Good evening, everyone. Let us
stand and sing Friend of Sinners 43 out of your soft hymnal, number
43. Friend of Sinners. ? Precious Savior, friend of sinners
? ? We as such to Thee draw near ? ? Let Thy spirit dwell within
us ? ? With that love that casts out fear ? to save your let us
know thee as the lord our righteousness ? Hose our hearts to cleave unto
thee ? ? Come and with thy presence bless ? ? Open now thy precious
treasure ? ? Let thy word here freely flow ? ? Give to us a
gracious measure ? ? Tis thyself we long to know ? Come and claim
us as thy portion. Let us all find rest in thee. Leave us not to empty notions. We would find our hope in thee. Not even wet. It's dry. A dry
noodle. It just went right under my heel
and just slid out. All right, I'm going to read
from our text tonight, which is in John chapter 13. I'm going to read verses 18 through
31. This is after our Lord washed the
feet of the disciples. And he says, 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. Now I tell you before it
come, that when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am
he. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me, and he that
receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. 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. Then
the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake. Now
there was leaning on Jesus's 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.
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,
because Judas had the bag, that Jesus had said unto him by those
things that we have need of against the feast, or that he should
give something to the poor. He then having received the sop
went immediately out, and it was night. Therefore, when he
was gone out, Jesus said, now is the Son of Man glorified,
and God is glorified in him." Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Our gracious Lord, we thank you, Father, for your great love for
your people. and Your sovereign grace and
power ruling and reigning over all things. And Lord, we're so
thankful that not only do You control and guide and bring all
things to pass as it pleases You, but Lord, we stand in wonder
and awe at Your love for us. that you would gather us together,
that you would bring us here to hear your word, your gospel
word preached to us, that we should be encouraged and our
hearts lifted up in praise and wonder and awe and rejoicing
in our God. Lord, we thank you for this grace. We thank you for your love. We thank you, Lord, for the redemption,
which you worked perfectly, even in the midst of such awful and
evil wickedness of wicked men. And, Lord, we thank you for gathering
us here tonight, and we pray, Lord, for those about us, those
around us, those in this community and the surrounding communities.
Lord, there's many people, but there's not many truths. There's
only one light, one gospel, one faith, one baptism, one spirit,
one Savior. Lord, we pray that you would
call your people out of darkness and that you would gather your
body together even here, Lord, that you would cause this word
to go forth even as you've established this body here, that you would
cause your word to go forth, that you would call out your
people from darkness, and that you would bring them under the
sound of the preaching of the word of God, that you would heal
your people, that you would heal our hearts, our minds, our bodies,
and that you would indeed fill us with your grace and your spirit,
that you would help us to walk in faith and in love and in service
to one another, rejoicing and praising our God in all things,
because this is the will of our God for us. And Lord, we thank
you. We thank you for your mercy and
your grace in this. We thank you for providing for
us all this time, and we ask that you would continue to provide
for us, that you would feed us with the bread of heaven continually,
Lord. It's in his name we pray and
give thanks. Amen. Let's sing, 113, worthy, worthy
is the Lamb, 113. Worthy, worthy is the Lamb. Ransomed souls, your voices raise. Sing your great Redeemer's praise. Praise Him, God, the great I
Am. Praise the sin-atoning Lamb. Worthy, worthy is the Lamb, sinner
saved by God's decree. Praise the Lamb of Calvary, praise
Him for His dying love. Praise the Lamb enthroned above. Worthy, worthy is the Lamb, Jesus,
Savior, blessed Lamb. We would ever praise your name. You redeemed us with your blood,
made us kings and priests to God. Worthy, worthy is the Lamb,
righteous, just, faithful, and true, are the wonders that you
do. Grace and glory in you shine,
love and mercy all divine. Good evening. Okay, take your Bibles and let's
go to John 13. John chapter 13 is our text. Now, in our text, we witness
the betrayal of Judas when he betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this is a horrible, wicked,
evil, vile sin which Judas committed against the Lord of Glory. Our Lord said in Mark 14 verse
21 that the Son of Man indeed goeth as it is written of Him,
but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. good
were it for that man if he had never been born. Now we see in this chapter here
in our text tonight, a picture of man's depravity. It's the depravity of man. And
the reality is that that depravity that we see exhibited in Judas,
is the same depravity that's in us. He's born of Adam's seed. We're born of Adam's seed. He's
corrupt and vile in his nature. We are corrupt and vile in our
nature. And we cannot save ourselves.
