And here's my advice to you. You look to Him only too. Look
to Christ crucified. And I would ask you this. Examine
your hope of glory. Examine this. What is the reason
that God would let you into heaven? If right now, The Lord asked
you, why should I let you? You're such a vile sinner. And
you know that. And you do know that if God's
taught you. You're worthless in yourself. I know that in me
that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. That being absolutely
so, if God should ask you, why should I let a sinner like you,
a sinner like you, a sinner like you, A sinner like me, why should
I let a vile one like you into my holy heaven? What would you
say? What would you say? It better
not start with I. It better say, your answer better
be, let me in for Christ's sake. Let me in because your justice
has been satisfied. Let me in because Christ Jesus
died for sinners and Lord, that's me. I'm a poor old sinner and
I got no other hope. Examine the foundation, your
foundation. Got no hope but Christ and Him
crucified. You see, we do want this Assurance,
but I don't want presumption. I sure don't want that. What
is presumption? Here's what I think it is, an
undisturbed confidence that I'm all right with God based upon
something I've done. I think that's presumption. I don't want that. I don't want
that. There's a big difference between
presumption and assurance. One old writer said, somewhere
between proud presumption and dread despair, you'll find the
believer's hope. He said somewhere between fleshly
familiarity with God and a slavish fear of God, you'll find the
believer's hope. He said somewhere between modern
decisionism and rank fatalism, you will find the believer's
hope. You see, in the scriptures, we're
hedged about. On the one side, we have the
promises of God, he that hath the son hath life. On the other side, we have the
warnings of God. On the one side, we have his
promises, lest we lose all hope. On the other side we have his
warnings, lest we presume. Judas. He's a religious man. And he's
a man who walked with Christ Jesus. But he didn't know God. He was a preacher. I don't know, his sermons aren't
recorded. But I refuse to believe that
the Savior would send him forth and Judas preach a lie. He was
himself a lie. He's a hypocrite, but he would
have gone forth preaching what Christ taught him. But that teaching,
there was no question about it, the teaching was only up here,
it was in his mind. And he said the right things.
You know he said the right things or Peter, James, and John and
the other brethren would have said, brother, what's the matter
with you? Where did you get that from?
If he had said something amiss, You can say the right things
and still not know God. That's frightening. It's frightening. And our Lord said this about
him. Look over here in Matthew chapter 26. Matthew chapter 26. Look at verse 24. In fact, I'll back up and read
21 because this will parallel the passage in John 13. And as they did eat, here are
the 12 apostles with the Lord Jesus Christ. And as they did
eat, he said, verily I say unto you, and one of you shall betray
me. And they were exceeding sorrowful
and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I? You know, people who want blessed assurance
and who are very fearful of presumption will ask questions like that.
Is it me? Lord, is it me? And I tell people
who are honest with God, they don't mind praying to the Lord
and saying, Lord, if I'm wrong, show me. If I don't have faith,
please give it to me. Lord, I don't want to miss Christ.
I don't want to say the right things, and be in the right church,
and have the right book open, and yet not know You. See, honest
people don't talk. Honest people, they're not presumptuous
folks. And they say things like, they
ask questions like this, Lord, is it I? Oh my, is it me? One of you will betray me. Is
it me? Oh, I hope it's not me. I hope
it's not you. That's the way honest people
deal with these things. Not presumptuous people, though.
Not people who are arrogant. Not people who say, I've got
a no-so salvation. I've never doubted anything.
Hmm, well, hooray for you. I don't think I wanna be in your
boots. And he answered and said, he
that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray
me. He says, the son of man goeth,
as it was written of him, 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. Judas had been better for you
if you'd never been born. Never been born. Look at this. He says, Christ is speaking. He says, the Son of Man goeth. Goeth, as it is written of him,
he goeth. This was by divine determination. Where is he going? Well, back
there, remember in John chapter 13, I read the verses a while
ago, the Lord Jesus kept saying to these men, I'm going. I'm
going away, and you can't come with me. What's he say? I'm going to calvary. I'm going
to die. The Son of Man goeth. He's been
going to the cross from old eternity. He was the very first one the
Father chose. He says, behold, my servant,
mine elect. God chose him and then chose
us in him. He's the living head. We're the
body. God chose him. This is by divine
determination. And He ever since, and I say
ever since because this is really an eternal matter, the Son of
God has always been going to die. He's always been pointing
toward the cross, going to Jerusalem. Isaiah says He set His face like
a plant. Well, He did that from the covenant
of grace. Here's a determination. He's
been going to the cross. This is the goal marked out for
him. I go. I go. The scripture says,
as you know, Psalm 37, 23, the steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way. There's only been
one truly good man, and that's Christ Jesus. All the course
of his life was graciously ordained and in loving kindness, all was
fixed, all was settled, and all was maintained. There's no reckless
fate here. There's no fickle thing called
luck. God ruled. in the steps of our
Lord Jesus Christ, just like God rules in your steps. Because
while you're not good by nature, you're good by grace. You make
good in Christ Jesus, who is Himself the Good One. Good Master,
the rich young ruler said. Our Lord Jesus said, why He called
me good? There's none good but God. You saying I'm God? If I'm
not God, I'm not good. He's the good one. And every
step of his life was ordained by God. And the same thing's
true of your life. And I'll tell you, scripture
says, he delighteth in his way. The father said, this is my beloved
son in whom I'm well pleased. I'm delighted in him. I'm delighted
in the way that I ordained for him, and I'm delighted in the
way he goes about fulfilling my will. I'm delighted with him. And most especially his steps
to the cross, to die the death of deaths. That death was ordained, divinely
purposed in order to save His people from their sins. He says, the Son of Man goeth.
