followed
him. They followed him. He led them through to that. Who made the difference between
Peter and Judas Iscariot? Who made the difference between
them? Who made the difference between Job and Judas Iscariot? The Lord permitted the devil
to sift Job. Who made the difference? God
permitted the same devil to be at work in each one, and the
same sinful lusts of the flesh were in each one, and each one
sinned. Who made the difference? The Lord graciously came to Peter
and he came to Job and he recovered them. God's grace made the difference. That's who made the difference.
The Lord taught Peter and he taught his apostles that in our
flesh dwells nothing good. Nothing good. You know what they
learned by that? What they learned by one minute
saying it can't be them. Lord is it I? And then the next
minute saying, it's them, it can't be me. You know what they
learned by that? That when they said in the first time, when
they said it can't be them, Lord is it me? They only said that
by the Spirit of God. And what they did when they said
it's going to be them, it won't be me, they said that in their
flesh. And they learned in our flesh
dwells no good thing. were saved by God's grace, were
saved by the righteous obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. He went to the cross and bore
all this sin we're seeing. He bore it for his people with
the exception of Judas. He bore this for every elect
child of God and for all the apostles here that had sinned.
He bore it. He bore the curse deserving of it and put it away
so that they died that day on the cross and so did all his
people. And the law says I have nothing else to say to them.
God says they're holy. The law says they're holy. And our Lord Jesus comes in the
Spirit and He regenerates us and brings us to cast all our
care on Christ, cleansing our conscience by the blood of Christ.
And He says to us what He said to these apostles right here.
You're clean every whit. justified, righteous, holy in
Him. But now, your feet is going to
get defiled and I'm going to have to wash you. And you're
going to have to wash one another. And it wasn't long after he showed
them that, he said, you don't understand it now, but you're
going to. It wasn't very long, they're going to start entering
into what he meant by we're going to have to forgive one another
and wash one another's feet. They soon entered in to find
out what it meant. And this is why they each address
Christ as Lord. They said, Lord, is it I? Why
do we call on Him as Lord? Why do we call the Lord Jesus
Christ? There's a confession in that.
If it's really from the heart that we're confessing Him to
be our Lord, there's a confession in that, that we're utterly dependent
on our sovereign Savior to do all the saving. That's what that
means. If it's of the Lord, that's what
we're saying. We're saying we need our sovereign,
conquering, never failing Savior to save us and keep us and preserve
us because this is what we'll do. To address Him as Lord is to
take our place at the feet of our Lord Jesus Christ, dependent
upon the Lord to save. That's the spirit the Lord gave
the psalmist when he said this. Who can understand his errors?
Can you? You can't. Well, you know why? Because our sin nature is desperately
wicked and deceitful above all things. When are you going to
see your sin? When are you going to know your
sin? When are you going to fall down at the Lord's feet and say,
Lord, is it I? When He cleanses you from secret
faults. And that's what we pray. Cleanse
thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from
presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over
me. It means they can if he doesn't let them. Then shall I be upright, and
I shall be innocent from the great transgression. Let the
words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in
thy sight, O Lord, my strength, my Redeemer." That's what they're
saying, Lord, my strength, my Redeemer. Search me, O God, know
my heart, try me, know my thoughts, see if there's any wicked way
in me, and lead me in the way of everlasting. Why do you need
the Lord to search your heart? Because he's the only one that
can. But consider how Judas Iscariot
asked his question. Now let's look at him for a minute.
This is in Matthew 26.25. It says, Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered
and said, Master, Teacher, is it I? And he said unto him, Thou hast
said. Then, Judas only asked this after
the other disciples asked it. They all, in the verse before,
in verse 22, they all asked, then Judas asked. Spurgeon said, He who shall last
ask the question is just the man who ought to have asked it
first. And notice how he addressed the
Lord. He said, Master, is it I? There's two things in this.
One, this was a title that showed familiarity. If this would have been genuine,
it would have shown a closeness with the Lord, is what it would
have shown, and a familiarity with the Lord. But by using this,
Judas is showing how he's crafty. He betrayed the Lord with a kiss. And two, it was not that reverential
dependent spirit that was in the others. By the title Lord, these other
apostles took their place at His feet as sinners in need of
Christ to save them by His mercy and grace. Is there really that
big a difference in a title? 1 Corinthians 12 verse 3 says,
I give you to understand, No man speaking by the Spirit of
God calleth Jesus accursed. And that no man can say that
Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. No man can confess
he's totally... I'm just trying to think of something
the Scripture uses to describe us. Some of these vile things
the Scripture uses to describe us. No man can confess that unless
the Spirit of God is working in his heart. And that's what
it is to call Him Lord. It's to say we need Him to save
us. We're the accursed. We need Him to save us. Now this supper was in Simon's
house two days before the Passover and our Lord gave them a sop
while they were in this house. That was a gesture of friendliness.