And there's nothing good in us that the Lord should desire us
And so we see this depravity, this horrible, wicked sin in
Judas, and it's terrifying in the sense that we know that there's
nothing good in me. The love that I have for the
Lord, it fails in comparison to the
love that he has for me. And the hope that we have in
the Lord is all of Him. It's all of His grace and mercy. And we're so thankful that He
should call a sinner like me. And each of you knows that He
should call a sinner like me. You say of yourselves, because
any one of us could be this horrible, evil, depraved person right here
at any time. And we've done many horrible,
depraved things for which our Savior died and shed his blood
to put away that sin. But what I want to focus on tonight
are three glorious truths that are revealed here. in this scripture
or which we take from this scripture, some glorious truths that we
may rejoice in the grace of our God. So one is that we see God's
purpose of grace in choosing his people by election. we see that our Savior chose
a people. He has a people whom he's chosen
and set apart for himself. And that brings me to the second
glorious truth that we see is distinguishing grace. distinguishing
grace. Our Lord's grace is what distinguishes
us from those who perish, who die in their sin. And then we also see that our
God is glorified. Even in the rebellion of man,
the wickedness of man, our Savior is glorified in the redemption
of His people by His blood. Psalm 76 verse 10 says, Surely
the wrath of man shall praise thee, the remainder of wrath
shalt thou restrain. I've titled the message for my
love for my love and that comes from a passage in Psalm 109 that
we'll come to early in our in our study here tonight for my
love and it's born out of this sense that it's for that that
he's hated our God is hated for his love. He's hated for his
love and we'll see that this evening how that our God has
love. He is, God is love and he loves
his people and where so ever the love of God is shown, the
wickedness of man, the hatred of man is witnessed, it's seen,
it's seen to fight against it, to oppose the love of God. So, One of the truths that is
brought out here in all of John chapter 13 is the love of our
Savior for his people, for his disciples. It begins in verse
1, John 13 verse 1, Now before the feast of the Passover, when
Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out
of this world unto the Father, having loved his own, which were
in the world, he loved them unto the end. Now, in the midst of
the love which Christ shows, which he displays here for his
disciples in this picture that he gives us in how that he served
his people, when he submitted to the death of the cross to
put away our sin. When Christ submitted himself
to that death in order to give us life, to deliver us from the
wrath and the punishment that our sins deserved, here in the
midst of that demonstration of his love, when he washed his
disciples' feet, we see the response of carnal man is one of hatred,
one of enmity against the Lord of glory. Christ said to the
Jews, I know you that ye have not the love of God in you. He saw that because they hated
Him. They despised Him. They didn't have the love of
God in them. If they loved God, the Father, they would love the
one whom the Father sent, the Lord Jesus Christ. But they didn't
receive Christ. They didn't receive Him. They
rejected Him. Again, in John 8, 44 and 45, Christ told the
Jews, if God were your Father, ye would love me. you would love
me if God were your father. And he added in verse 44 and
45, ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your
father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning,
and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When
he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar
and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth,
ye believe me not. He believed me not. That's what
the natural carnal man born of Adam, generated of Adam, but
not born again. That's exactly what he's of his
father, the devil. Until the Lord delivers us and
gives us a new birth, we go the course of this world. We are
under the spell, under the power of the prince of the air, the
prince of darkness. dead in trespasses and in sins. And so what the Lord shows us
is that darkness despises the truth. Darkness despises the
truth because the truth is a light which exposes darkness. It exposes
what we're doing, what we're trying to keep hidden and trying
to do because we delight in that wickedness. but the light comes,
the truth of the gospel comes, the glory of our Lord comes,
and it's as a light shining on the darkness, and the darkness
hates the light. It does not comprehend the light,
and it doesn't want to come in to the light. And so the Jews,
when they heard Christ speak, declaring truth, they hated him.
