I didn't, honestly, you just
have to believe me, that I did not plan these two messages together
like this. I believe they were given to
me. The message this morning was prepared long before I even looked
at the passage tonight. And here before us again, we
have a very solemn message of warning before us. It's eternally vital and it's
necessary that we hear and we receive both comfort and warnings
from the prophets. It's eternally vital and necessary. We read it a while ago that we
need to give diligence to make our calling and election sure.
And the scripture says, let he that thinketh he standeth take
heed, lest he fall. So it's eternally vital that
we receive words of warning and conviction from the scriptures.
especially in light of this awesome passage before us about Judas.
This is a difficult passage of Scripture. It's difficult to
understand this man, what took place here, anything about him. But last Sunday, we looked at
the lesson our Lord taught His disciples concerning spiritual
and practical cleansing. Or, if you will, justification,
sanctification, humility, service to others. We looked at that.
And we read verses like this, look at verse 10, chapter 13,
verse 10. Jesus saith to Peter, he that
is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but he's clean
everywhere. The man whom Christ died for,
shed his blood for, and applied it to his sinful soul, imputed
his righteousness to that man, he's clean everywhere. And he
said to his disciples, he said, you're clean. You are clean. And then he uttered these dark
words, but not all. Not all. And then in verse eleven,
And it says, he knew who should betray him. How did he know? He chose him. He handpicked him. He went out and handpicked his
betrayer. We're going to see that here
in a moment. Therefore, he said, you're not all clean. And down
in verse 17, it says, if you know these things, if you know
where your salvation is from, it's in Christ. And you know the blessing of
true humility and service to God and to others. Happy are
you if you do these things. He said, I speak not of y'all
now. He says, there's folks, there's
one of you who is not going to experience this true happiness.
See, I speak not of you all because I know whom I've chosen. Scripture
says, blessed is the man whom thou choosest, causes to approach
unto thee. Blessed and happy is the man
whom God chooses, but eternally condemned and cursed is the man
whom Christ has not chosen. But he says the scripture must
be fulfilled, verse 18, Psalm 41, 9. He that eateth bread with
me hath lifted up his heel against me. I know whom I have chosen, but the scripture must be fulfilled.
Now, why did God ordain it this way? This is puzzling. Twelve,
nearly twelve apostles. And one of them was a devil,
just twelve, a very small number by today's church standards,
the first church, if you will. And one of them was a traitor
and a devil. Why did he do this? Why did God
ordain it this way? Why should there be a Judas among
the apostles? Why didn't Judas come from somewhere
else? Why did he come from right in the midst of the apostles?
Well, several reasons. And some of these may apply to
our assembly here. And I urge you to pay very close
attention. Now, Christ said at the very
outset that Judas was not a saved man. I used to, I approached
this in a different, with a different understanding before. But I believe,
I understand now that Judas was never, never considered a true
apostle or a saved man. Was a fine moral upstanding man,
that old fisherman? No, he was a rounder, but he
was a no good. Matthew was a publican. But the
difference being in the grace of God, in the one who calls
and the one who chooses and the one who effectually applies,
that's the difference. But Christ chose Judas for a
different reason altogether. God forbid. that we would be chosen for the
same purpose. See, I've chosen you. Why? Why
did God choose for Judas to be a devil? No, to remain a devil. I mean, put it this way. Now,
all of us by nature hate God, and we're of our father the devil
unless he does a change, makes a change within us. He didn't
make this change in Judas. He just left him like he was,
a devil. from the beginning. Why? First
of all, Christ said it right there, he said that the scripture
may be fulfilled. Christ came to do the will of
the Father. He came to do, he said, I came,
it's written of me in the volume of the book, I come to do thy
will, O God. Christ came down here, it was
like he, this is It's like he had a scroll before him, and
he was walking through this life, checking off everything he was
supposed to say, do, everybody he was supposed to choose. Well,
he did have it before. He had it in him. He was the
Word. And he was coming to get it perfectly stamped on his mind
and his heart. Everything this book said he
was supposed to do and say and feel and go through. And everyone
he was supposed to tutor. And he was walking through this
life fulfilling them all. Check. Now I'm supposed to say
this. Check. This is the marvelousness
of this book. But he came to fulfill the Scriptures. Even this one that said a familiar
friend would lift up his hand against him. Even though it meant... Now, try to think about this,
man. Christ chose these twelve men, and eleven of them, eventually
twelve, including the Apostle Paul, were to be his intimate,
personal, close friends. He was going to reveal the very
mind of God to these men, personally, closely. He was going to dwell
with them, walk with them, talk with them, live with them, eat
with them, commune with them, love them, teach them, guide
them, instruct them, send them out. as his emissary, as his
messenger, his close, personal, intimate companions, eleven men,
and one of them, the devil. Why did you, why did he, don't
you know it, every time he looked at that guy, he blamed him? I mean, he had close fellowship
with the rest of these, these ones he loved dearly, he'd chosen.