And then he had two days. He went out that night and he
went straight in the dark all the way to Jerusalem and entered
into an agreement with the Pharisees. And he had two days to think
about this and then at the Passover, he heard the Lord describe his
sin in the plainest terms. I mean, he described he was going
to betray Him. Woe to that man by whom he does
this thing. He heard it plainly. And then
the Lord gave him ample time through all of this to repent.
To come down off his lofty high place to Christ's feet. And he was unmoved. He set his
heart to betray the Lord Jesus. Brethren, thank God for His grace
in revealing our sin to us. and continuing to reveal our
sin to us and continuing to break your heart and bring you to hate
yourself and not trust your own self and see yourself as the
sinner. Thank God for that because we
can't do it without Him doing it. You can't break one power
of sin in you. When Paul spoke about keeping
his body under subjection, he quickly said, by the grace of
God. If that wasn't so, then why come
all these apostles didn't deny their flesh and tuck, tail and
run? Let's learn something from John's
question now. John 14, 23. Now there was leaning on Jesus'
bosom, I'm sorry, John 13, 23. Now there was leaning on Jesus'
bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus loved. And Simon Peter
therefore beckoned to him that he should ask who it should be
of whom he spake. And he then lying on Jesus' breast
said to him, Lord, who is it? Now John here, he's closer to
the Lord Jesus than Peter was. And so Peter, he beckons to him
and he says, ask him, ask him who this is. And the Lord's laying there and
John's laying in such a place that all he had to do was just
lean his head back on his breast and ask him, Lord who is it?
Privately, just between him and John. And the Lord answered him. And this is so important that
later, you remember when the Lord came back and He restored
Peter. As they walked off from the crowd
and the Lord was talking to Peter, John was walking along behind
them. And this is how John wrote it in John 21-20. He said, Then
Peter turned about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following,
which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which
is he that betrayeth thee? That shows you something about
the importance of this right here, what took place right here,
that John repeats it. The Spirit of God moved him to
repeat it twice. What it's showing us is John's confidence was in
Christ's love for him. That was his confidence. When he was writing this gospel,
he never refers to himself as the one who loved Jesus. He don't
even use his name. He referred to himself as the
disciple whom Jesus loved. One of the disciples whom Jesus
loved. It's not that God loves some of His elect more than others,
God loves all His elect perfectly in Christ. But our confidence is not our
love to the Lord, it's His love to us. This was John's confidence. This is what it is to worship
God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in our flesh. His confidence was in the Lord's
love to him. The Lord set His love on His
people just because He would and His love was manifest in
that He entrusted all His elect to Christ to do the saving and
didn't leave it in our hands. His love is manifest in that
He sent His only begotten Son. We didn't love Him and yet He
sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Christ said in
John 15, 13, greater love hath no man than this that a man lay
down his life for his friends. That preeminent man, that preeminent
friend is our Lord Jesus Christ. He laid down his life for his
people, his friends. You won't find greater love than
His. And it was God's love that sent
the Spirit to us, sent the Gospel to us, crossed our path with
the Gospel, regenerated us, gave us faith in every blessing we
have to believe on Christ and trust Him and have no confidence
in ourselves. And it's the same love of Christ
that constrains us inwardly to trust Him and to lay upon His
breast and to put it all in His hand and to have no confidence
in ourselves. It's the love of Christ for John
that made John know he could draw close to the Lord, to the
Savior, in communion with the Lord Jesus, just between him
and the Lord. And he could ask Him privately,
Lord, who is it? He was comfortable doing that.
And you know what? The Lord answered him, and him
only. Have you ever asked the question,
do I love the Lord or no? Am I His or am I not? If you're His, you do. If you're
His, you ask that. How are you going to find the
answer to that? Don't go to a man. Any man that tries to convince
you of that ain't worth listening to. You go to Christ. You go to the Lord Jesus Christ,
just like John did, and say, Lord, is it I? Christ will never reject anybody
who comes to Him broken-hearted, desiring to know Him and to know
they are His. He won't reject you. It's called
having mercy. Abraham was continually drawn
near to the Lord and the Lord said in Genesis 18-17, Shall
I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? When the Lord revealed it to
John, here's something else you see. John trusted the Lord to deal
with it. Now you imagine, you're sitting
there and the Lord tells you somebody in the group is about
to betray your Lord, your Savior. And they all thought he was about
to establish an earthly kingdom. They thought he was about to
do that and they were all going to have a position in that kingdom.
And the Lord tells John, it's the one to whom I give a sop.
And he reached out and he dipped the bread in the broth and he
handed it over to Judas. Judas didn't even know what he
was doing. Judas probably thought, he's favoring me. Judas didn't
know what he was doing, but John did. And John didn't say a word. I think that's why when the Lord
came to recover Peter, and him and Peter walked off, I think
that's why John was walking in the back, and I think that's
why John mentioned this again. Because he's trusting the Lord
to deal with Peter. That's what you'll learn to do
if you draw near to Christ, and He is in communion with you,
and making you know He's got it. He's ruling, He's guided,
He's your righteousness and He's the master of your brethren and
He will make them stand! You don't have to worry about
it. And that's peace. To know He's
got it. Christ and His love for us and
the revelation of Himself to us is our strength. to trust
Him, to believe Him, to rest in Him, to cast it all into His
hand. That's how our flesh is subdued.
