Matthew chapter 26. I've been
reading over this passage of scripture for a while and I see
what's there. And I'm thankful that the Lord
has given me, I believe, a message for you tonight on this passage
of scripture. Matthew chapter 26 and verse
20 was our text. The scripture says now. Now when even was come, he sat
down with the twelve, and as they did eat, he said, Verily
I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. And they were
exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto
him, Lord, is it I? And he answered and said, He
that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray
me. The Son of Man goeth as it is
written of him. But woe unto that man by whom
the Son of Man is betrayed. It had been good for that man
if he had not been born. Then Judas, which betrayed him,
answered and said, Master, is it I? And he said unto him, Thou
hast said. In other words, you said it.
You said it. The title of the message this
evening is The Betrayer Exposed. The Betrayer Exposed. Now, at this time in our text,
Jesus' departure from this world was very near. Matter of fact,
this was the last night that the Lord Jesus Christ would dwell
with His disciples before His crucifixion. It was the last
night He would spend with them. It was the last opportunity that
they would hear from Him before His crucifixion and resurrection. And those disciples, these disciples
he gathered with, were the ones that he himself had chosen. He says, And when even was come,
he sat down with the twelve. These twelve men were given a
great and blessed privilege to be called the disciples of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now Jesus says to these disciples
on this final night, before He was crucified, if you go over
into Luke's account, look at Luke's account of this text in
chapter 22, and look at verse 15. Luke chapter 22 and verse 15,
the Lord says unto them, with desire, I have desired to eat
this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say unto you,
I will not any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the
kingdom of God. He desired with great desire
to eat this Passover with them. This was His heart. This was
His will. This was His desire to eat this
Passover with His disciples. Therefore, let us consider how
much more, now that after He has suffered once for sins, the
sins of His people, Consider that after He has forever redeemed
His people from their sins and satisfied God's justice, how
much more does He now desire to be with His people? He desired
with great desire, He said, I desire to be with you. How much more
now after He has accomplished redemption do you suppose the
Son of God desires to be with His people? Now that justice has been satisfied,
now that our sins have been removed as far as the east is from the
west, Jeremiah says this of his one
offering. He said, The Lord, thus saith
the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there
shall be none. The sins of Judah and they shall
not be found. Listen, for I will pardon them. This is why our sins and iniquities
will not be found even when God Himself searches for them. They
will not be found because God said, I will pardon them. Not
unjustly, but by the blood of His Son. He has pardoned His
people. The old Jesus who desires to
eat with his disciples before he suffered. The scripture says
in this time, in John chapter 13, it says, the Lord having
loved his own, he loved them unto the end. He loved them unto
the end. And in that same passage, you
remember the eternal Son of God. It says He came from God and
went to God. He came from God. And remember
that scene now, as He sits with His disciples and He eats with
them. He's desired. He tells them, I desire to eat
with you. I desire to spend time with you
before I suffer. And then He gives them this great
picture. of by washing their feet. He says He came from God. And
as He took off His robe and robed Himself with that towel, He began
to wash their feet. Isn't that what He did when He
came from God? He disrobed His glory. He disrobed His honor. And He wrapped Himself in the
towel of humanity and came down to earth. The Scripture says,
the Son of God, the Word of God was made flesh and dwelt among
us. In grace and fulfillment of the
covenant of grace, he made of himself no reputation, laid aside
his garments of deity and praise and glory, and girded himself
with humility. God was made flesh and dwelt
among us. To do what? What was he here
to do? He was here to do the will of
the Father. He said, I came not to do mine
own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And what was the
will of Him that sent Him? It was to wash His disciples'
feet. It was to cleanse them from all
their sin. That's what it pictured. He washes
us. He purged us, the Scripture says,
by His own blood. Hebrews chapter 1, after he had
purged us by his one offering, he sat down on the right hand
of the majesty on high. You see, he came to wash us from
our sins. And he came to wash us with his
own hands. Consider that. He loved his disciples
so much, he girded himself with that towel. He bent down and
washed them. He served them. He, being their
Lord and Master, served them and washed His feet with what? His own hands. Isn't that a picture
of salvation? That He did it with His own hands?
That He washed us from our sins? We had nothing to do with it.