He looked over there and there's Judas. Just to look at him in his midst.
The devil! Why? That the Scriptures might be
fulfilled. The Scriptures. Secondly, he
did this so that Judas, even being a devil, would be an impartial
witness to the character of Christ. Now listen to this. Judas, Satan
and his servants, are watchers and accusers of the brethren. And beware lest this spirit be
found in you of looking for faults in others, trying to find things
in people, accusing people. Did you see what he said? Did
you hear that? That's the spirit of Satan himself. He's the accuser
of the brethren, the Scripture says. He watches carefully to
see if he can find something in you. And God in His wisdom
He placed this man, this devil, this servant of Satan himself,
right in the middle to stand right beside Christ and watch
His every move. And in the end, Judas himself
had to admit, he said, after he betrayed Him, he said, I have
betrayed innocent God. You see the wisdom of God here?
I've betrayed a sinless holy one. I've looked for something
in him, couldn't find it. He's holy. He's the Son of God. Even a devil had to admit that.
That's what they said every time he came in their presence. What?
We know who you are. You come to torment us before
it's time. And Satan's right-hand man ended
up having to admit it. It's the wisdom of God, putting
this man right in the middle, right in the middle. And Christ
himself said it in the face of all those Pharisees, all those
accusers, all those watchers, all those that sought to catch
him up in his saying. He said, somebody prove something
against me. Come on. Boy, if I said that,
if you said that, everybody in here would stand up, wouldn't
they? I got something to say against Rick. I know something
against him. But Christ said that. Somebody! Anybody! Got
anything to say to prove that I'm a sinner? Anybody! Even Satan himself, the master
at deception of nothing. See, this proves the divinity
of this man, Christ Jesus, and the wisdom of God in doing this.
Thirdly, to show the extreme sinfulness of sin. He placed
this man, a familiar friend, right in the midst, a close friend.
This shows the wretchedness of sin in us, Terry. A close friend
betraying. I mean, this is the height of
sin, isn't it? To betray innocent blood. It's
the height of it. I'll give you an illustration.
13th Street Baptist. There was a young man. And I
was talking to you about this the other day, and I was speaking, I hope in a right spirit, I was
trying to think the best about that man. But after I got to
examining it, thinking about it, I realized that he was not of us, never was.
