Turn to Matthew 26. I titled the message, Thus It
Must Be. It can be no other way. You remember when he was in the
garden. He said, Father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me. The cup never passed, did it?
didn't pass, because thus it must be. We have now come to the betrayal
of our Lord by Judas. And here is a sad scene. And
it's interesting about how all the evangelists, the Gospels,
point this out. 1 of the 12. They called him
one of the twelve. What treachery. One of the twelve coming with
the enemies of Christ to arrest him. One of the twelve was an
enemy himself. One of the twelve was called
a son of perdition, a son of Satan. And our Lord knew that. He knew that all along. What we see here as we go through
this, we see the enemies joining hands against the Son
of God. The Jews and the Romans were
enemies of one another. They hated one another. But when it came to standing
against God, the Son of God, they joined hands. Enemies for
a little while became friends for just a little bit because
they had one common enemy, God. That's who Jesus Christ is, God. You know, 70 A.D., the Romans
destroyed the temple and made a mess out of the Jews. Their
animosity to one another came back together, but for a little
while, they joined hands that they might fight against the
Son of God. We see also here the hour of
darkness. It is written in Luke 22.53.
Our Lord says this, When I was daily with you in the temple,
you stretched forth no hands against Me. But this is your
hour and the power of darkness. Remember over in Genesis, when
God said to Satan, you will bruise his heel, but he will bruise
your head. He will take away all your power. You're going to bruise his heel. Just sitting up here, it just
dawned on me, this thought came to me. Our Lord is God manifest
in the flesh. His human nature that He took
upon Himself was like being His heel. His deity, He's God. But he humbled
himself to become a man, and not only become a man, but to
become a servant. And that was his heel. We see him whipped,
beaten, and nailed to a cross. And God is saying to Satan, all
you're going to do to him is bruise his heel. But he's going
to crush your head. Now, look at the scene here in
verse 47. We have a hypocrite, a son of
perdition, one of the twelve. We have Roman soldiers, they
represent the Gentiles. We have representatives of religion,
the chief priests and the elders sent their what they call temple
police to help arrest him. All of these represent the human
race and its attitude toward God. This world hates God. And this world hates, I mean
the religious world, hates Jesus Christ of this Bible. Remember
Paul said they will come preaching another Jesus? They don't hate
that one. That's the healer, you know, that's the one who
wants to make you rich and doesn't want you to be sick. No, that's
not the Christ of this book. The Christ of this book is the
sovereign God of heaven and earth who does as he will, when he
will, with whom he will. And he answers to no one. Nebuchadnezzar
found that out. He found that out. He said He
rules over the kingdom of men. He rules heaven and earth. He's
the sovereign ruler. Now it says in verse 47, this
means give special attention, take notice of our Lord's betrayal
and what's happening here. How awful is that word betrayed? Betrayed through covetousness?
betrayed by a so-called friend. He's betrayed into the hands
of sinners, to the hands of the enemy. Now notice here how they
came out to get the Lamb of God. This is how they came. How would
you go get a lamb? You wouldn't take swords and
clubs, would you? But this is how the world vents
its attitude toward God, swords and staves. But what this shows
here, this show of force is really a show of hatred. It's a show
of hatred. No one has ever been as hated
as Jesus Christ. No one. I told a man one time, he was
making a mockery of the gospel I was witnessing to him. And
I told him once, I said, you hate God. And then I really made
him mad. When I told him he hated God,
it made him mad. I don't hate God, but he hated
the one I was talking to him about. the sovereign God, the
ruler, the King of kings, the Lord of lords. But notice here also now, notice
their warrant to arrest Him came from the chief priests and the
elders, the great Sanhedrin, that great Sanhedrin court, that
religious court of religious leaders, they were the pinnacle
in Jerusalem. In the Jewish religion, they
were at the top. Whatever they said, that's what the people
believed. They are the ones who came to
arrest our Lord. This shows how far removed they
were from the truth and true religion. They came to arrest
Him because they hated Him and they wanted Him to die so bad
they couldn't stand it. And it says many, a multitude.
When it says a multitude, it doesn't... It's just not a few
number. When the Lord says multitude,
He means multitude. Came out against one lamb. One
lamb. A multitude came out with swords
and staves. Why so many against so few? It's
always been that way. The people of God have always
been in the minority. They've always been in the minority.
