Go with me, if you would, back
to Matthew 26. The longer that I do this, the more
maybe clear it is to me or the more it is the desire of my heart
that we would just get a hold of one thing. I think about that
a lot. If we could just get a hold of
this one thing, if we could walk out of here really entering into one thing,
proven by God's word, it would be beneficial to us. That's what
I pray will happen today. I have something that I deeply
desire for us to get a hold of. If we could get a hold of this,
it would have great eternal significance. So may the Lord help me to really,
really preach this. Our Lord right here is in the
Garden of Gethsemane. And he told his disciples, you
remember, he left them and he went a stone's cast away and
he told them, you watch and pray with me, but they kept falling
asleep. So verse 45 says, then cometh
he to his disciples and saith unto them, sleep on now and take
your rest. Behold, the hour is at hand and
the son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. And when that time came, verse
46 says, our Lord said to the disciples, rise, let us be going. Behold, he is at hand that doth
betray me. And while he yet spake, lo, Judas,
one of the 12, came and with him a great multitude with swords
and staves from the chief priests and elders of the people. Now
he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I
shall kiss, that same is he, hold him fast. Whoever I walk
up to and kiss. And forthwith he came to Jesus
and said, hail, master, and kissed him. You know what that word
hail means? It means rejoice. Be glad. Rejoice exceedingly. Be well. Thrive. It means Godspeed. Godspeed. What a liar. What a liar. Verse 49, forthwith he came to
Jesus and said, hail, master, and kissed him. And Jesus said
unto him, friend, wherefore art thou come? Then they came and
laid hands on Jesus and took him. And behold, one of them
which were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword
and struck a servant of the high priests and smote off his ear.
Then said Jesus unto him, put up again thy sword into his place,
for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.
Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my father, and he shall
presently give me more than 12 legions of angels? But how then
shall the scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be? And in
that same hour, said Jesus to the multitudes, are you come
out as against a thief? with swords and staves for to
take me. I sat daily with you teaching
in the temple and you laid no hold on me. But all this was
done that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.
Then all the disciples forsook him and fled." I've titled this
message, Sovereignty and Unbelief. And I was gonna title this message,
False Religion. or the danger of false religion.
And while our brother was just reading it, I thought, no, I
think I may title it something completely different. So I don't
actually know what the titles would be. But originally it was
false religion or the danger of false religion. And you may
think that sounds like an odd title for this portion of scripture. But I believe after we look at
exactly what was said here and exactly what was done here, you'll
see why I thought about titling it that. I want to start by saying that
the two main things that we see in what we just read are sovereignty
and unbelief. That's what we see in this. Sovereignty
in the sense that everything that we just read was being ordered
and controlled by God Almighty, all of it. Verse 45, then cometh
he to his disciples and said unto them, sleep on now and take
your rest. Behold, the hour is at hand and
the son of man is betrayed into the hands of sin. He said, sleep
while you can because I'm about to be betrayed. He announced to them before it
happened, this is what's going to happen tonight. Verse 46, he said, rise, let
us be going. Behold, he's at hand, that doth
betray me. He said, it's time to wake up
because Judas is about to walk up with a mob. Verse 47, while he yet spake,
lo Judas, One of the 12 came and with him a great multitude
with swords and staves from the chief priest and elders of the
people. Verse 50, and Jesus said unto
him, friend, wherefore art thou come? Why have you come? Which
he was always with the Lord for three and a half years up to
this point. Wherever the other 11 were, that's where he was.
But the Lord said, why have you come? Now here's the thing about
it. Our Lord knew why he came. He just said in verse 21, if
you look at verse 21, 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? He said unto him, Thou
hast said. John's account expounds on that
a little bit. Look with me at John 13. John 13 verse 18 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, you 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
unto him that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake.
He then lying on Jesus's breast said 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, buy
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. And between
that moment and the moment that Judas came with the mob, our
Lord prayed in John 17. If you look at John 17, verse
9. He said, I pray for them. He's
talking about his chosen elect people. I pray not for the world,
but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine.