But this man was the greatest single object of the affection
of a people of a church I'd ever seen in my life. You know who
I'm talking about? We lavished him. The people of
our church, he was a young preacher. The people of 13th Street bought
his dishwasher, bought his clothes dryer, his washer and his dryer,
bought his bed, put clothes on his children's back, got him
a job, bought him cars because they loved him. He preached the
gospel, loved him, treated him. I got real close to him, real
close. I was a young man. He was a little
older than I was. And I admired him, respected
him. I had Bible studies in his home. The greatest single object, the affection
of a church I've ever seen in my life just opened up their
homes and wallets and everything, just poured it out on this young
man. And he turned around. and became
an outspoken opponent of the pastor of that church, began
to go around to the different men, the elders and the deacons,
and try to subvert them against him, saying, he's not preaching
the gospel. Saying, we ought to confront
him, let's all go talk to him about this. Sinfulness of sin. Perfect love. In the midst of love, to sin
against love. Terry, that's sin, isn't it? You know, behold what manner
of love the Father has bestowed upon us. Behold what manner of
sin we've sinned against God by killing His Son. And, this is fourthly, this
is a solemn warning to everyone. solemn warning that how near
somebody can come to Christ and not know Him. God help us. What will be on our faces right
now, shouldn't it? How near. How many gospel sermons
do you reckon Judas heard? How many did he preach? He went out preaching this gospel. How much gospel can a man hear
and still not be born again? And fifthly, this ought to prepare
us, this ought to prepare us to expect hypocrites in our midst. We can expect them. God, I wish
it didn't have to be so, don't you? But he said it would. He said there must be heresies
among you. He said, Paul said it in his
various epistles, said it over and over again, that men will
come from your very midst. Brethren will rise up from your
very midst. We read it this morning, 1 John
18, 19. They went out from us. They were not of us. And no doubt
they would have stayed with us, but they went out from us because
they were not of us. That it might be made manifest
as not of us. It's a solemn warning to put
no confidence in a man, isn't it? Not this man, not that man. No man, don't put in confidence
in anybody. With all your confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ. That
way you'll never be hurt. I mean, you'll never be completely
and finally hurt to the point of, I quit, you know. But you
trust in Christ alone. He's the only, I tell you, Terry,
he's the only one that's truly faithful in it. He's the faithful
servant in it. Not you. You might be a raving
lunatic tomorrow. Pretty close now. But he's the only faithful one,
isn't he? Let's put all our confidence
in him and him alone. If you look to Christ, he'll
never let you down. Never. Never. He's a friend that
sticks closer than a brother. Closer than a brother. Well,
seventhly, this is one more proof of God's ways differing from
our ways, and his thoughts differing from ours. We wouldn't have known
it this way. We wouldn't put the traitor right in the midst.
This would bring our approach to the gospel, wouldn't it seem
like? I wouldn't have heard it this way, I'll just be honest
with you. God's thoughts aren't my thoughts. His ways aren't
my ways. And he had all wise purpose in
this thing. All wise reasons. And lastly, this reveals Christ's
omniscience to his disciples and us. Christ prophesied it
would happen before it happened. He said that you might know that
I am he. I'm the great I am. I know all things. I knew this
was going to happen. I went out and handpicked the
man that was going to betray me. Did you notice there that
scripture, it said there, verse 18, it says, he that lifted up
his heel against me. Do you ever, do you remember
any other verse, scripture talking about the heel? Genesis 3.15. that the serpent was going to
bruise his heel, but he was going to bruise his head, the serpent's
head? Well, this is a glorious fulfillment. Satan sought to do what Christ
ended up doing. Satan wanted to walk on the head, crush the head, but the head
ended up crushing Satan, and he got his heel bruised in the
process. But Christ stepped on the head
of Satan. Well, this is what Christ said here to prove his
omniscience. He said in verse 19, look at
it. He said, Now I'm telling you this before it comes to pass,
that when it comes to pass, that you may believe I'm He. I wrote the book. When it comes to pass, I'm going
to say, I told you so. He's the only one. We love to
say that, don't we? Now, admit it. We love to say
it, don't you? If something happens, I told
you so. Proves us, it lifts us up, you
know. That's wicked. But he's the only one, truly
the only one that can say this. I told you so. And it be glory
to him and honor to him. He told us so, didn't he? Glory
be to him. He told us so. that we might believe He's the
great I Am. Look at verse 20. Now, He says,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, truly, truly, I say unto you,
He that receiveth whomsoever I send, receiveth me. And he that receiveth me, receiveth
him that sent me. Now, this is a puzzling verse
right in the midst of this. And when I first looked at this,
I thought, what is it? This is confusing. This doesn't
pertain to what He was just talking about. Why did he say this? After he just said, somebody
is going to betray me, and I'm telling you right now before
it comes to pass. And then he says, but he that receives whomsoever
I send receives me, and he that receives me receives God that
sent me. That doesn't make sense, does it? Well, here's what he's
saying, I believe. After warning these disciples
to beware, He's acknowledging that there are true prophets,
true apostles, true pastors, true teachers, yes, and true
evangelists. There's a tele-evangelist today
that's preaching the gospel. Yeah, there is. There's a man
on TV today preaching the gospel. There's two, three, three tele-evangelists
preaching the gospel. That's an awful word today, a
tele-evangelist. There's three of them I know
of that are preaching the gospel. Henry Mahan, Bill Sasser, and Gary
Shepherd. Somebody else preaching? Bill
Parker. Boy, there's some still out there
now preaching the gospel. And Christ is saying this for
the comfort and encouragement of the apostles, and he's saying
this to exalt and lift up that position he put them in. Else
all credibility to apostles would be dashed in the dirt, you know?
