There's a few of y'all that have
thrown a hand grenade. A couple of you have. You pull
that pin. You let the spoon fly. You get
three seconds. You count real fast. One, two,
three. You throw that thing. There's an urgency to get it
away from you. I'm bragging a lot of stick of
dynamite though tonight. What if the Lord sent an angel
tonight. If you think I'm talking to you,
I'm talking to you. I will speak to each one of you individually.
What if the Lord sent an angel here tonight and he said in this
room with just a handful of folks, there's a devil among you. Would we ignore it? Pay one look of attention. When
we start looking around, you know what? I bet it's so-and-so. Or not because we're told to,
because we earnestly mean, when we say, Lord is it I? Here in Matthew 26. Our text is going to be verses
17 through 25. Matthew 26, but in the beginning
of this chapter they plotted These chief priests, that's who
plotted against Christ to kill him. Scribes, that's who plotted
to kill our Lord. Elders, well that's not drunkard
drug pushers and harlots is it? Just as many times before they
plotted but this was the determinate time. This was the appointed
time by the determinate counsel and the foreknowledge of God
playing out. This was it. This was that appointed
time. This is the time that these wicked
men will be permitted to act on their natures. Lord's permissive
will will let them take and apprehend their Lord. There in verse 7,
Mary comes and she anoints our Lord for His burial with an alabaster
box. Oh, how worldly, how precious
that is. People get, I mean, just tied
up arguing over if that's a year, year and a half salary. I don't
know, it's precious. It's a whole bunch. Worth a whole
bunch. She put it on him and the disciples, plural, all of
them, they saw this happen and they murmured, oh, she's wasting
that? She could sell that and give
it to the poor? Our Lord said, don't you trouble
this woman. She's wrought a good work. You've got the poor always
with you. But you don't always have Christ
with you. He's sitting in front of you right there in that house. Whosoever this gospel is preached
to in the whole world, this story is going to be told. What Mary
had done. Now we don't speak of this story
of Mary ever service that we have, do we? But we do speak
of the honor Christ deserves. We speak of giving your whole
self to Him. Trusting Him to provide for you.
of caring for heavenly things, not earthly things, of coming
to His feet, coming to Him, one on one, coming to Him. Now verse
14, here's where the bargain of Judas Iscariot takes place.
Matthew 26, 14, Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot,
went unto the chief priests, and he said unto them, What will
ye give me? What will ye give me? and I will
deliver him unto you. And they covenanted with him
for thirty pieces of silver. And from that time he sought
opportunity to betray him." Verse 17. Now the first day of the
Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus saying
unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the
Passover? And he said, Go unto the city
to such a man, and say unto him, The Master saith, My time is
at hand. I will keep the Passover at thy
house with my disciples." God sent them to one of His own.
I had a couple paragraphs about who this man isn't, but one who
carried the pitcher of living water in his chest. And that
servant, whosoever they may be, it ain't named, it ain't mentioned,
it ain't remembered, whosoever they may be, they will obey the
Lord. They will. They will follow the
Lord. They will serve the Lord and
His people. It will happen. Verse 19, And
the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them, and they made
ready the Passover in this house. And when the evening 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." What
does He say there? One of you. Not someone. Someone's going to betray me.
One of you. Not one of the followers of Christ
in those multitudes. One of you. Not one of the 70
sent out to preach, was it? One of you. One of you 12. One
of you. This inner circle. There's a tear in the wheat field.
Does that make you look to see who it is or does that make you
ask a different question? Look what the apostles asked
here in verse 22. And they were exceedingly sorrowful. And began every one of them to
say unto him, Lord, is it I? Was that anger? Think about that. Is that mad? Who is it? Which one do we need to kick
out? Were they jolly? Who is it? Is it I? There was
sorrow. Genuine, heartfelt sorrow. Over what? These men were sinners
and they knew it. They knew it. Not just the outward
sin that they did. They didn't know the extent of
that either. They didn't know the complete extent of the sin
that they were truly inwardly either. And ain't you thankful
to the Lord He doesn't show us what we truly are. He doesn't
just give us eyes to see truly what sin we are. We'd just explode,
wouldn't we? We could not bear that. But they
were convicted of sin. They believed God and they believed
His Word. They were convicted they were
sin. The noun. What we are, not what we do.