Therefore, behold the good news that He has washed... He said... Read it. I don't want to misquote
it. In John chapter 13, he said,
He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is
clean every wit. He is clean every wit. Oh believer,
hear the blessed truth. He that is bathed doesn't need
to be bathed again. Isn't that right? If you're washed,
what do you need a new bath for? You don't. What needs to be cleansed
is only that which touches the earth. Our feet. That's a picture of our conscience,
isn't it? Our feet. We live on this world and we
feel the guilt of our sins. And He continually washes our
conscience from dead works. He continually washes us. As
long as we are in this body, as long as we have this old man
of sin, our conscience often becomes
defiled. We know and believe Jesus Christ
has redeemed us, yet because we still sin, because we cannot
see any righteousness in ourselves, we feel the weight of guilt.
Is that not true with you? You who believe, is that not
so? Even though we know, we know He has cleaned us every whit,
yet the guilt piles on our conscience daily. Have you loved Him like
you should? Have you believed Him like you
should? Have you honored Him? You see, all of these things,
they come in and they weigh on our conscience. And what does
His Word do? washes it away. John says this in 1 John 1, he
says, we know God's holy. In him is light and dwelleth
no darkness at all. And I'll tell you this, if you're
a true believer, you love holiness. You do want to be holy. And we
walk in the light as He is in the light. We walk by faith.
And yet if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and
the truth is not in us. But because we have a holy nature,
that's why we confess our sins. Only a man who has a new nature
is going to confess his sins and have need of cleansing. Only
a man who is filthy needs to be cleansed. Isn't that right?
And so it is with the believer. Only the believer knows his need
of cleansing. Do you know your need of cleansing?
Do you not realize what a miraculous, supernatural thing that is? That's
not natural. It's not natural to know our
need of Christ and His blood as the only source of cleansing. I know that. And so what do I
do? I confess my sins to Him. I confess. And so does every believer in
Christ. And what does He do? He gently washes us. Therefore, consider the Scripture. As it was the desire of our great
Lord and Savior before He was crucified, how much greater is
His desire now to be with us? Has it lessened? Look around you in the world.
Does that cause Him to lessen His desire to be with us because
of the evil in the world? Consider this, that not even
your own evil causes Him to be less desirous to be with you.
His love never diminishes because it's not based on what we do. His love is infinite and it's
based solely on His own sovereign grace. He says, I will save you
not because of you. He said, I desire to be with
you not because of what you can add to me. I desire to be with
you because of my own sovereign will. I love you because I will
love you. And I'll keep loving you because
I will keep loving you. Consider his great desire, believer,
to be with us. How much more so is His desire
for us now that He is risen, now that His suffering is past? It is His heart's desire to be
with you. Now know, we know this, that
His disciples were with Him bodily. At this time his disciples, he
sat and ate with them, and they looked across the table at the
Lord of glory. They saw him! They saw him. No, we don't see him as bodily
yet. Soon, soon we will, when all
of the sheep are gathered in, when all of the elect are called
in, then He will come and dwell with us and eat with us bodily. He said, I'm not going to eat
again, not till I'm with you in the kingdom. I won't do it
again until I have all of you with me. But now, for now, Jesus has given
us his Holy Spirit to dwell with us. No, we can't see him face
to face, but I know he's here. How do I know that the Lord Jesus
is here? Because his spirit dwells in
each one of his own. The Apostle says that he that
hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his. Now if you don't
have the Spirit of God, you are none of his. I think these, of
course, these men are fools who talk about a second blessing
as though you can be saved without the Holy Spirit. And then somehow
the Holy Spirit comes later. No, you can't be his unless you
have his Spirit dwell in you. But now He has given us His Spirit. He's given us His Spirit. Who?
We who cry, Abba, Father. And He leads us by His Spirit.
J.D. and I were talking and he said,
you know, when you preach the gospel, I know it's the truth.
And I told him, I know how you know it's the truth because the
Spirit of God testifies with our spirit that we are the sons
of God. I know it's true because the
Spirit of God dwells in us. He lives in us. And this is how
we know the truth. We don't know the truth because
we're smarter. We know the truth because the Spirit of God dwells
in us. And yet there's another sense
in which Christ meets with us, because when you leave here,
Christ will leave with you. That is no doubt. By His Holy
Spirit, wherever you go, that's where the Spirit of God is, with
you, in you, in this mortal body. But I'll tell you, there's another
sense in which Jesus dwells with His disciples, and that is in
the public worship and fellowship of the saints. Jesus Christ said,
not the preacher, Not the minister, not merely brethren, but the
Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord said, where two or three are gathered
together in my name, there I am in the middle of them. There
I am in the midst of them. You redeemed children of God.