Religion is popular. Religion is popular. But true
religion has never been popular and never will. Not in this world. It has always been in the minority,
preaching God's sovereign will in all things and giving the
glory that belongs to Him. Give unto the Lord the glory
that's due unto His name will never be popular in this world. It's a world of darkness and
it'll never be popular and you'll never be popular if you believe
it. Christ said, they will hate you
because they hated Me. They'll persecute you. Now, he says here that Judas,
in verse 48, here comes the one of the twelve, here comes the
son of perdition, he gave them a sign. You know, I can see him
as the army gathered together, this great multitude gathers
together, and Judas is the leader of it. He says, I'm going to
give you a sign. I'm going to kiss him. I'm going
to give him a kiss. Now, it was customary in that
time to greet one another with a kiss. And it's interesting,
a couple of the translations that I read on this said he kept
kissing him. You know how somebody just be
over mushy? That's what he was. He just kept kissing him on the
cheek. You know, oh, master, master, hell master, kissing
him. Making a big show of it because he wanted to make sure
they didn't misunderstand or miss that he's the one. This
is the one. And he kept kissing him. But I thought of this. When Judas
walked up and he just kissed him like that, it shows how approachable
Christ was to his disciples. He didn't hold them at arm's
length. He didn't have this air about
him that, I'm the son of God, you can only come up to this
six feet away. You have to stay six feet away.
I'm the son of God. No. Judas walked right up and
kissed him. This shows how approachable he
was. And I thought about this. Did
they not know who he was? Now I'm sure it's dark. This is done in the dark. Isn't
that an example? All this is done in darkness.
This shows the world. And I'm sure some of those soldiers
probably wouldn't recognize Him. But what I thought of when I
was reading this is identification. He says, the
one I kissed, He's the one you want. Our Lord was so identified
with His disciples. He dressed like them. He talked
like them. He walked like them. They wouldn't
have been able to tell Him apart apart from Judas going up and
kissing Him. And then I thought of this, this
morning as I'm looking at this again. You'll never recognize
Christ apart from the light. God has to bring you out of darkness. He has to illuminate you before
you can say, I see. I understand. Thou art to Christ, the Son of
the living God. Our Lord said, Peter, who do
men say that I am? And they said, well, it's one
of this and some of that, you know, some a prophet and Jeremias. But he said, who do you say I
am? Well, that's a pointed question. He said, thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God. He said, Judas or Peter, flesh and
blood did not reveal this to you. My Father, which is in heaven,
revealed this to you. Without light, you don't recognize
him. Without God giving you light, me standing here preaching with
the Bible in your lap, you will still not believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. You will still not get it. You'll
still not see your need of Him. You won't do it. And then Judas said this. This
is interesting, I thought. He said, hold him fast. I mean,
get a hold of him, hurry, because he's slippery. I mean, that's
his idea. Because Judas saw him slip through
the crowd how many times? When they tried to get him, he
says he slipped through the crowd, walked right through the crowd.
And Judas says, now the one I'm kissing, I'm embracing, it says,
some of the translations said he embraced him as he kissed
him, you know, he embraced him. He said, hold me. He said, all
right, guys, get over and get him. This statement shows that Judas,
three years of walking with Him, three years of being with Him,
approximately three years, watching Him perform miracles, listening
to Him teach, listening to Him instruct. He was in the temple.
The Lord said, I was in the temple daily. And Judas did not really
know Him. Can you hold God fast? Can you
hold God fast? The whole world could get a hold
of Him and not hold Him. Satan could get a hold of Him
and not hold Him. It shows me how dead a person
is apart from the life and light given to them. Here is a disciple,
one of the twelve, and he's saying, hold Him fast. He doesn't even
get it that that's God. You can't hold God faithful.
Who can put God in check? Who can arrest God? Our Lord
is going to show us here in a minute something. And notice here the hypocrisy
of false faith. He goes up and he says, Hail
Master! Hail Master! Calls Him Master.
He didn't look at Him as Master in no way, shape, or form. Hail master, and he kissed him.
Our Lord said, you are the ones who draw nigh to me with your
lips, but your heart is far from me. Don't be fooled by a kiss. It
could be the kiss of death. Don't be fooled by flattery. You know, Solomon over there
in Proverbs says a lot about flattery. Beware of it. Beware of the flattering lips
of a woman, he said. That's what he's telling his
son. Beware of her flattering lips. Beware of flattery. And then
in verse 15, Jesus said unto him, friend, friend, wherefore art thou come? And I was reading the Amplified
in this, it says, friend, do what you got to do. Do what you
came to do. And then came they and laid hands
on Jesus and took him. And took him. In Isaiah 53, it
says, he is led as a lamb to the slaughter. This has to happen. For God to save me and you, this
has to happen. But what a stinging reply Christ
gave to Judas. Friend. Friend. Well, first of all, calling him
friend fulfills the Scripture because he says that his friend
lifted up his heel against him over in the Psalms. But I have no doubt when the
Lord said, Friend, that he looked right into the heart of Judas
and said, Friend, I mean, he's standing there acting
like he's the Lord's friend, and the Lord says, friend, do
what you got to do. But I want to point this out,
and this is important here. Judas's action never changed
the attitude of our Lord. It was still without malice.