What we are. What we are is the source of
it. What we do is the product of
it. We'll touch on that more towards the end. And true sorrow,
true sorrow. Some say this group was just
close-knit, and they were. For three and a half years, they
walked with our Lord, serving Him. They labored together. They
ate together. They worshiped together. They
sat next to one another while God Almighty taught them. I spoke
to them. They shared a room together at
night. They slept on a hillside underneath
a tent at night. They were close. They were closer
than blood relatives, I promise you. Though that's true, they
were close. Not one of them earnestly, with
sorrow, cried, Is it my brother? Did they? Their sorrow was not an outward
show. It wasn't pretend, and it wasn't
vanity. This was true sorrow, a true
conviction of sin in I. One person, one letter, I. I pray for my children. If it's
His will that Christ will be revealed in them. I pray for
loved ones that I love dearly. Christ would be pleased to reveal
Himself to them. I pray for some of my brothers
and sisters that I spent a lot of nights like this. I served
in other countries with them and walked a whole bunch with
them, ate a whole bunch with them. And we should. We should. We
should pray for one another, pray for those we love. But this
is one-on-one. God Almighty in human flesh is
speaking to them in person. There's a one-way conversation
between the Holy God and their hearts. There could have been
a thousand and twelve of them or twelve of them. It didn't
matter. This was personal. They ignore it. They have something
else better to do. They pay attention. We are saved
by a person and it's personally. There's not a group effort. There's
not a panel discussion. that facilitates this. Mommy
and daddy ain't involved. Christ speaks to the heart of
His child, His people. There in verse 22, it says, And
they were exceedingly sorrowful and began every one of them to
say unto Him, Lord, is it I? If one of them is going to fall,
it's going to be me. Is it I? What was Paul's progression? In the knowledge of his sin,
his sinful heart, he started out saying, I'm the least of
the apostles. Isn't he? And then he said, I'm the least
of all saints. And before the Lord took him
out of this earth, he said, I'm the chief of sinners. I wish someone
here would not be sorrowful. I pray I would be sorrowful tonight. I would see that I am sin and
I am totally and fully unable to do anything. Preacher, why
would you say that? Why would you say that? Because
Christ came to save sinners. Surely these wise men, these
apostles, they knew that they were the Lord. Yes, they did.
They did, but they also had a war going on inside of them. An old
man and a new man raging in battle. And they had some idea of what
that old man was capable of. That doesn't happen to everybody.
You hear me? That doesn't happen to everybody.
Turn over to Psalm 73. Not everyone is truly convicted
of sin. Psalm 73. Verse 1, Truly God
is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. But
as for me, my feet were almost gone, my
steps had well nigh slipped, for I was envious at the foolish
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no
bands in their death, but their strength is firm. I waver, I
falter, I stumble, And they seem so firm and strong, don't they? They are not in trouble as other
men, neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride
encompass them then about as a chain. Violence covereth them
as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness.
They have more than heart could wish. They are corrupt and speak
wickedly concerning oppression. You're a good person. You don't
deserve that. You have rights. They speak loftily. That's a proud and a wicked tongue. That's what that is. He goes
on saying, my heart's just in so much pain over these things
until, verse 17, Psalm 73, 17. Until I went into the sanctuary
of God, then understood I their end. Surely, thou didst set them
on a slippery places and cast them down into destruction. Where
did the Lord set your feet? Did He set your feet in slippery
places or did He set you on Christ the solid rock? For it said on
Him, we cannot be moved. He set me there and He holds
me there. Verse 22, So foolish was I. and ignorant. I was as a beast
before thee. Nevertheless, I am continually
with thee. Thou hast hold me by my right
hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy
counsel, and afterward receive me to glory." What a comfort
to somebody that's suffering. Somebody that's sorrows. If you're
just happy-go-lucky all the time, lobsters, roses, and peaches
and ice cream, I ain't got nothing for you. The Lord's Word penetrates
your heart, makes you sorrow, makes you suffer. What peace it is to one that's
weary. Moses said, fear ye not, stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord which He will show you today. Salvation is not an
experience. Salvation is not a place. I put
an article in the bulletin today. It was three pages long and I
whittled it down. I hope you can read that. Four
walls and a ceiling don't mean security. I sit underneath the
sound of the gospel. You sit underneath Christ. That's
a good place. That's where you're going to
hear Him. Salvation is not an experience. It's not in a place.