And they wanted to murder him. They wanted to take him and murder
him. But because they feared the people,
they had to wait for an opportune time. And so the only reason
why there was even an opportunity for them to take him and to crucify
him is because God would be glorified in him. And because God had purpose
to be gracious to you, his people, because we cannot save ourselves.
We cannot be saved any other way. It must be through the blood
of Christ. Only Christ could save his people.
And so God was glorified in the taking of Christ. And Christ
went willingly to that cross for you, his beloved bride, that
he might put away your sin and give you life, life with him. And so he accomplished this redemption
for us, who now love him because he first loved us. So man's hatred
is brought here to the forefront with Judas' betrayal of Christ. The Jews hated him, and they
took him and crucified him, though he did nothing wrong. Now we
see this in Psalm 109. Go to Psalm 109, and we're going
to look at the first five verses. This is our Lord speaking by
the writing of the psalmist here in the spirit. Verse one, hold not thy peace,
O God of my praise. For the mouth of the wicked and
the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me. They have
spoken against me with a lying tongue. They compassed me or
circled about me, also with words of hatred, and fought against
me without a cause. For my love, they are my adversaries. But I give myself unto prayer,
and they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love. And so we see how utterly corrupt
the heart of man is, how hard, how deceitful, how dark, how
wicked we are by nature. Now, so often through scripture,
the blackness of man's heart is seen most glaringly against
the backdrop of God's love for his chosen people. I'll just repeat that again.
So often throughout scripture, the blackness of man's heart
is seen most glaringly against the backdrop of God's love for
his chosen people and the kindness that he shows toward those who
are undeserving, not deserving of that mercy of God. Now nothing seems to provoke
the hatred in man more than when he sees the love that God has.
for someone. When God shows love to a sinner
who deserves wrath, but seeks him for grace and mercy, and
the Lord shows love to that one, it provokes the hatred of man. And the reason why we even seek
the Lord for mercy and grace is because the Lord will be gracious
and merciful to them. And so it fills the heart of
that one left to himself with enmity and hatred against the
glory, the grace of our God. In Genesis chapter four, it speaks
of Cain and Abel. And we read there that the Lord
had respect unto Abel's sacrifice. Abel brought a lamb. Cain brought
the fruit of his labors from the ground. And the Lord respected
Abel's offering, but unto Cain and to his offering, the Lord
had not respect. And what does it say about Cain
there? It says, Cain was very wroth. He was angry. He was angry and his countenance,
his face, the look on his face, it fell. He was very disappointed
and he was very upset about this. And it says that Cain rose up
and slew his brother Abel. So that's one example right in
the very beginning, how that the Lord showed kindness. He respected what Abel brought,
but Cain, Cain's heart was filled with hatred and he murdered his
brother. When Abraham was celebrating
Isaac's weaning from his mother's breast, it says that Ishmael
mocked him. Ishmael mocked Isaac because
he was the chosen heir of God. Esau, he would have murdered
Jacob if he could have. He was just waiting for his father
Isaac to die and then he was going to murder Jacob because
Jacob had received both the birthright and the blessing. of Jacob, all
according to the will of the Lord. And we're told in Romans
9, verses 11 through 13, that the children being not yet born,
neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of
God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him
that calleth. It was said unto her, unto Rebekah,
the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated." God just passed by Esau, leaving
him right where he was. And Esau seemed like a pretty
decent fellow. He certainly wasn't as conniving
and tricky as Jacob was, but the Lord had mercy upon Jacob. Then Saul, right, we read of
Saul numerous times, he tried to murder David because he had
heard Samuel told him that the Lord has taken the kingdom from
you. And when he saw David being exalted in the eyes of the people
and them singing more glorious accounts of David's conquerings
than what Saul had done, Saul had his hundreds but David his
thousands, He tried to murder David. Samuel had told him, the
Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel. And again,
the Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day,
and hath given it to a neighbor of thine that is better than
thou. And he despised David for it.