It was without malice. Christ knew this was the will
of His Father. Why get mad? Why get mad? Scripture says in 2 Corinthians
5.18, All things are of God. Do you believe all things are
of God? Then why get mad? Why get upset? Sin is why. Sin is why. You never see our Lord getting
riled up. The only time we see Him riled up is when He went
to the temple and the money changers were there making money off of
religion, making money off of people, duping them, who were
coming there and they were just taking advantage of Him. And
He turned the tables over. That's the only time we see that,
that I can recall. But our Lord, He was without
malice." This is the will of God. Everything concerning me
and you is the will of God. Now, Peter here in verse 51, "...And
behold, one of them," and I believe it's in John's Gospel, it tells
us it was Peter, One of them, which were with Jesus, stretched
out his hand, drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high
priest and smote off his ear." He was trying to cut his head
off, but he missed and he got his ear. Peter was going to kill
that man, I'm telling you. He was not trying to cut his
ear off. He was trying to kill him. I commend Peter here. Remember
Peter said this, he said, Lord, I would die with you. He said,
I won't forsake you. I would die with you. He proves
it. He proves it, right? There's a multitude. I don't
know, I mean, it's hundreds, hundreds. And Peter takes, they
only had, I think, one or two swords among them. And he pulls
that sword out and there was that great multitude. He starts,
he's going at him. He says, I'd die for you. And
he proved it. He proved it. The Lord allowed him to prove
that, yes, Peter, you will die for me. I know that. I know that. So before he denies him, he lets
us see that he would die. He would. He's sincere. Peter's
sincere about it. And you know, after Peter cut
that servant of the high priest, that slave, that's what he was,
of the high priest, he cut his ear off. You know what the Lord
did? He healed the man's ear. In Luke 22, 51, Jesus answered
and said, Suffer ye thus far. And he touched his ear and he
healed him. He healed his ear back, put his
ear back. I don't know, you know, in that
great multitude that was there, I just have to wonder, what did
that man think after his ear was back? The Lord healed his
ear. No malice whatsoever. The Lord looked into the heart
of those people, that multitude. He knew they hated Him, and yet
He healed the man. The Scripture teaches us to overcome
evil with what? He says, you don't use evil with
evil to put evil out. Good puts it out. But then he gives us here the
weapon, the believer's weapon. This is important here. In verse
52, then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up again thy sword into its
place. For all they that take the sword
shall perish with the sword. The weapons of our warfare, and
what he's telling Peter and telling us, are not carnal. We don't fight with these kind
of weapons. It's a spiritual warfare. In
2 Corinthians 10 verses 3 and 4, listen, For though we walk
in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of
our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling
down of strongholds." There's nothing more powerful on this
earth to break the power of darkness than what I'm doing right now,
preaching the gospel. The Lord does not need Our protection. We need His. We need His. Now listen, Christ is not saying
that it's wrong to defend your family. If someone breaks in,
it's not wrong to defend your family. He's not saying that
it's wrong to go to war. In Ecclesiastes, there's a time
of peace and a time of war. Sometimes we have to do these
things. But the weapon that we use in this spiritual warfare
is not carnal. Turn over to Ephesians 6. Look in verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong
in the Lord and in the power of His might, Put on the whole
armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles
of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood." You know, it's flesh and blood that we see. You know,
people that stand against you, they stand against the gospel
you preach. We see flesh and blood, but that's not the warfare. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness,
where at? In high places. High places. Wherefore, take
unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand
in the evil day, and having done all, withstand. Now, you want
to know what to do in our day? Continue reading. Stand therefore
having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the
breastplate of righteousness, His righteousness, and your feet
shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, and above
all taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to
quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, and take the helmet
of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is what? The
Word of God. the Word of God. Brethren, it
should not be that it's easier for me to use the sword in my
hand than the sword of God, the Word of God in my heart, and
to use it. And listen, pray, pray always
with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto
with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. There is our
armory. These are the weapons of our
warfare. Peter, put up the sword. That's not what you're going
to fight this war with. Because you're not going to, just because
you cut a man's ear off, if you cut his head off, you still missed
it. Because it's the spirit of darkness
that you're dealing with, and not just flesh and blood. It says over in Hebrews 4.12,
"...For the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than
any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder
of soul and spirit, and of the joints of marrow, and is a discerner
of the thoughts and intents of the heart." The most powerful
sword is this right here, the word of God. Our thinking and
our attitude must be different. It's got to be different. It's
a different warfare. Now he says in verse 53, Thinkest
thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and He shall presently
give me more than twelve legions of angels? I think, when I was
reading one place, that's approximately 84,000 angels. You know, in the Old Testament,
I think one angel killed either 85,000 or 185,000. One angel. He said, I can call 84,000 angels. And this is what's interesting.
