Well, good morning. Welcome to
our continuing Bible study in the book of Luke 22. I have a
lengthy chapter. We're a little over midway through
it. There just seems to be so much
in there that draws our attention. And today we're going to begin in
verse... 47. And remember they had left, they
had the Passover and then the Lord's Supper in the upper room,
and then they went out into a mount to this garden of Gethsemane
up there on the Mount of Olives, and he engaged with his disciples
there and went into a period of prayer. We come to verse 47. And while he yet spake, behold
a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve,
went before them and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus
said unto him, Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?
When they which were about him saw what would follow, they said
unto him, Lord, shall we smite with the sword? And one of them
smote the servant of the high priest and cut off his right
ear. And Jesus answered and said,
Suffer ye thus far. And he touched his ear and healed
him. And then Jesus said unto the
chief priests and the captains of the temples and the elders
which were come to him, Be ye come out against a thief with
swords and staves. When I was with you daily in
the temple, you stretched forth no hands against me, but this
is your hour and the power of darkness." So, many things to
consider in this. Today's lesson is called, Betrayed
by a Kiss, and that's how Judas identified Jesus. apparently
he was not that different in physical appearance from any
of the other disciples, that there had to be some positive
identification before they would be able to arrest him. And he
chose, of all things, a kiss to a familiar kiss to identify
him. And that's what it says in the
other Gospels. He whom I kiss, that will be the one that hold
him fast. And we'll look at that here in
a bit. And then the disciples are all
incensed, and they see this armed band come to take away their
Lord, and shall we smite with a sword? And of course, the other
Gospels identify that as Peter, the primary one that smote off,
in John 18, I think it is as Peter smote off the ear of the
servant of the high priest. We can only imagine how that
went. It's like a sword. I'm going to whack your ear off. It wouldn't take much. of an effort to accomplish that
with a sword. They were not a big long sword,
but a smaller sword. Still, I'm thinking he took a
mighty whack at that guy. In the providence of God, he
just got his ear and the Lord healed that and took care of
it. There's where we're at, these
ones that have come to arrest the Lord. So today's lesson called Betrayed
by a Kiss from our verses in Luke 22, 47. We're going to expand
a little bit on a lesson from Norm on the book of Esther, Wednesday
night, titled, if you haven't had a chance to listen to that,
it's called He Hath Purposed. What a powerful phrase there
about God. And here we have, Betrayed by
a Kiss, the symbol of affection and friendship. It just shows you the depths
of the nature of the effects of the fall when someone could identify someone with a kiss
of affection and in their heart saying, yeah, I'm betraying you
for 30 pieces of silver. I've sold you down the river.
And we'll kind of explore that a little bit in the lesson here. You know, we don't know all the
things that went through Judas's mind regarding what he was doing,
but a kiss, betrayed by a kiss. And I wanted to paraphrase Matthew
Henry in his commentary regarding this. And he just said he had
a thought there. I didn't quote the whole thing,
but just kind of took a bit out of it in a paraphrase. And he said, with the cloak of
seeming affection, A blow is delivered to the honor of free
grace and the root of holiness. What a statement. the depths
of the depravity of the human nature because of the fall. It
just knows no bound. It's just a good example for
us that many who exhibit, again, from paraphrasing Matthew Henry,
he said, many who exhibit a form of godliness and who display
a zeal for God are in actuality fighting against the very fact
of it. And isn't that what 99% of all
religion is, is people trying to substitute their own works
or righteousness and fighting against free grace, which is
kind of an oxymoron in theology there. The human nature is just
geared, that's all it can do. And the Lord in Matthew 15, verse
8, He said, this people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth,
and honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me."
Isn't that a good description of Judas there? He calls him
master, and he gives him a kiss, and all these things that he
expresses with his mouth, but his heart is saying, I've got
30 pieces of silver in my pocket. But kind of what I wanted to
focus our attention today on is that this was not randomness. This was not happenchance. This
was not just a recording of how things happen. This was all things
that happen because of the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God and His purpose. As Norm mentioned in the book
of Esther, He hath purposed. He hath purposed all things according
to His own will. And I think on your bulletin
there's a quote from Ephesians. Predestinated is according to
Him that worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.