His own son Jonathan didn't have that heart. The Lord was merciful
to Jonathan as well, so that Jonathan loved David. but Saul couldn't receive it.
Saul was filled with hatred in his heart for David. And so these
are all examples of reprobates who grew up so very close to
the truth, so close to the blessings of God, to seeing the blessings
of God for his people, and yet they despised the Lord and they
despised the people of the Lord. and it did nothing for them.
It didn't do any good for them being so close to seeing God's
will and purpose for those whom He loves. And so the example
before us here tonight of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, the
one who betrayed Christ, we see this reprobation, this one who
is just turned over to Satan, one who's just a devil and turned
over to Satan. And when we see examples of this
depravity, this hatred, when we witness it, it can be quite
stunning. It can take us back and be very
unsettling because it's hard to comprehend how someone can
be so evil, so callous, so cold, so hard, so indifferent, even
when we've seen it in our own hearts. And this enmity goes
on all around us. It's in our face even, but a
lot of times it just goes by us without us ever even noticing
it. But it's the Lord that keeps
our hearts. And it's the Lord that melts
our hard hearts. When we grow cold and when we
become hard and indifferent and get it in our mind to do a thing
or to just stay on a course of things, it's the Lord that turns
the hearts of His people and turns the footsteps of his people
from doing that which we would do according to the lust of this
flesh, it's the mercy and grace of our God that keeps us. That
keeps us ever looking to him, confessing our sin to the Lord,
confessing, Lord, have mercy on me. Lord, wash my feet. I've gone the way of filth again. Lord, have mercy upon me. It's
all by the grace of God. And so it's very unsettling when
we see it. But I say all these things to
bring us to what the Lord says here in verses 18 and 19. The Lord says, 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. Now I tell you before it come,
that when it come to pass, ye may believe that I am he. So first of all, know this, that
your God is absolutely sovereign. He's controlling. He sits enthroned
in the heavens, ruling and reigning and implementing the will of
God in heaven and in earth, conducting all things exactly according
as it pleases your God. He's got everything in control. And he tells us that everything
that must come to pass shall surely come to pass. Even when he was speaking of
the beginning of sorrows, whether it's wars and famines and pestilences
and earthquakes, he said, see that ye be not troubled. Don't be stirred or moved by
these things, for all these things must come to pass, but the end
is not yet. And we see all kinds of things
that could throw us off and make us worry and fear. And the Lord
says, don't be moved by them. Don't be moved. Your God is sovereign.
I know whom I've chosen. And the Lord knows how to save
them that are his. He plucks his people from the
fire. The fire shall not touch you. You shall not be burned.
You shall not be overwhelmed by the flood. The Lord preserves
you. You're his. You're his precious
possession. When you're moved, pray. By all
means, continue to pray and seek the Lord, but trust Him. Trust Him. He knows your fears,
your worries. He knows that which distresses
you and worries you. He is your God, and He's in perfect
control. And so with this betrayal of
Christ by Judas, this was foretold in the prophets, in the scriptures,
before it ever even came to pass. It comes from Psalm 41.9, Yea,
mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did eat of my
bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. And so, therefore,
this too must come to pass. And the Lord tells us beforehand
so that we're not soon shaken by these things. And so, that
which He says is going to come, will come to pass. It will come
to pass. Just trust Him, because you're
God's sovereign. It's not outside of His control.
And He shows us repeatedly, over and over again, how no matter
what it is, everything that was spoken of in the prophets concerning
Christ has come to pass and been fulfilled. And so everything
our Lord said shall come to pass exactly as he said it shall.
And even if we don't understand it or recognize it or know it,
it's all coming to pass exactly as our Lord purposed. All right,
so when you see the depravity of man's heart, it can be frightening
to us because it's a reminder to us of, is that what I am? Am I nature? Is that my heart?