Don't let this just go over you. Because sometimes I let stuff
like this go over me. And there's something here. Our
Lord, by this statement, shows us that all He had to do is pray
and the Father would have sent the angels to defend Him, to
wipe that mess out. He's showing us here His willingness
to suffer and die. He never tried to save Himself
from shame and suffering for sin. When He said, I could pray right
now and call and ask for 12 legions of angels and they will be here,
He meant it. He meant it. He could do it.
As He said in one place, No man takes my life from me, I lay
it down to myself. I don't have to do this. I don't
have to die. I'm doing this willingly. I'm
doing this because I love the sheep. I'm doing it willingly. I don't
have to do this. And He's saying here, I can call
these angels and put an end to this right now. Right now. But how then, he says, how then
shall the Scriptures be fulfilled? Thus it must be. Listen, all that has happened,
all that is happening, and all that's going to happen, thus
it must be. It can't be changed. It is ordained
of God. God ordained before the foundation
of the world that Jesus Christ would come into this world and
die, and purchase a multitude of sinners no man can number. It was ordained of God. And then
He says, thus it must be, because the Scripture says, God has honored
His Word above His name. He's honored His Word above His
name. You're no better than Your Word.
You know better than your word. Then Christ turns and He speaks
to the multitude. 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? He said, Well, I sat daily with
you teaching in the temple, and you laid no hands on me. I was
with you daily, teaching you, instructing you, and you didn't
lay hands on me. Why come after me like this?
Our Lord went about doing good, He healed the sick, raised the
dead, fed the hungry. Why such treatment? Because thus
it must be. He said, the Son of Man must
suffer, be rejected, be crucified and rise again the third day.
But also this, listen, when the Lord asks questions, it's not
for information. It's not for information. Because
he said, remember he said, thus it must be. I know why you are
here. You don't know why you are here.
You don't know why. I know why. But he asked questions
to make us search our hearts. That's why he makes us search
our hearts. And he says here, I'll tell you
why, in verse 56, I'll tell you why. But all this was done, that
the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled, that all
the disciples forsook them and fled. The shepherd, he says,
shall be smitten, and the sheep will be scattered. You don't
know it, but you're doing this to fulfill the Scriptures. You're
doing the will of God and you don't even know it. You know
everybody in this world is doing the will of God? Really? They
don't know it, but they are. Listen to Acts 2, verse 22 and
23, and I'm going to close. You know, they did what they
wanted to do, but they did what God purposed to do. Now listen.
You men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man
approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs,
which God did by Him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also
know. Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, God delivered Him. God delivered Him into their
hands. You have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and
slain. Turn over to Acts chapter 4.
Well, close. Acts chapter 4. Acts 4, look in verse 23. And being let go, the apostles
that were being held there in prison and beaten, being let
go, they went to their own company and reported all that the chief
priests and elders had said unto them. And when they had heard
that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said,
Lord, our God, which has made heaven and earth and the sea
and all that in them is, they all belong to you, who by the
mouth of thy servant David hath said, Why did the heathen rage?"
Psalm 2, I believe that is. Why did the heathen rage, and
the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood
up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against His Christ. For of a truth against Thy holy
child Jesus, whom Thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were gathered together,
listen, for to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined
to be done. And that settles the matter.
It is not a mob out of control. It is a mob under His control.
It's under His control. The mob is always under His control. He's accomplishing what He has
determined before to be done. That's the God of the Bible.
That's our God. Yeah, that's our God. All this
had to happen to fulfill the scriptures and save sinners from
their sins. I thank God. I thank God.