And all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I'm glorified in
them. And now I'm no more in the world, but these are in the
world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine
own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one
as we are. While I was with them in the
world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me I have
kept and none of them is lost but the son of perdition that
the scripture might be fulfilled. That's Judas. He said the son
of perdition has been lost according to the scripture. And then after our Lord prayed
that, look at chapter 18, verse three. It says, Judas, then having
received a band of men and officers from the chief priest and Pharisees
cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons. So our
Lord sovereignly declared each moment that took place that night
before it happened. And he did that to show and to
prove his absolute control over all of it. All right, now go
back to Matthew 26. Everything here went according
to our Lord's sovereign control, which was also according to the
scriptures. All right, verse 51. Behold,
one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew
his sword and struck a servant of the high priest and smote
off his ear. Then said Jesus unto him, put up again thy sword
into his place for all they that take the sword shall perish with
the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now
pray to my father and he shall presently give me more than 12
legions of angels? According to my Bible dictionary,
one legion is 6,000 infantry. 12 legions, he said, do you not
think that I can call on my father and he would immediately give
me 72,000 angels to wipe this mob out? I don't
know how many Judas had in the mob, but our Lord, you remember
the Lord sent one angel one time to wipe out some soldiers
and that one angel slew 185,000 soldiers. So if the Lord sent 72,000 angels,
they could at least wipe out 13,320,000,000 men like that.
I don't think Judas had more than that with the mob. But do
you see our Lord was saying, our Lord was saying something
in that. Verse 53, thinkest thou that
I cannot now pray to my father and he shall presently give me
more than 12 legions of angels? But how then shall the scripture
be fulfilled that it must be, this must be? In that same hour
said Jesus to the multitudes, are you come out against me as
a thief with swords and staves for to take me? I sat daily with
you teaching in the temple and you laid no hold on me, but all
this was done that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. then all the disciples forsook
him and fled. So everything that happened that
night was according to his sovereignty and it was according to the law
of his holy scriptures. That's the first thing we see,
sovereignty, sovereignty, order, exact control. The second thing
we see is unbelief. Clearly unbelief on the part
of Judas and that mob. You would think that after Judas
had been with the Lord for three and a half years and had seen all the miracles
that our Lord did and witnessed all of his words of prophecy
that came true, you would think that Judas would believe. But faith had not been given
to him and he ended up showing himself to be an enemy of Christ. Whoever faith is not given to
is an enemy of Jesus Christ. That's one side of unbelief here,
but the other side is shown by another person here in this story,
and this is the side that our Lord warned against. This is
the one our Lord reprimanded, and it's the one that we all
must truly guard against. When we pray, Lord, help our
unbelief, This is the unbelief that every single one of us needs
help with. I pray God will open our eyes
to this. This is what I meant. If we could walk out of here
really understanding this. Again, I thought about titling
this message, False Religion. False Religion. And this is why,
okay? Verse 50. Jesus said unto him, Friend,
wherefore art thou come? Then came they and laid hands
on Jesus and took him. And behold, one of them which
were with Jesus, John 18 tells us it was Peter. One of them which were with Jesus
stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck a servant
of the high priest and smote off In that moment of trouble,
this is what Peter said in his heart, I'll handle this. That's what he said. He needs
my help. That's why he did that. He needs
my help. I'll add my hand to this. I'll put my sword in this
battle. And that right there is the works
of the flesh. That's what it is. It is the
works of the flesh. You say, yeah, but Peter had
good intentions. You know, he had a zeal for God.
Yes, he did. Just like another man that we've
heard of in the Old Testament named Uzzah. They were moving the Ark of the
Covenant. It was on an ox cart and the ox stumbled and this
man Uzzah thought the Ark of God was going to fall off that
cart and he put his hand on it to steady it. God killed him. God is holy. And man does not
lay his hand to the work of God, to the holiness of God. And you
can say, well, Peter right here, he was doing what, you know,
he thought needed to be done. He thought the Lord needed, he
had good intentions and this and that. Yes, but his intentions
and his zeal were intentions and zeal of unbelief. unbelief that said in the heart,
consciously or unconsciously, it said in the heart, he can't
do this alone. I must help him. That is the works based heart
of false religion. That's false religion. And our
Lord reprimanded Peter for it, and he told him, it is not gonna
be. That is not gonna be. Verse 52, then said Jesus unto
him, put up again thy sword into his place, for all they that
take the sword shall perish with the sword. That's probably what
I need to title this. Take the sword, perish with the
sword. He said, if you put your hand
to my work, you're going to die in your sins. Verse 53, thinkest
thou that I cannot now pray to my father and he shall presently
give me more than 12 legions of angels? Do you not believe
in me? Do you not believe on me? Luke's account tells us that
the man whose ear was cut off, his name was Malchus. And it
says the Lord, when he said that to Peter, the Lord touched Malchus's
ear and healed it. He just grew a new ear. So not
only did Peter's efforts not help the Lord, they all had to
be undone. Not only were they of no help,
they all had to be undone. And that's how it is with us. False religion has been lying
to men and women since the adversary told Eve, you need to put your
hand to this. You need to add your hand to
this. Grace is not enough. God's grace
is not enough. God's work, God's effort, that
is not enough. And what our Lord told Peter
right here, He says that to every man and woman on this earth.