You should consider how great his desire is to meet with you. I know that we, in preparation
for coming, have a lot of things going on. And a lot of time we let that
get in the way of our desire to be with him. Listen, nothing gets in the way
of His desire to be with you. Nothing. His desire is infinitely
true and gracious. It doesn't fall. Our desire is
like passion. It goes and it comes and it goes
and it's up and it's down. Our desire moves. His desire
is infinitely unchangeable. He always desires to be here
with you. And this should strike us to
the quick that we don't always desire to be with Him. Now, if
you're just honest, that's just so. Go to Song of Solomon. Song of Solomon chapter 2. Now
this is the Lord speaking to His church. This is the Lord
Jesus Christ and His showing His desire to be with you. He
says in verse 10 of chapter 2, The bride said, My beloved spake,
and he said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come
away. For, lo, the winter is past,
and the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth,
and the time of singing birds is come, and the voice of the
turtle is heard in the land. The fig tree put forth her green
figs, and the vines her tender grape be of good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away." Look at chapter 4. Chapter 4 in verse 8. Come with me. Is that not good enough? Come
with me, says my Beloved. From Lebanon, my spouse, with
me from Lebanon, look from the top of Shinar and Hermon, from
the lion's dens and from the mountains of the leopards. Thou
hast ravished my heart. Did you hear that? That's what
he says about you. That's what he says about you.
You have ravished my heart. Look over in chapter 5, verse
1. I am come into my garden, my
sister, my spouse, I gathered my myrrh with my spices. I have
eaten my honeycomb with my honey. I have drunk my wine with milk.
Eat, O friends, drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved. And what do we do? I sleep. I sleep, but my heart waketh.
It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open unto
me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled. Do you not see
he always desires to be with you? And yet how often do we not desire
to be with him? He is often, He is all the time
desiring to be with us. Even so, as you sit here tonight,
He is with you. And my own heart smites me for
unbelief. He is with you to feast on His
Word tonight. The bread and the meat which
Jesus feasts on is the salvation of His people and the praise
of His saints. And we feast on His body and
His blood which are meat and drink indeed. For by Him we are
made pure and righteous before God. By His name our prayers
are heard and received into the loving ears of the Father." Do
you not realize every time you cry, He hears? Every time. Every time. Isn't it just reasonable that
every time he speaks, we should hear? We should. Because Jesus Christ is our mediator,
God says in Jeremiah 33, call on me and I will answer thee
and show thee great and mighty things which thou knewest not. What great and mighty things
has he shown you? such things as God manifest in
the flesh. Jesus, whom we knew not, now
we know. He, whom we despised, we now
worship. He who has gone and done great
things, such as our election, such as our redemption, such
as our calling and quickening of the Spirit, and such as His
giving the grace and mercy, His great and manifold mercies that
never cease. Behold, tonight, thy Savior has
come and sat down with us, even now, to feast. Go back to your
text. He said, with great desire I've
done this, and what did he do? He said he sat down with the
twelve. That's the second thing I want
us to notice this, is he not only desired and ate with his
people, but I noticed this, that all twelve were present. He ate with the twelve. This means that Judas Iscariot,
The one who was to betray our Lord was also among them. He was also among them. Behold
the lesson that the Holy Spirit would teach us in this place,
that wherever the true church is gathered, false professors
also come. wherever two or three or three
hundred thousand believers gather together to worship Jesus Christ. And He dwells with them. He comes
with them. He desires to be with them. But
not only is Jesus present, but also false professors of faith. You remember in Job when it says
the Son of Man came to present themselves before God. You know
what was happening? Church service. Worship service. That's what was happening. And
you know who came also? Satan. I tell you, there's more going
on here than we can see. There's more going on than we
can see. Wherever there are sheep, there
will always be goats. Wherever the wheat appear, the
tares will also appear. Judas was such a pretender as
this. He was chosen of the Lord to
be one of the 12, and although Jesus knew he was a devil, Jesus
knew he was not one of his sheep, yet Jesus allowed him to be among
them. You could tell that in John chapter
6. You can read it later. He said, Have I not chosen you
twelve, and one of you is a devil? Jesus knew from the beginning
who his were and who was not his. Yet Judas was allowed such
great privileges to hear, to see the Son of God. How many
prophets before desired to see the Son of God in flesh? And
yet Judas was given such a privilege. You are given me to preach the
gospel to you. Now, that's what you have. Judas
had the greatest preacher that ever lived, the Lord Jesus Christ. What a great privilege. He had
the most powerful, the wisest preacher that ever lived, even
though he was not one of God's sheep. Even so, I tell you, there
are many goats, many tares, many false professors who are given
such great privileges as hearing the gospel of God's grace. Even by a man of God to preach
who is sent for the sheep, they also may benefit from it. These false disciples seem to
enjoy the gospel just like the true disciples did. They profess
to believe on Jesus Christ. They're baptized. They eat the
Lord's Supper. They come and attend the worship
services. And I'll tell you, at times,
even false professors are given feelings of His presence. Consider King Saul. You remember
what happened to him when the Lord chose him to be the king?