It's not in a thing. I don't take that thing or I
do take that thing. It's in a person. Look at verse
25. Whom have I in heaven but thee? Whom? And there is none upon
earth that I desire beside thee. Who is this whom? Who is this
person of our salvation? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. We have a Lord. Back in our text from Matthew
26. This is who they petitioned to, their Lord. It says in verse
20, Matthew 26, 20. Now when the evening 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 exceedingly sorrowful, and began every one of them to say
unto Him, Lord, is it I? Christ asked those Pharisees
a few pages over. He said, David said, the Lord
said to my Lord. And he said, you agree Christ,
the one that's to come is going to be of the house of David,
right? And I said, oh yeah. And they said, if David called
him Lord, how is he his son? We're not old fashioned anymore.
We don't have respect for our elders. At this time they did. That was an absurdity. That couldn't
happen. My grandchild, I wouldn't honor
them, they honor me. That's how that works. How could
David call him Lord? Because he was David's Lord.
How did these 11 call Christ Lord? How did David call him
Lord? If you call him Lord, how do you and I call him Lord? How
do we? Paul told us, no man can say
that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost. Truly saying. Many were saying that day, Lord,
Lord. But to say that is my God and my Lord. These eleven sinners,
saved by the grace of God, convicted of their sin, just tormented
in themselves of their sin. They were sealed by the Holy
Ghost. They were made alive and it was given unto them To call
Jesus, Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ. Outside
looking in. 2,000 years later we'd sit down
and read this. Lord is it I? Master is it I?
We'd say, well look at the wonderful fruit, isn't it? How the Lord
just blessed them. But the sorrow they had was theirs. And it was real. Sorrow you and
I have is ours, and it's real. One of these twelve, they wasn't
so sorrowful. And they didn't call him Lord.
Read on, look in verse 23. And he answered and said, he
that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray
me. A whole lot of people's got opinions
on that. Let me tell you what that means. I've been in the Middle
East quite a bit. Whenever they eat dinner, they got one big
old tray with food on it, and everybody reaches in and grabs
what you want to eat and eat it. He said, whoever's sitting at this
table with me, one of you twelve, It's who it is. Now the warning. It says in verse
24, the Son of Man goeth as it is written of Him. The purpose
and will of God will stand. What Christ came to accomplish
will happen. It's not a hiccup, it's not a speed bump, it's an
obstacle He's got to overcome. This is the determinant counsel
for knowledge of God. It will come to pass. 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. We get a lot of warnings in the
Scripture, don't we? Take heed. Whenever we hear that,
do we say, that ain't me. Or do we say, is it me? Lord,
is it I? I'm going to read you a few.
You ain't got to turn to these. And if you want them, I'll have
the notes put out later. Take heed to thyself, lest thou
make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where's thou go,
lest it be a snare in the midst of thee. I don't have any dealings
with this earth. Is it me? Have I done that? Take
heed to yourselves that your heart be not deceived and ye
turn aside and serve other gods and worship them." I would never
do that. Or is it me? Have I done that? Take good heed
therefore unto yourselves that ye love the Lord your God. I love the Lord. Do I love the Lord? Or is it
me? And Jesus said unto them, take
heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. Or is it I? Take heed therefore
that the light which is in thee be not darkness. Wherefore let a man that thinketh
he standeth take heed lest he fall. I'm grown up. I got strong legs. I'm standing
good. I'm standing tall, firm. Take
heed. Therefore, we ought to give the
more earnest heed to those things which we have heard, lest at
any time we should let them slip." Oh, I'd never let something slip
away. I hear everything. Or, is it me? Look back and think
of all the things I've forgotten more than I know. Take heed, brethren, lest there
be any of you with an evil heart of unbelief in departing from
the living God. Verse 25 in our text, Matthew
26. And Judas, which betrayed him,
answered and said, Master, is it I? He said unto him, Thou
hast said. Master, is it I? Rabbi, is it
I? Teacher, teacher, is it I? What's a teacher? Somebody to
take the leaf. You go to college, you don't
like that professor, drop that class, get you another one. You're paying
them to be there, they ain't paying you to be there. You've
got to honor them, respect them a little bit. It's their classroom.