Is it that? Is that how dark I am? Yes, it is. It is. That's what
we've been saved from. And that's what wicked man does. And that's what we're capable
of doing. But our Lord says to you, who look to Him, who know
what we are in the flesh, who know that there's no righteousness
of our own, He says this word to you, I know whom I have chosen. I know you. I know exactly who
you are. It's no mystery to me. I know
who you are, where you are, where you were when I found you, what
you're predisposed to do. I know who you are. I chose you.
And I put you in the body. And I brought you under the preaching
of the gospel. And I gave you a yearning for
my righteousness, a hungering and a thirst for my righteousness.
I'm the one who put that desire in you, in your heart, to know
me. and I've revealed myself to you
in my Son, Jesus Christ." The hope and the faith that we have,
that you each have, in Christ is not of this flesh. The flesh
doesn't hope in Christ. The Spirit of God bears that
fruit of righteousness in the people of God who know, Lord,
I don't deserve this. Lord, I don't like what I see
in my flesh. Lord, have mercy on me. Save
me, Lord. Forgive me. Wash me, Lord. Not
my feet only, my hands, my head, all of me, Lord. Wash me. It's
sufficient. It's sufficient that your feet
be washed. And the Lord cleanses you and washes you. His grace
is sufficient for his people, I know whom I have chosen. I know, he says. So when we shall
awake in the presence of our God in that day, we shall find
that it was him keeping us all alone. Him working every purpose,
every effect, everything that pleased Him, and bringing everything
to come to pass that was meant and purposed to come to pass.
And we shall see, as we saw this last Sunday, the eternal God
is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. The everlasting arms of your
God, Deuteronomy 33, 27. Now, some things of notice about
Judas here is that he had many privileges. He had things that
many other men didn't have and don't have. He shared the company
of our Lord. He saw the miracles of our Lord. He saw incredible things that
you and I have never seen. He heard the public preaching
of the Lord, and he benefited from hearing the private interpretation
and instruction of the Lord for his disciples when they said,
Lord, we don't understand that parable. What did you mean by
that? He was there when Christ told his disciples in private
what these things meant. He spoke to Christ daily. He
spoke to the Lord daily. And so he saw the love that our
Lord had for his disciples. He was there when their feet
were washed. His feet were washed by the Lord. The Lord stooped down and washed
his feet. In fact, he was also there when
Christ offended Mary and said, you leave her alone. But she's
done a good work on me. She's done what she could in
preparation for my burial. You leave her alone. And Matthew
is the one who actually tells us that after that, that Judas
went unto the chief priests, and he covenanted with them to
betray Christ to them for 30 pieces of silver. That's in Matthew
26, 14. But even after Christ had washed his feet, Christ said
to the disciples in John 13 verse 21 and 22, He said he was troubled
in spirit and testified and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
that one of you shall betray me. Then the disciples looked
one on another, doubting of whom he spake. And in all that time,
Judas never was moved from what he was purposed to do. He didn't
think, well, I think the jig is up here. I'm found out. No,
he was just set on doing what he had purposed to do with his
heart being hard. Then in verse 27 and 28, We're
told that Christ gave Judas the sop, and after the sop, Satan
entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, that
thou doest do quickly. And no man at the table knew
for what intent Christ spake this unto Judas. But Judas knew. He knew what the Lord was saying. In verse 30, it says, he then
having received the sop, went immediately out, and it was night. There and that night, Judas walked
back to Jerusalem, and it was about two miles. And usually,
you know, when you walk, you have time to clear your head
and think and realign things when you're confused or off,
but nothing moved him. His heart remained hard and fixed
to do this wicked deed that he had purposed to do in betraying
Christ. And it's with this backdrop of
his blackness, this awful sin that Judas commits, we see here
the distinguishing grace of God for his people. We see that in
Judas having great opportunities, that doesn't save a person. And having many privileges. doesn't
save anyone. You could grow up under the truth
of the gospel multiple times per week and not ever hear it
and not be moved from the hardness of your heart. You could hear
the greatest preacher who ever lived. He heard Christ preached
probably just about every message that Christ preached publicly,
and yet he wasn't moved or converted by any of that. And so all the
efforts of man cannot save a sinner. It's not by our will. If it was
by our will, our children and family members and those friends
that we love and care for, they'd all believe. And they'd hope
in Christ like we hope in Christ. Now, we should do all that we
can to help others here. And we do. We meet publicly.