He actually got to hear Samuel, one of the greatest prophets
of all time. And I'll tell you, Samuel loved
Saul. Even when God rejected Saul, the Scriptures tell us
that Samuel had a great affection for Saul. And you remember that
time that Saul was out there with those prophets, and what
did he do? The Scripture says he prophesied in the Spirit. He said, look, Saul must be a
prophet. He's preaching. Even so was Judas like this,
even being one of the twelve. He preached and he did miracles. And he, like Saul, was only a
pretender. How many Judas's are there even
in the pulpits of those who believe in the doctrines of grace? Jesus at this suffer, that he
desired to be with his disciples. Jesus tells them in verse 21
of our text, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray
me. one of you shall betray me."
Even so now, Jesus says to his church, beware, for there are
sheep come in wool, there are sheep, there's come some in sheep's
clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. Now let me ask you this, at this
time could the disciples tell Judas was the betrayer? Did they know? They didn't know. They didn't know. Believer in
Christ, let not your heart be troubled by this, so as to look
around you and try to discern who are true believers and who
are not. But let this warning move us
as it did the disciples. Look what it did to them in verse
22. It says, They were exceeding sorrowful and began every one
of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I? Is it I? The better question is not, is
it you? Or is it her? Or is it him? The question that we should ask
concerning this warning, is it me? Am I the one? I say, that I truly want to know. Do you not also want to know? If there be one among you who
would betray the Lord Jesus Christ, would you not want to know, is
it I? I want to know like John Bunyan.
Tis a point, I long to know. Oft it causes anxious thought.
Do I love the Lord or no? Am I His or am I not? And notice those who question
themselves, they question themselves first. We're true disciples. Only the true disciples question
themselves above everybody else. Why is that? Why is it that you,
believer, question yourself above everybody else? Well, because
you know yourself. You know yourself. These true
disciples questioned themselves even because they knew their
own nature. Believer, do you know your own
nature to be absolutely corrupt and depraved? Don't you know your heart is
deceitful and desperately wicked above all things? This is surely one of the first
things that every child of God must see. that he is the sinner. You see, the publican, he didn't
look around. He looked down and he said, Lord,
be merciful to me, the sinner. Depravity is not just a doctrine
to be accepted and heard, but it is a doctrine that we believe
because we experience it. It's one we experience who believe
that we are altogether wicked. I know this about me. Seeing the old man in the flesh
are still with us and in us, I know that in myself dwelleth
no good thing. I know that. Every true believer
knows this by experience. This old man of sin surely fills
our hearts, the hearts of the saints, with great sorrow, doubts,
and fears, for we know that we are sinners of the worst kind.