That's just a teacher. They'll come and go. Give it
a semester. You'll get a new one. That's got a lot to do with inflection,
too. We see this in text. Some of my friends call me a
hillbilly. And I just laugh every time they say it. And then somebody
says, you hillbilly? Well, now we've got a problem.
Same word, isn't it? Master, is it I? The cross says
there, thou hast said. You know what that means? It
is as thou hast said. You've said right. Master, is
it I? You just said it. You're right. What happened? You and I know
that Judas was the betrayer. These eleven apostles, apostles,
they didn't know. Judas had made his bargain. He
had to pass over with Christ. Here he answered, Master, is
it I? And our Lord responded, You are right. It's you. And
they still didn't know. What did Christ do right after
this? He gave them the Lord's Supper. Do we set in judgment over who
ought to be taking the Lord's Supper? God Almighty gave it
to Judas. I want to talk a little bit about
who Judas Iscariot was and I'll let you go. Who was Judas Iscariot? He was the betrayer. Yes, we
know that, don't we? But do not forget who this man
was. He was numbered with us, Paul
tells us in Acts 117. He preached the truth. He didn't preach a false gospel. He preached the truth. He healed
folks. He prophesied. This ought to
give us a grave concern that because we stand in our sound
doctrine, we think we're saved. Christ is the one who saves.
Then the understanding comes. Then we'll get it in bites we
can eat the elephant with. That'll come. The person that
saves, not a knowledge. This was a trusted officer in
the church. Trusted. There was 12 of them.
One of them was the treasurer. Judas was the treasurer. The
irony of that, isn't it? The one that held the bag, the
treasurer, he was the very one that bargained for 30 pieces
of silver. The Lord gives us an office. You think that might
be our downfall? I'm asking myself. If He gives us a ministry, a
service, or something to do, you think that might be my downfall?
This would be a great warning to us. Our knowledge and our
position. Me. I'm a preacher. It don't make
a difference, does it? Our knowledge and our position
is not what saves us or secures us. It's Christ that saves us
and secures us. We should cry, Lord, is it me? from every office and every position
in his body. If we're a liver, a heart, a
head, or a toe, we're going to cry out, Lord, is it me? What
about morality? Turn over to John 13. Judas had a good standing. I
would trust the opinion of the apostles, wouldn't you? They're
sitting here, and I said, where's a good place to eat? I would
take them on their word. These 11 thought highly of him. John 13, verse 25. John 13, verse 25. He then lying on Jesus' breast,
that's John, had his head on his chest and said unto him,
Lord, who is it? And he answered, He it is to
whom I shall give sop We used to sop up bread. My dad would
get me in trouble for that. There was some juice left over.
You'd take a biscuit and you'd sop up that juice, wouldn't you?
It was good. That's what sop was. It is He
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
Solomon. Any confusion there? Whoever
I hand this to, that's it. And after this thought, Satan
entered into him. And he said, then said Jesus
unto him, That thou doest, do quickly. You've got something
to carry out. Get on with it. Now no man at the table knew
for what intent he spake this unto him. They had no idea why
he said this to Judas. living in fossils. For a person to say, let me talk
to somebody a while and I'll tell you if they're saved or
not. I can discern that. What foolishness, isn't it? Our
Lord handed Judas the sop, told him, you are right. Master Isaiah,
you're right. It's you. And these others just
assumed because he held the bag, because he held some additional
duties, he held some offices, he was honorable, he was blessed
with these gifts, that it wasn't him. Look at verse 29. For some of them thought, the
Lord said this, because Judas had the bag, he was the treasure,
that Jesus had said unto him, buy those things which we have
need of against the feast, or that he should give something
to the poor. The Lord must be talking about
something else. That's who this man was. What was his warning? I read you a whole bunch earlier,
didn't I? We're warned all throughout Scriptures, but turn over to
John chapter 6. John 6. From Moses on, we have a warning.