He's encouraging them, saying, it's all right, though. I ordain
that this happen, but apostleship, preaching the gospel, it's an
honorable profession. Truly, I say unto you, and anybody
that receives a true minister of the gospel is receiving me.
So don't, he's saying, don't reject any man that calls himself
a preacher because of the bad taste that these things leave
in your mouth. But because of their approach, they believe
on the gospel, because there's some true preachers out there. And anybody
who receives them, receives me, Christ said. To receive them
is to receive Christ. Verse 21. And I hope I'm in that
midst. Verse 21. When Jesus had said
this, when he finished saying these things, he was troubled
in spirit. He was troubled in spirit. There's nothing more heartbreaking
and troubling to a parent than to have a child fall into the
very things that you have constantly warned them against. Some of
you know what I'm talking about. To constantly warn a child to
beware of some things, and they fall right into those things,
that surely there's nothing more troubling to a parent when you
tried your best to prevent it. You know? And this may be, in
some sense, the sense of what he's saying here, at least he's
giving us that feeling. Not that Judas applies as a child. But us, to us, we're incessantly
warned and exhorted and admonished from the Scriptures, and yet,
we don't always heed it, do we? We fall, miserably fail. And it troubles us. We terribly
grieve the Holy Spirit, don't we? Yeah, we do. And Christ was
troubled here. Maybe thoughts of Peter, old
Peter, you know. He loved Peter. He was going
to, just in a few minutes, curse him, say he never knew. Troubled
him. He was a man of sorrows, acquainted
with grief. Troubled. Troubled. How would
this trouble you? He's touched with the feeling
of our infirmity. Troubling. And it's heartbreaking
to a pastor, as I said before, to see somebody who's spiritually
sick and even dying or maybe even dead. And hold up the remedy
right in front of the nose and say, drink this. Drink it. Please drink this. Eat this. Look to Christ, man, or you're
going to die. Only to have that man just... Christ's trouble here is mostly,
I believe, in the presence of... Mostly, I believe that the Scriptures
are speaking of being troubled in the presence of this evil.
The perfect, holy Son of God. I did a lot of study on this
message. Stay with me. The perfect and holy Son of God
in the flesh was keenly sensitive to everything contrary to God. This is the reason when he was
in the garden, when he was thinking about going to that cross and
being made sin, being actually made evil, having it all, the
way the world, the sin of the world on his shoulder placed
on his holy spotless person, it made him sweat blood. Just the thought of it, he said,
Lord, I'm going to die right here. Just thinking about it. Somebody used this illustration. To think about Christ being made
sin for us. This holy and spotless Son of
God. The closest you could possibly
come to entering into this is to take a young girl, a young
virgin, innocent young girl who'd been sheltered by her parents and been sheltered and securely
kept back from things that were harmful to her. And to take that young girl and to
take her down in the midst of New York City and drop her off
in a dark alley to have a beast that some people call man, savage. That's just hideous to think
about it. Just hideous. Take your daughter. Think about it. That's what God
did with His Son. That's what He did, didn't He?
His Holy Spiritful Son. Just cast him to the wolves. And Christ was keenly sensitive
and He was troubled in the midst and the presence of sin. And
you know, there were times when Christ would boldly speak out
and say, get behind me, Satan. You don't savor the things of
God. Get out of here! He'd go into the temple and He'd
cast him out. Our house is going to be called the house of prayer.