We think of our flesh as some sin. God has put us together
with sinners so that when your brother sins something that you
consider sin and you get offended by it, God can show you, that's
the sin I'm going to have to save you from. I'm going to deal
with my brother, but you're going to have to be saved from that
sin. of not saying, Lord, is it I? There can't be but one righteousness.
There can't be but one holiness. There can't be but one wisdom.
And there can't be but one redemption and one Redeemer. That's the
Lord Jesus Christ. We can't have a part in it. And we're going to have to be
taught that. And when you've got a fistful
of diamonds, you ain't worried about 30 pieces of silver. And
that's what John had. Because he's in communion with
the Lord. It's nothing in ourselves. It's
not our religious experience. It's not our attainments. It's
not how we've been used in any regard whatsoever. God could
use us and He don't need to use us. God could use us today and
not use us tomorrow. It's not about us. It's not about
anything we've done or will do or can do. This thing is about
the Lord Jesus Christ getting all the glory. And He's going
to get it. Stay near to Christ. Lay upon
His breast. Read His gospel. Go to Him. The moment you start thinking,
well, it's them, it'll never be me. The moment that thought
comes into your head, get to Christ. Turn on a sermon. Read an article. Get to His Word.
Do something and get to Christ and get near, get on His breast
right away and ask Him, Lord, is it I? Save me from me. And the Lord will. And He'll
get the glory. Our confidence and our security
is to be held by incarnate love Himself. And we need His grace
to lie upon His breast continually. Pope Peter learned this. We're
no match for the devil either. And that's all it is when we
start leaning to our own understanding and trying to trust ourselves.
It's the devil having his way with us. by God's permission.
Peter said, we've got to resist Him steadfast in the faith. That
means get to the refuge, get to Christ. Humble yourselves under His mighty
hand, cast all your care on Him for He cares for you. And if
we suffer, now listen, Peter denied, he knew the Lord and
he went out and he left. How are we going to treat a brother
if they do that? Well, John said, if they went
out from us, they were not of us. That's if they go out and
stay out. If you said that about Peter,
you'd have been wrong. See, you've got to use some spiritual discernment
to understand these scriptures. The Lord is who we're going to
trust. And we ask Him, Lord, please
save my brother. You watch for every opportunity. Watch for him to open the door.
And if he opens the door just a little bit, speak a word and seize him. Whatever
he gives you to speak. Until he does that, you can't
do it. But you can pray for him. And you can trust the Lord to
bring him back. And if there he is, that's exactly
what he'll do. That's so of me, you, all of
us. That's so of our sin every day. We ought to know this, we
see it every day. We try to leave a hundred times
a day, and He keeps renewing us and bringing us back. Don't go out, don't sin, don't
take anything I'm saying and think that I'm saying, well,
if God's going to save me, then I'm going to be saved so I can
just live like hell. You'll go to hell. That's not
what I'm saying. I'm saying, and you won't hear
it that way if the Lord's teaching you, you see these things and
it makes you just draw nearer to Christ because you see, I
can't trust me. I need Him. Stay on him, stay on his breast. But I know this, if you do go
out, if you do fall, if you do suffer in any way, and here is
your confidence, if you are not the one falling today and your
brother is falling, here is your confidence right here to make
you not be wildly alarmed. Peter learned this. Peter went
through this. He denied the Lord. He left.
He went back. He was leaving. And he was weeping
bitterly the whole time. And the Lord brought him back.
And you know what Peter wrote? By the Spirit of God, God said,
now Peter, write down, after you've been converted, strengthen
your brethren, feed my sheep. Now write down in your epistle
what you learned from me. And he wrote down, the God of
all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ
Jesus, after that you have suffered a while, will make you perfect,
and establish, and strengthen, and settle you." Just mark it
down. That's what He's going to do. So when you have all confidence
in Christ and none in our flesh, this is where we are. We're laying
upon His breast. And Jude was in there. He saw
all this. You know what he wrote? This
is the other Judas. You know what he wrote? One of
the other Judas's. You know what he wrote? Now unto him that's
able to keep you from falling. What the scripture says, a believer
is going to fall a hundred times a day or something to that effect.
He's able to keep you from falling away. You're going to fall. But he's able to keep you from
falling away. and to present you faultless
before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. To the only
wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power
both now and forever. Amen. Father, we ask you to bless
this word to our hearts. Draw us near to your breast and
cause us to have this communion with Christ. Keep us ever questioning
ourselves and ever trusting you. Lord, we thank you. In Christ's
name we pray. Amen.