There's no one that commits apostasy that's unwarned. Someone sits
underneath the sound of the gospel and they willfully turn from
Christ and go away to another gospel, which is not another.
There ain't no other place. They have been warned. Plainly. Clearly. John 6, verse 66. From that time, many of his disciples
went back and walked no more with him. And Jesus said unto
the twelve, Will you go away also? And Simon Peter answered
him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ,
the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered them, Have
I not chosen you twelve and want to use a devil? You'd hear the wind coming off
that. It went over their heads so fast. Was Judas warned? Christ told him then. He said,
I chose twelve of you. One of you is the devil. He never
prayed about it, did he? Lord, keep it from being me.
He never wept over it, did he? Is it I? Is it me? He never asked God to keep him.
Lord, keep me. I can't keep myself. Preserve
me. Ask the Lord to secure him. He's warned again, whenever Christ
washed the disciples' feet, Peter said, you ain't washing my feet.
And he said, if I don't wash your feet, you're no part of
me. And he said, wash my head, my hands, my arms, my legs, my
feet. Wash all of them. He said, you're clean, Peter.
He said, but not all of you are clean. Not all of you are clean. That should give us pause for
concern. This thing of eternal salvation,
it's much too big. It's much too important to take
for granted. It's eternal life and death.
We need to examine ourselves. We need to make our calling and
election sure. We need to look inside. Is it
I? That's what we need to be asking.
Is it somebody else? Is it me? And when we hear these warnings,
If they don't just swoosh over us, if it ain't a shot and a
miss, if we don't just ignore it, if we truly hear these, what
do we see in ourselves and what do we see in our Lord? I am nothing
but a wretch. I'm a sorrowful, horrible person. Worse than that. I am sin against
God. That's what I am. Every fiber
in me. And when I look to Him, when I look to myself, I say,
it must be me. Lord, it's me, isn't it? It's not so much an open question.
There's some force behind it. I know it's me. When I look to
Him, all I can see is Christ is able. He's able. What's required of me? He's able.
What do I need to do? He's able. He is. What was this betrayal that took
place? It's so sad. So sad. This betrayal was with
a kiss. I come out of that garden of
Gethsemane. Judas walks up and puts his arm around him and gives
him a kiss. He said, that's how you're going to know it's him. I'm going
to give a kiss to him. Call him Master. Rabbi, hello
Master. Kiss him right on the cheek.
Every false preacher comes with a kiss, don't they? Sweetness. Oh, it's on the pretense of the
glory of God Go get some of them horrible books. It's out there
and it's we're gonna correct some things Oh, it's for the
glory of God because they have some novel revelation that hogwash
nobody's ever heard of They say it's all for his glory it's with
a kiss I'm looking out for you and then it turns to something
other than Christ and him crucified So it taught we're told Matthew
7 Lord didn't we cast out devils in your name Didn't we feed the
hungry? It's with a kiss. Is that shocking to us? It shouldn't
be. We've been warned of that, too. Paul told us in 2 Corinthians,
in no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel
of light. Oh, he smiles so big. He knows the Bible so well. You
know what Satan tempted the Lord with all the time? Twists in
Scripture. Peter looked like An unbeliever
on that day. Here Judas comes with a kiss,
and a hug, and master kind words. Peter's over there, hair's a
mess, and he's got a sword ready to cut somebody's ear off, doesn't
he? He looks like a person that ain't
got no grace. Judas looks like the one that's had grace experienced
in his heart, doesn't he? Betrayed with a kiss. What was
his ending? Remember Matthew 27. Matthew 27, verse 3, "...then
Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned,
repented himself and brought again the thirty pieces of silver
to the chief priests and the elders, saying, I have sinned
in that, Uh oh. He qualifies as sin for us to
see. I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.