You made it a den of thieves. Get out! He could boldly go in
and say these things. But at times he was weighted
down and troubled in the presence of sin and evil. His soul was
exceedingly sorrowful even unto death. I want a little bit of that spirit.
I'd like to have a little bit of that sensitivity. You know,
it seems the older we get, the less we have of it, doesn't it? Doesn't it? It's so. I want some,
I want that, that Barnard called it that sweetheart love for God. God forbid that I should sin
against such perfect love. I want a little bit of that spirit.
I want to hold a lot of that spirit. But Christ said I'm troubled. Verse 21, he said, "...barely,
barely, I say unto you, one of you shall betray me." One of you shall betray me. My soul, God, don't let it happen
here. Don't let it happen here. Don't let it happen here. Verse 22, Then the disciples,
and they got troubled. He said this out loud. Everybody
heard it, one of you. It's called betrayal. He had this pained look on his
face. And disciples began to be troubled
too. And they began to look at one
another, doubting of whom he was. Looking around, another
version of the gospel says they begin to say, Lord, is it I? You know, it even says that Judas
came up to Him and asked Him that? I didn't write it down,
but one of the gospels says that Judas himself came up and said,
Lord, is it I? That's how deceiving this heart
can be. Deceptive above all things. Desperately
wicked. Who can know it? And that's the title of this
message, and that's what I want us to ask ourselves. Lord, is
it I? Lord, is it I? They were all doubtful of whom
he spake. This was how devious and deceptive
Judas was. Nobody suspected him, even now.
Nobody suspected him. I know why I'm not saying this.
I'm not bringing this up. It's just in the context here. And we're preaching it verse
by verse here. I'm not bringing this up for us to suspect one
another. No, no. Like I say it again, I'll say
it again, I'll point you to Christ again. Don't look at one another,
look to Him. Look to Him. Well, verse 23,
now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom, one of His disciples,
whom Jesus loved. This is the contrast to the Gospel.
This is the beauty of the Gospel. Right in the face of the most
heinous and wicked crime of the century. Perfect love being betrayed
and sinned against. Right in the middle of that is
the love of Christ for one of His sons. You see the contrast
here? A perfect diamond cast against
that black background. In the face of betrayal is love. Love. Leaning on Christ. You see that wicked one over
in the corner? Plotting and scheming how he's going to betray Him.
Now look over there. One whom Jesus loved. There's
the key. John always referred to himself
in this way. One, the disciple whom Jesus
loved. He never said the disciple who loved Jesus. That's salvation. That's the mark of a saved man. Christ asked him, do you love
me? Yes, Lord, but you know, you know, I want to be the disciples
whom Jesus loved in the midst of that treachery. Thank God
his love never fails, that he loves us in Christ. Now look,
look at verse 24. Simon Peter therefore beckoned
to John. Now John was over there. John
was always around Christ, as close to him as he could get.
And you know, I'll show this in a second, but Peter beckoned
to John, and he punched him. John, ask him who it is. He beckoned to John that he should
ask Christ of whom he spake. And he that was lying on Jesus'
breath, had his arm around Christ, leaning up against him, leaning
on Jesus. He was literally leaning on the
everlasting arm. But he said, Who is it? Why didn't Peter ask
him himself? You know, up until this time,
Peter was speaking out. Well, Lord, who is it? Not this time. Why didn't he?
John, ask him who it is. I have a feeling that Peter was
getting a little bit of taste of himself by this time. By this
time, Peter began to feel a distance in their relationship A strain
was on their relationship because of his rashness, because of his
impulsiveness, because of his pride, because just not long
before that he took Christ's side and rebuked him. Lord, you
can't, no, no, you're not going to go down to Jerusalem. They're
looking for you. Peter had a little bit of starch
taken out of him, and later on he was going to deny that he
ever knew him. And he'd lost some of this closeness. Now listen,
enter into this. Peter had lost some of this close
relationship with Christ that he'd had before. And when you
lose this closeness to someone, you feel unable to speak to them.