We support this work here. And you all contribute greatly
to that because we want others to hear. We do what we can to
make it to be a place where others can come and just quietly, peacefully
hear the gospel. And that's what we should do. And even when there's difficulties
and trials, we seek to show others the love of God that's been shown
to us. As Paul said, that we minister
grace unto our hearers, that minister grace unto our hearers.
And that speaks of we're just living according to the grace
and mercy that our God has had upon us, that we should show
that same kindness and patience to others, knowing that it's
the grace of God that saves sinners and delivers them. And so with all that, though,
salvation is of the Lord. It's not of us, and we can't
make it, and it doesn't matter how great of an exposure we've
had to the truth and sat in it, it comes down to the distinguishing
grace of God that saves a sinner. And so you who believe Christ
are miracles of grace, miracles of grace that you should have
a hope in the Lord Jesus Christ rather than sitting here and
saying, I got them fooled. I got them fooled. They think
I care. No, I know you. I know you as
best as well as I can know you, and I believe that the hope that
we have is that our God, that Christ's blood is sufficient
even for a wretched, vile sinner like me, and that I'm here because
I need His grace and mercy. And I only need His grace and
mercy because He's given me that need and that desire to hear
Him. Even when I know when this flesh
bucks up and rises up and tries to rebel and cast off, the Lord's
so merciful. He doesn't deal with us as we
deserve. He doesn't let us go astray. And we've all had wicked
thoughts and vile ideas that rise up in our heads and hearts
and minds. It's happened to every single
child of God. but he keeps us, and he turns
us back to himself. And that's so merciful, so gracious. That's the love of God shown
to you, that keeps you. Even when we're faithless, he
is faithful still because he cannot deny himself. He's faithful
to the end. He loves his disciples to the
end. And so we see this distinguishing grace, just as it says in Ephesians
2, 4, but God, but God, you were quickened who were dead
in trespasses and sins. We were walking the course of
this world, we were under the power of the devil, but God,
but God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith
he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ, by grace ye are saved. And so only God
can give life, and he has given life. He sends his Holy Spirit
who comes and quickens his people, regenerating us, giving us life
again from the dead, giving us a birth, a new birth, born of
the seed of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he gives gifts of faith and
hope and love and joy and rejoicing with one another unto our God. rejoicing and praising him. In
2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verses 13 and 14 Paul says we are bound
to give thanks always to God for you brethren beloved of the
Lord because God hath from the beginning chosen you unto salvation
through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. He separated you by his spirit
and he's caused you to hear that gospel, to receive it, and to
believe it, because that's his work in you. Whereunto he called
you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. So what we see in Judas is this
enmity and rebellion of man against God, because the carnal mind
is enmity against God. That's what we are by nature.
That's what we've been saved and delivered from. The Lord
said in John 670, have not I chosen you 12? And one of you is a devil. And so the difference between
us and Judas is the grace of our God. It's our God made the
difference in Christ. He called you by our gospel to
the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So you that believe, you believe
because God chose you to this. He also, in writing to the Thessalonians,
in 1 Thessalonians 5 verses 9 through 11, he says, for God hath not
appointed us to wrath. You that believe him are not
appointed unto wrath. That's not what God has ordained
you to. but to glorify you with the Lord
Jesus Christ, to give you an inheritance, a life with the
living God, the one who created you and loved you and gave himself
for you. God hath not appointed us to
wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who
died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we shall live
together with him. Whether we're walking topside
of this earth or we're asleep in the grave, we're immediately
with the Lord. In either case, we live with
him. We live with him. Wherefore,
comfort yourselves together and edify one another, even as also
ye do. Even as you also do. So be encouraged,
brethren. Our Lord said, I know whom I
have chosen. You've been chosen of the Lord.