He didn't say I've sinned against God, did he? Against thee and
thee only have I sinned. He said outwardly I've done something
wrong. He doesn't deserve to be committed to this death. He's
innocent. He'd find a heathen that'd say
it ain't good to kill an innocent little child or something. saying, I've sinned and that
I've betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, what does that
to us? Seethe out to it. That ain't none of our business.
Our dealings are done. That covenant's completed. And he cast down the
pieces of silver in the temple. He threw it at their feet and
departed and went and hanged himself. Peter tells us in Acts 1.18,
he didn't do too good of a job at it either. Rope broke. He
fell down a cliff and the insides were on the outside and it was
a mess. All that money bought him was a patch of bloody ground
to bury him in. That's what, when he said, what
will you give me? What can this world give anybody?
They can loan us something, can't they? He had that silver for
a minute, he might keep it till death. Everything that this world
can give is loaned, it can't give nothing. Who can give? Christ
can, can't he? My pastor once asked this question
a long time ago and he said, instead of Judas, run them back
to those preachers of Babylon. Drink their wine. Try to make
amends with them. Instead of taking matters into his own hands.
Instead of trying to get that money back. What if he begged
for mercy? What if he begged for mercy?
After Peter denied Christ three times. Ain't a whole lot of difference
there. Peter denied Christ three times. What happened? He went
out and he wept bitterly. He wept bitterly. He was sorrowful.
He said, Lord, it is I. Judas went out and hanged himself.
Took matters into his own hands. God delights to show mercy. He
is plenteous in mercy. Whosoever shall call in the name
of the Lord shall be saved. Not whosoever except all those
that deny me. Except all those that betray
me. Not those, but anybody else. Whosoever. Whosoever shall call
upon His name. Christ is able to save them to
the uttermost that come unto God by Him. Scriptures say, "...all manner
of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men." Judas' sins, this
will be a strong statement for some folks, I hope it hits you. It's a barbed arrow. Judas' sins
are no worse than yours or mine. Do we see it that way? Do we? I wouldn't have done that. His sins are no worse than your
sins or my sins. We betrayed Christ. We denied
Him, just as Peter did. But Judas didn't come back and
cry for mercy, confess his sins, falling at the Savior's feet.
The Lord saved me. He had a repentance, but it was
of guilt, wasn't it? only because of the consequences.
It says there in Matthew 27.3, it's because of the results,
when he saw it, saw what happened. Sin is not to be measured in
the results of the sin, but in the cause of it. It's not the
consequences of sin that matter so much as who we sinned against. Sin against Almighty God. We
just don't, we ain't got a handle on sin, do we? Henry used to
give that illustration of a railroad switch or switch thrower. Guys
would pull the big handle and make the train go the other way.
And he said, if one of them threw the wrong switch and a train
with 250 people were on it, and it went down that track and hit
wrecked, killed every one of those people, and another man threw
the switch at the wrong time, and a little handcart was going
by, and it fell over, nobody got hurt. Which is the greater
sin? In our nature, we'd say, well,
the one that killed all the people would. The action was no different.
The action wasn't no different at all, was it? Sin is a transgression
against God. It doesn't matter if it's outwardly,
if it's inwardly, or if we never get caught. Oh, nobody knows
about that one. That one don't count. It's against
the Almighty God who it's against. God looks on the heart, on the
intent. what we meant by it. Judas' betrayal
and Peter's denial were the same. But if we confess our sin, He
is faithful and just to forgive our sin. I tell anyone, no matter
who they are, whosoever, come to Christ. Come with a sorrowful,
contrite heart. Come truly begging mercy. This
ain't a convenience store. This ain't the 7-11 you come
down and get saved. This is a Savior. This is a Lord.
Come to Him. Begging Him. Trusting that He's
able. And He will be plenteous in mercy to you. Plenteous in mercy. His grace
is magnified by His mercy. Come to Him. Come to Him. What a day it would be.