You ever been there? You feel so sinful and wicked,
you just don't even want to hear from me. You ever been there? Joe, you been there? Feel too wicked to approach God
in prayer or whatever? And you know, pride, sinful hindrances,
they'll place you at a distance from Christ too. Scripture says
your sins have separated you. Later on, Christ said, if you
abide in me and my words abide in you, you ask me what you will,
and I'll give it to you. Peter wasn't. John, leaning right on him, the
whole time. Don't worry. You stay close to Christ. It's
good advice here. Stay close to Christ. Ask what
you will. Ask what you will. And He'll
give it to you. Verse 26, Christ answered, I
think He whispered this to John, because else everybody would
have known. That Judas was the one, but he whispered to John,
he said, he it is to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped
it. And when he dipped the sop, he
gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon. Now, back in these
days, a sop was a custom, an old custom. It was a custom of
the host of the house to give a sop of food It was a polite
gesture of politeness and welcome to dip a morsel of food down
in bread and say, here, have this. And I think perhaps for
us this is a lesson to show to us that no ill will toward our
enemies should ever be within us, that we should patiently
bear up even in the face of our enemies and our adversaries.
This is what even Christ did here. Here. And in verse 27, it says,
After the sop, Satan entered into him. After the sop. After receiving the sop. Now,
this could be a very solemn warning. What did Paul say about this
table? Anybody remember? He said, you
beware that you don't eat of this thing unworthily. Now we
see it? You examine yourselves. Make
sure you don't eat of this table in hypocrisy. And you know and
believe and trust and love Christ. Beware you don't sop in hypocrisy. This thing is more serious than
just eating a piece of cracker now and drinking a little sip
of wine. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. It's not some solemn
ritual. Nevertheless, it's an answer
of a good conscience toward God. It's a show of your faith in
Christ, and it's more serious than that. It could be a solemn warning
to us. Well, Christ said, In verse 27, after he had received
the sop, he said, My, my, my, these words. That thou doest. Do it quickly. Do it quickly. Now he had suffered, Arthur Pink,
I wrote down his words here, he said he had suffered the traitor
thus far. Now he says, get out of here. He'd suffered him this far, and
now he said, leave my presence. He had given him his charge of
apostleship in the very beginning. He called him. Can you imagine
when Christ was choosing those apostles, when he went up to
each one of them, and he got to Peter, and he thought it with
affection and fondness. with all of what he was going
to do for Peter and how Peter was. And he loved him. And then John, that beloved disciple. And then going down the road,
Philip and Matthew and Thomas, doubting Thomas and all. And
then he came to Judas Iscariot. Follow me. This is solemn. This is awesome. He gave him his apostleship.
There, follow me. And now he's saying, get away
from me. He's giving him his discharge
now. And the scripture, that the scripture might be fulfilled,
let another take his bishopric. He gave him his charge. He can
give him his discharge. He can do the same thing with
this old boy. God help us. God help us. Look over at Hebrews
chapter 6. Keep your place there and I'll hurry. I've just got
a few more minutes. Hebrews chapter 6 is this solemn
warning. This means, I believe, just what
it says. Hebrews 6 verse 4. Hebrews 6 verse 4. He says, It
is impossible. Hebrews 6 verse 4. It is impossible. for those who were once enlightened,
that is, given something of an understanding of the gospel,
and have tasted, given a little taste of the preciousness of
the gospel, tasted the heavenly gift, and were made partakers,
entered into the blessings of the body, hearing the gospel
and so forth, tasted the good word of God. studied it, looked
into it, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall
fall away, it's impossible to renew them
again and do repentance. Impossible. Now, that's not talking
about somebody falling from grace. No, what God does, He does forever.