What a wonderful statement we have there. But, you know, a
lot of times we gloss over that, like in Romans 8, 28, where it
says that He works all things for good to them who love God,
who are the called according to His purpose. And we just think
of that in terms of, well, I had a really good day yesterday.
God was working all things for good, you know. And then when
things go bad, we kind of say, I don't see how that worked for
my good. But we kind of localize them
and we kind of trivialize it to a degree. And we don't think
that from before the foundation of the world, God, for every
one of his sheep, worked all things for good for them in their
birth, from before the children were born, having not done any
good or evil that the purpose of God, according to election,
might stand. Before they were born, He loved
the one, and that's how He is with all the church. He had a
love for them and not for anybody else. And for them, as I said,
He predestinated us from before the foundation of the world according
to the purpose of Him who works all things. after the counsel
of His own will. So every detail of every circumstance
involving anybody in the church has been worked out from before
creation, from before the foundation of the world. We have the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world for us. And that brings
me to the kind of the focus of our lesson today, because all
these things that are happening in this garden, all the things
that have happened up to it, everything that's recorded in
the scriptures, is all according to the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God. He has purposed all things and
none can stay his hand or say, what are you doing? Or anything
like that. And so today I'd just like to
maybe call our attention to the exactness of God and the preciseness
and the immutability of everything that
must occur. When we look at things in the
Old Testament, I was talking to Norm about this this morning,
that when we look in the Old Testament and we see these prophecies,
they're not just a crystal ball that says, here's what's going
to happen. With Christ, He says, I am. And that's a That's a, what do
they call it, a pluperfect, it's an I Am thing. And with Christ it's always I
Am. He was the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the
world that actually fulfilled that in time as we know it. But
for him, before Abraham was, I am. And that's the way that
he views things. And so everything that's purposed,
everything that's described in the Old Testament is what we
might consider instructions for the redemption of the church.
These are maybe not instructions, but these are the rules. These
are the things that God has determined will result in the redemption
of the church, the redemption of the sheep, of the elect, of
the children of God. Everything that we read about,
regarding Christ in the Old Testament has to do with his redemption
of the church. And so it's not just, well, I
got a crystal ball that says here's what's going to happen
to him in Psalm 22. These are things that must occur
to satisfy the righteousness of God. And everything that has
befallen us in the fall and in the curse of sin must be dealt
with. all of our sins, all of our nature
must be reborn because our nature is corrupt because of the fall. You must be born again. Why does
it say that? Because you must be born again.
It has to. That's what has to occur. As we look at these things and
consider the preciseness and the exactness of God in redeeming
His people, they must happen. They must be accomplished. These
things must occur. precise things that God the Father
has said will end up in satisfying His righteousness and His justice,
as it's related to us in Isaiah 53, there I think in verse 11. By his sacrifice shall my righteous
servant justify many, and he shall look at the travail, the
things that he's going through. Being betrayed by a kiss is one
of them. Being betrayed by, in the Psalms
it says, my own familiar friend has lifted up his heel against
me. That's written as now. It's not written, we'll lift
his heel up against me. It says, my own familiar friend
has lifted up his heel against me. When he's in Psalm 22, he
says, It doesn't say, well, my bones
are all going to be out of joint and I'm going to be so dry that
I can't even swallow. He says, my bones are all out
of joint. My jaw cleaveth. I'm surrounded by ravening wolves
and bulls of Bashan. All those things, they're all
written in the present tense, if you'll notice. And there are
things that God has determined must occur. And they're all exactly
written down. They're all exactly described. They're all exactly determined
by God the Father as the things that must happen for the redemption
of one soul or even all the souls of all the church. And so when
we look at religion and people have a concept of God that's
born from a heart which is desperately wicked and deceitful, the scripture
tells us. And they come up with all kinds
of things about God that are not factual and not based in
any kind of understanding, because indeed the Scripture says the
natural man can't receive those things in the Spirit of God,
neither can he know them, because they're spiritually discerned.