He set you apart and called you by his gospel and given you faith
and hope and love in him. Rejoice in Him. Now very quickly,
I have one final point. Our election and salvation is
sure in Christ. Now your God allowed this hatred
of Judas to be worked out, to be completed in order to accomplish
your redemption, your purchase with His blood. Without the death
of Christ, we'd still be in our sins, and we would die in our
sins, and we would be cut off eternally from the true and living
God. But instead, our Lord overruled
the wickedness of man. He took it and wrought a most
glorious victory, a most glorious salvation for you whom He loves. Verse 31, John 13, 31, When Judas was gone out, Jesus
said, now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him. And so that's exactly what was
happening. That's exactly what happened. Christ was led away. The Father spared Him not. He went to that cross willingly. and lay down his life as the
sacrifice and the surety of you, his people, paying your debt,
dying your death as your substitute, that you should live forever
in the grace of your God, in the Lord Jesus Christ. God's hated for this love. The carnal man whose enmity against
God hates God's love. And he hates God's people whom
God loves. And that's why they attack God
and the truth of God. That's why they despise you and
attack you because God loves you. you hope in him and you
trust him and believe him. You can't not but believe him
because God has worked that in you. Our Lord said in Matthew
5 11 and 12, blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute
you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for
my sake rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward
in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets which were before
you. And that's even more true for
us today in the sense that Judas betrayed our Lord. He was crucified
willingly as our substitute. They persecuted and killed the
apostles and many witnesses for Christ that you and I should,
that the truth of the gospel should continue with us to this
day. And so rejoice in your God. He's done all things for you
to this point, to this day, to bring you here to hear this gospel
and to rejoice in it. So praise your Lord, rejoice
in Him. I pray that He bless your hearts
with that word and encourage you, and that we encourage one
another in this truth. Amen. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your mercy, for your grace. Lord, we see in ourselves
that which is not right and not good, that which is wicked, and
we see sin and darkness. Lord, we see fruits of bad things
in us, Lord, and it concerns us and troubles us. But Lord,
we cannot deny your mercy and grace in bringing us this gospel
word to hear of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to hear
of his might and power and glory to save us. Even though we are
undeserving sinners, Lord, we thank you that you have given
us your spirit and revealed faith in us, and love, and hope, and
joy in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, keep our hearts, keep our
steps, walking in the way of Christ, walking after Christ. Lord, that we not walk in darkness,
but have the light of life. by the Lord Jesus Christ. We're
so thankful for him. We're so thankful for your mercy
and your distinguishing grace. Help us ever to rejoice in that
which you've done for us through your son, so graciously, so with
such kindness, such peace, such patience. And Lord, thank you. Help us to encourage one another
in this and to be helpers of one another's joy. It's in the
name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we pray. And Lord,
those that are sick and couldn't be with us tonight, but who also
rejoice in this message, we pray that you would so work it and
so make it so that we may come together and rejoice more and
more and more until you come again, Lord Jesus. It's in your
name we pray and give thanks, amen. Let's all stand and sing a closing
hymn, 103. Glory, glory, unforgiven. 103. So, Glory, glory, I'm forgiven All
my sins are washed away Christ, by His great blood atonement
All my sin has put away Sin imputed to my Saviour when He died upon
the tree. As the substitute for sinners,
God will not impute to me. Glory, glory, I'm accepted, robed
in Christ's own righteousness. I'm a child, an heir of heaven,
saved by God's almighty grace. Christ's obedience to the Father
is imputed now to me. In God's sight of pure and holy,
He declares me so to be. Glory, glory, I'll not perish. In Christ's hands I am secure. Who saved me sure will keep me,
by God's grace I shall endure. This is not a faint presumption,
I just take Him at His word. Christ has sworn he shall not
perish, who believe on me their Lord.