Confident of this one thing, that He had that begunner. good
work in you, you're going to perform it to the very end. That
has to mean somebody who has tasted a little bit, experienced
a little bit of the truth, received a little bit of it, only appears. And then leave
it. No more. It's impossible. You see, you see, you see the
the urgency of this thing. Do you see? Why we need to resolve
this thing right now, right now, lest tomorrow I just, I don't
know, lest tomorrow I just leave. I might run off with, you know,
we might, tomorrow, if I don't resolve this thing now, who knows
what I'm going to do. Today is a day of salvation. Back to the text. Well, after
the sop, Satan entered into him, and then Jesus said, That ye
do, do quickly. Verse 28, Now no man at the table
knew for what intent he spake this unto him. This is unbelievable. Henry, this is how deceptive
this man was. Unbelievable. Nobody knew. Nobody
suspected Judas. say John perhaps, evidently the
Lord, you know, well he did, the Lord just spoke to John.
John knew perhaps. And maybe to somebody here, I
hope not. Nobody knows our hearts. To me,
I say this to me, nobody knows my heart. But God, God does. That's what
he said on 1 John. He said, if your heart condemns
you, God's greater than your heart. He's greater than your
heart. But I really believe that we
know. I really do. God gives you that assurance
that comes in knowing Christ. And if you don't have it, God
gives you a firm resolve to win Him, to know Him right now. Right
now. No man knew. Verse 29, let's
wrap this thing up. Some of them thought because
Judas had the bag that Jesus said of him, go buy those things
we have need of against the feast or that he should give something
to the poor. Judas, he was a treasurer. He had an important position. He was perhaps selected by, handpicked
by the Lord or maybe the disciples nominated him to carry the bag. It's significant to note that
the love of money is the root of all evil. But it's an important
task, not to say, you know, 13th Street's had a treasurer for
many years, and this church, Brother Lewis and Brother Stan
have been treasurers. But Judas had recently harped
on wasted money, didn't he? Wasted ointment and all. He'd
been harping about this thing. And we'd better examine our financial
attitude. Verse 30. He says, it says this,
in conclusion, he then having received the sup, went immediately
out, and it was night. That wasn't
just haphazardly put in there. He went out, darkness came. Darkness came. If you leave the
light of the gospel, Oh, how great is that darkness
is going to be. Now, we've been given today
two solemn messages from God's Word. Messages with solemn warnings
to anybody who is outside of Christ. Anybody playing religion, anybody
contemplating leaving the gospel. It's a message there. It's vital.
It's necessary. I need it. I need it. It's for
my sake as well as for yours. And I preach, and you should
witness and so forth, as a dying man, a dying man. And I say this in conclusion.
If you leave Christ, the Word of God will say, I told
you so. It won't. It will condemn us. Yes, it will. And be just in
doing so. If I leave Christ, my very mouth
is going to condemn me. I'm the one up here, standing
up here, quoting all this. And the Word, along with God's
Word, will condemn me. And I say, this is the reason
I say, brothers and sisters, look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Look to Christ. Look and live, the Psalm says.
Look and live. and live now before it's everlastingly
too late. And follow Christ, and keep following
Him, and hang on to Him with all of your heart, mind, soul,
and strength. Well, next Sunday, Lord willing,
we're going to look in there in John 13, the precious words
of Christ to His disciples. Precious promises and intimate. We're going to look into the
intimate conversation after he weeded out this man. And then he spoke intimately
with good news and promises and sweet words to his disciple from
here on out. The greatest message, greatest
sermon ever spoken, and it was a personal And I hope God will
bless it. And Sunday, Wednesday night,
Lord willing, we're going to take up another parable. But
I think these things are needful. I know they are. They're in the
Word. And they're needful. Every now and then. Not all the
time, lest we despair of ourselves. But every now and then, lest
we presume. We need to stop and think and
consider, Lord, is it I? Or is it deceitful in it? Oh,
it's deceitful. Sometimes you do things and think
things, you think, how in the world could I be a child of God?
What am I going to be like? You know, you get in such a state
sometimes, you think, what in the world am I going to get into
tomorrow? If I'm like this now, and except
by the grace of God and the power of God, we'd be devils out of
hell, wouldn't we? Huh? Yeah, we would. And God
puts these things in there to warn us. Look out, man. It happens. It happens. God keep
us looking to Christ with eyes of faith.