But they have a concept of God according to their own incorrect
understanding, and fundamentally they rationalize bringing God
down to their own level and expectations. They have no concept of their
own position before a righteous and holy God, and what He's written
down, what He has exactly determined must occur to be satisfied and
to save anyone. in Psalm 50, chapter 50, verse
21, it says, These things hast thou done, and I kept silence,
though thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself. That's how a natural man, if
they have any view of God, they think of Him in terms of their,
on an equal basis with Him. And He says, But I will reprove
thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. That's going to happen.
At some point, people are going to have a right understanding
of God, and that can be either really good or really bad, depending
on what side of that throne you're on at that time. Until God opens
their eyes, though, He remains, according to their thinking,
an ineffectual God who needs their assistance and cooperation
to accomplish anything. That's where the birth of universal
application of the sacrifice of Jesus and free willism, that
He died for everyone and it's just up to you to either accept
that or reject that. And that is based on your own
merit of your own ability, your own work of being able to decide
and make a choice when the scriptures are very clear that you're dead
in trespasses and sins. You have no ability to do anything. You're like Lazarus laying there.
You can't respond positively in any way spiritually. And certainly,
Judas falls under that description that Paul gives Timothy in his
second epistle in 2 Timothy 3, beginning in verse 1. And it just goes to show you
that there's nothing new. It was true before then, it was
true during that time, it's true now. This know also that in the
last days perilous time shall come, for men shall be lovers
of their own selves, Covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers,
disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection,
trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers
of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of
pleasure more than lovers of God." And we get down to this
last phrase here in 2 Timothy 3.5, having a form of godliness. but denying the power thereof,
and from such turn away." This form, this exterior appearance
of godliness. They have an exterior... Judas
went out with the Twelve and the Seventy, and did the same
thing as those other guys did. He had an exterior form that
even the disciples didn't say, stay away from him. That guy's
up to no good. Even when something shifty happened,
they said, oh, maybe he's out buying bread for the poor. Maybe he's doing, they assumed
he was doing something good. They didn't assume he was a stinker. He had a form of godliness, but
denying the power thereof. It's such a clear, thing that describes to us the
depths of the effects of the fall. For him to be right next
to Jesus, to be able to do these things, and yet have his heart
be far from him. And likewise in Romans when Paul
wrote about a zeal, but not according to knowledge. Certainly, Judas
exhibited some zeal in that he was able to do as those other
disciples, yet really without the ability to connect it to
the true existence and power of God. You know, in the other
gospel, it says, I'm going to identify him with a kiss, hold
him fast. He just could not have had the
least iota of the understanding and the ability of the Son of
God to say, well, hold him fast, because I've seen him slip away. I've seen him be in crowds, and
they tried to grab him, and he just disappeared out of their
sight. He's slippery. But it's just
he just viewed it from that physical aspect of. He has this ability
to escape, disappear into a crowd. And then he said. Deliver him
safely. Arresting but deliver him safely.
Now that had to occur because that was what was determined.
precisely by God Almighty. He is a lamb, as it were, led
to the slaughter. The lamb just going along. And
they're not beating him and whipping him and stuff on the way until
they get to the place of execution, you know. So deliver him safely. And, you know, kind of in the
back of his mind, maybe he thought, well, if he truly is God, he
can escape or not allow any harm to come to himself. And in the
meantime, I'll have made a tidy sum of 30 pieces of silver. And
he gets away, and life goes on. And he'll not know. And he thinks, well, Jesus didn't
know that he got a tidy sum. But in the Old Testament, they
paid for my prize, 30 pieces of silver. It was determined
by God. Everything is exact, I'm telling
you. Everything is precise. Everything
is unerring. Everything is determined. He won't know about
the 30 pieces of silver. And maybe in his mind he said,
you know, maybe I'll take some of that 30 pieces of silver and
buy some bread for the poor. Because that's how man's thinking
works. Well, maybe I did get this a
little ill-gotten gain, but I'll counter that with a good work
on this side, and I'll do something good with 10% of it or 20% or
half of it. And that way, in the end, when
I have to answer for it, say, well, look, I made a little money,
but look at the good I did with it. I dug a well in Uganda. From grace we learn that every
detail was determined and purposed by God in eternity before the
earth was formed. And the Son of Man goeth as it