Let me ask you, what then made the difference between Peter
and Judas? Did they not both betray the
Lord Did the Lord not foretell of
their great sins even before they did them? How is it that
Peter was saved and Judas was damned, even because Peter was
loved of God and Judas was hated? The difference is that Jesus
prayed for Peter and did not pray for Judas. He said, when
you have betrayed me, when thou art converted, he said, I have
prayed for you. Oh, Satan, Satan hath desired
to sift thee as wheat, but here's the reason why you're not falling
off forever. I have prayed for thee. There's
a difference. The difference between Judas
and Peter is God, Christ. You remember in John 6, he said
to Judas, one of you is a devil, and he meant Judas. But the same
time that Peter said, We believe thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. He said, Flesh and blood hath
not revealed that unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
What made the difference? God made the difference. What
makes the difference between you and those who are betrayers
of the Lord Jesus Christ? True believers and false believers. The difference is God makes the
difference. God makes the difference. Oh, you professing saint, does
this trouble you? Do you desire to know which you
are, Peter or Judas? I do. It's of infinite importance
to my soul that I should know what I am. Notice the answer that Jesus
gives that reveals the distinction. Look at this. And he answered,
they said, Lord, is it I? So you're asking the question,
the Lord is gathered together with us tonight. He's here. And you may have doubts and fears
as to whether you are his or not. You should ask him, Lord, is
it I? Will I leave you? Has that thought
not come to your mind? Will I betray you? Will I go
away? I've seen others stronger than
me go. Will I go too? Listen, here's who's going to
go. He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same
shall betray me. This dish was the same dish that
the Lord was going to take bread from and institute his supper.
Which is a picture of salvation, isn't it? There's the dish. The
bread is in the dish. And he was going to use that
to picture our salvation. And as he reaches for the bread,
who else reaches in with him but Judas? What is this picturing? See, those who betray the Lord
Jesus Christ, those who are false professors of faith, they put
their hand in with His. They put their hands in the work
of salvation with Him. Let a man try so hard as he will,
work so hard as he will in religion, work so hard as to fill up even
the smallest of righteousness. Let him try to add to the finished
work of Jesus Christ. That man is a betrayer of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and he robs God of His glory. Any man who
puts his hand to the work of Christ robs God of His glory. He's a betrayer of God. Psalm
3, verse 8, Salvation belongeth unto the Lord. Psalm 62, 11,
Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy. Daniel 9, 7, Righteousness,
O Lord, belongeth unto thee. Salvation belongs to who? God. Righteousness belongs to who?
God. Mercy belongs to who? God. Therefore, salvation, righteousness,
and mercy are given only by God through Jesus Christ. God said, I am the Lord, that
is my name, and my glory I will not give to another. Is that
not plain that He's not going to share in this glory? Salvation's
His. Mercy's His. Salvation's His
and He'll give it to whomsoever He will. And He'll give it by
grace. Betrayer, you are the man who
professed faith in Jesus Christ, but also are the one that put
your hand to the work of salvation. You remember over in Exodus chapter
20 and verse 25, God said, when you build an altar, put the stones
on top of each other but the day you put your tool to it you
defiled the sacrifice Paul calls this in Colossians
2 23 will worship works religion These betrayers are those who
say, Jesus is my Savior, but try to add their will or decision
or works or ceremony or something to finish his work. Something. Now listen, I don't
care how much a man jumps up and down and professes to believe
Jesus. I don't care how much he says,
oh, how I love Jesus. If he adds one thing to the work
of Jesus Christ, he is a betrayer of Christ. You now see the distinction now?
God's people add nothing to the salvation of Christ. To us, he is all our salvation. And you know what we had to do
with it? Absolutely nothing. We dare not put our hand in with
his. He saved us by His own free and
sovereign grace. And I tell you this, if I'm going
to be kept, it is going to be by this same free sovereign grace. Therefore, we, His true disciples,
add nothing to His work, lest we defile it. We confess if there's
one thing, one sin, or one act of righteousness that we must
make up when we are doomed forever. But praise be to God that Jesus
has done it all. Now then, you who believe, You
should rejoice, for it is your Master's desire to be with you."
It's your Master's desire that you be with Him. To hear His
Word, to feast with Him. Yes, there will be false brethren
come in and go out. Have we not seen that? I have.
John says, they went out from us because they were not of us. If they were of us, they would
have no doubt continued with us. But that it may be manifest,
they were not with us, they went out, they left. Eventually, Judas was found out,
wasn't he? He wasn't found out by the disciples.
They didn't say, aha, we knew it was him. They didn't know.
Neither will we. I don't know who among you are
true believers and who are not. That's not my business. God will
eventually separate those. It is our business to make sure
I'm not a betrayer of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I confess salvation is completely
and absolutely of Jesus Christ alone. And in that I rejoice. And so
do his true believers, his true disciples. May God add the blessing
to this, his word, I pray. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.