If you try to take the sword of salvation and the sword of
deliverance into your hand, you're going to die in your sins. If
you try to add your effort to salvation, you're going to die
in that effort. Salvation is by the sovereign
work of Christ alone. Christ alone, the moment we see
that, the moment we bow to that, salvation has come to us. Salvation
has been revealed to us. The works and the efforts of
man is false religion. It's false religion. When our
Lord called Brother Gary Perkins home, Sam's dad, Brother Tony and I conducted
his funeral. And one of the statements that Brother Tony made was, and
I have put this in my pocket, I'm gonna use this, I'm gonna
repeat this. One of the statements that he
made was, He was talking about how Brother Gary was so instrumental
in being a brother and a comfort when the Lord started revealing
the truth of God's gospel and God's sovereign grace to him
and the fellowship they had. And this is what he said. He
said, all my life I heard men in pulpits tell me what I needed
to do for God. And he said, when the truth of
the gospel came to me, for the first time I heard a man in a
pulpit tell me what God had already done for me. And that's the difference. And that's the issue. And if
we could get a hold of that, if we could ever get a hold of
that, that's the difference in the truth and a lie. That's the
difference in salvation and damnation. That's the difference in the
finished work of Jesus Christ. The gospel of the finished work
of Jesus Christ and false religion. False religion. Judas and this
mob, they were taking him to the cross. And he said, it must
be so. It must be so. If I do not accomplish
this work of redemption, there is no salvation. And he said,
if I do not accomplish the work alone, there is no salvation. The Father has placed this work
into my hand alone. And this whole thing is going to
be done by the work of my hand alone. That's grace. You hear people talk about grace
plus us adding our hand to grace. It's no longer grace. The work of God alone, the hand
of God alone, that's grace. It is no more grace the moment
we try to add our works to it. Look at Romans 11 with me. Romans 11 verse 5 says, even
so then at this present time also, there is a remnant according
to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no
more of works. Otherwise grace is no more grace. Everybody tries to figure out
when they hear about grace, the first thing this flesh tries
to figure out is, okay, now we got grace. How much of my own
work am I supposed to add to it? Everybody tries to figure that
out. Now wait a minute. What part of this is me? None. No part. It's Christ. If it's me, it's
not Christ anymore. It's grace, and if it's my work,
then it's not grace anymore. Verse six, if by grace, then
it's no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace.
If it be of works, then it's no more of grace. Otherwise,
work is no more work. What he's saying is, it's one
or the other. It cannot be both. It just cannot
be both. The works of our sinful flesh
is like leaven, the scripture says. That's what puffs bread
up. You just put a little bit in there and the whole thing
gets puffed up. That leaven is our sin. You just put a little
bit of our sin in it and the whole thing is ruined. You drop
one drop of poison in there, I ain't drinking that. The whole
thing is ruined. It's not what we're gonna do
for God, it's what God has done for us. And Peter found that
out to be so. I'll close with this. Go to 1
Peter 1. 1 Peter 1, verse 1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ
to the stranger scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace unto you. Peter said, it's grace unto you
and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. He did it. That's what he's saying.
He did it. We didn't help him. He did it.
Verse 4, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth
not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power
of God. Not by the power of man. Kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time. Verse 18, he said, for as much
as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things
as silver and gold from your vain conversation, received by
tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily
was ordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest
in these last times for you who by him do believe in God. that raised Him up from the dead
and gave Him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God,
seeing you have purified your souls and obeying the truth through
the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren. See that you
love one another with a pure heart, fervently being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the Word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever." Verse 24, he said,
for all flesh is as grass. And all the glory of man is the
flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the
flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord endureth
forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you." He said it is not man's works.
It is God's grace, and it is God's grace alone. Alone. Salvation is of the Lord alone. The longer that God's people
live on this earth, the more they will come to believe that. Honestly. The more their God-given
faith will increase in that knowledge. It wasn't me. It wasn't my work. I kept my work to be done. It was all Him. Start to finish,
it was all Him. I believe that. I bow to that. I put up my sinful sword. I put
up my sword to Him alone. Be all the glory.