was determined, it told us in Luke 22, 22. As it was determined. Every facet, every detail, as
it was determined. But woe unto that man by whom
he's betrayed. He says, this is what's going
to happen. We're going to use that. You meant it for evil, but God
meant it for good to save much people alive. It's just one of
those things that we read about from the beginning of Scripture,
clear to the end. The circumstances of His arrest
were according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God the Father, as it tells us in Acts 2.23, Him being delivered
by Not that he was just an observer
or a spectator. It says he was delivered by the
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. And you have taken and
by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Every detail is as
exact and uncompromising as God the Father is himself who changes
not. Every detail is. It's not negotiable. Every detail must comply to satisfy
the righteousness and holiness of God Almighty. And this is
just a strong rebuke to those who, in their own eyes, think
they can appeal these immutable requirements and say, Well, this
guy on TV told me all I had to do was say these abracadabra,
blah, blah, blah, blah, and I'm in. I get to go to heaven. Isn't
that what you want to do? You want to go to heaven, don't
you? What about being forgiven for my sin? What about the price
that had to be paid to forgive me for my sin? It's not just
I'm buying an e-ticket to the eternal Disneyland by saying
these words. Every detail based in love before
time, because that's what the Scripture tells us. He must be betrayed. And we've
read that in Luke and again in Matthew. It says, the Son of
Man goeth as it is written. That was just a good crystal
ball prophecy. It was, he goeth as it was written. Those were the marching order.
Those were the rules that were required to satisfy God. Yea,
my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who did eat of my
bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. All must be against him. Why
do the heathen rage? Psalm 2. And the people imagine
a vain thing. What is the vain thing that they
imagine? They imagine that you thought
that I was such a one altogether as thyself. They thought that
all I got to do is keep the law. All I got to do is do more good
works than bad. All I got to do is save this
or join that or pay this and I'm in. That's a vain thing. That word means useless. The kings of the earth set themselves
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
his anointed saying, let's break their bands asunder and cast
away their cord from us. They imagine these things. And fundamentally, it's based
on no understanding of who he is. They sought to lay hands on him. But his hour was not yet come.
Like he won't know that we're plotting against him. How convenient
for old Judas to come to us and say, hey, you know what? I know
you guys want him, but you don't want to grab him in front of
a big crowd because there could be an insurrection and the Romans
would get all upset and the people would be mighty upset if you
haul this guy off and arrest him who just got through healing
this leper and blind guy and causing the lame to walk and
the deaf to hear and the blind to see. That'll be mighty unpopular
with the crowd. He says, but I know where they
go at nighttime where there's just the 12 of them. I know where
we can get him and everybody will be in bed. There won't be
any hubbub. And they said, We're with that. Here's the money. He must be
bound and led. Psalm said, bind the sacrifice
with cords, even to the horns of the altar. Every detail exact,
every detail must be observed. He was oppressed and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth. He's brought as a lamb to the
slaughter and as a sheep before his shearers is done. So he openeth
not his mouth. He must be taken to the high
priest. Isn't that what they did with the sacrifice? All those
times Norm's been teaching us from Exodus and Leviticus and
Numbers, they brought the sacrifice to the high priest and if it
met the requirements, then it was taken and slain. It had to follow that pattern.
It had to follow what was written. The son of man goeth as it was
written of him. All those things must happen. He must be found without spot
or blemish. I find no fault in this man.
You should turn him loose. Nope. So we're going to stop
there, but in closing, I just want to say again and reiterate
that the exactness of God cannot be
substituted. Salvation must be on His terms.
It must be according to His purpose. It must be according to His determinate
counsel and foreknowledge. for whom He did foreknow, them
He did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son." All
those things that we read about in Romans 8 and Ephesians and
Thessalonians, our gospel came to you not in word only, but
in power and in the Holy Spirit, having that effectual work in
the Lord's people. The Gospel is preached unto us
as well as unto them, but to them, no effect, because it was
not mixed with faith by the Holy Spirit in them that heard it
over there. Just according to God's purpose. And he says, why does that happen?
It's according to love before time. It's according to the purpose
of God, according to election. I love these, and He's going
to see to it that everyone whom He loved, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. So we'll stop there. have a little
time to fellowship. So thank you for your attention
and as always be...