The Son of Man goeth. And I'll tell you, His going
was necessary. He lived His life of perfection. We're thankful for that. But
His life couldn't accomplish our salvation. There is no redemption
through his life as wonderful and as glorious and as perfect
as that was. If he had lived that life of
perfection and gone to glory, which we know
that could never happen because God ordained him, but permit
me to just kind of go on a little bit here. There wouldn't be any
righteousness for us. There wouldn't be any reconciliation.
There wouldn't be any redemption. There had to be blood. There
had to be death. The death of the Son of God.
Nothing but His death would satisfy divine justice and bring in everlasting
righteousness for us. His going was necessary. Only
a perfect sacrifice could honor God. And His going, it did glorify
God. Back there in John chapter 13,
our Lord Jesus said, now is the Son of Man glorified. And He's
glorifying the Father. Do you know what the Savior's
soul design, His soul design was in His life and in His death? His only design, His only, His
mission, as it were, was to glorify the Father. That's what He did. And in glorifying the Father,
the Father's will and purpose was fulfilled. But He said, I
always do those things that please Him. When He came into the world,
He said, Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. That's what He said. This is His whole mission, to
glorify God. And in glorifying the Father,
the Father will glorify Him in giving Him full exaltation. Because as a result of finishing
the work of redemption and salvation that the Father gave Him to do,
the Father's gonna exalt Him. He exalted Him in His resurrection,
He exalted Him in His ascension. He exalted Him in His coronation. He exalted Him in giving Him
universal authority and sovereignty. He exalted Him in giving Him
all judgments been given to the Son. and He's going to exalt
Him yet when every knee shall bow to Him, and every tongue
shall confess He's the Lord to the glory of God the Father.
His mission was to glorify God. And as He glorified God, God
glorified Him. Here's the rule, honor God, God
honors you. He honored God perfectly. And God honored Him. And I'll tell you, if you want
God to honor you, honor his son. You honor the Lord because he
honors those who honor him. He glorified, he glorified God. He went forth as it was written
of him. He fulfilled the scriptures.
Notice, it says here, this passage in Matthew, the son of man goeth,
His going was voluntary. I know he was appointed to be
the Savior, but he wanted to be. He wanted to be. He said, I lay down my life. I'll take it again. He said,
no man takes my life from me. He said, I have the power to
lay it down. I have the power to take it again. When He died
on the cross of Calvary, they didn't take His life from
Him. He bowed His head and gave up the ghost. That's what it
says. He gave up the ghost. Nobody can take life from Him
who is life. And yet Him who is life, He gave
up His life. So we'd have life and have it
forever. The Son of Man goeth forth. He
goeth as it was written of him, written in the Old Testament.
Read again, Psalm 22. Read again, Isaiah 53. Read again, Daniel chapter nine. He goeth as it was written of
him. But whoa. Woe unto that man by whom the
Son of Man is betrayed. Here was a daring rebellion.
Here's a betrayal by a close friend. Let's always keep this in mind. Our Lord Jesus suffered, bled,
and died because it pleased God to have such an expiation. What
does that mean to have such a compensation to His law and justice? Because
the wages of sin is death. That's what God demanded. The death of the Son of God. But that doesn't mean that Judas
was free from all blame in his betrayal. He was absolutely responsible. God used him. No question about
that. And here's something we need
to all remember. Our God is the first cause of
all things. That's right, isn't it, Bill?
God is the first cause of all things. And Judas, his betrayal, His attitude toward the Lord
Jesus Christ. He hated Him. That's what Judas
did. He didn't love Christ. Listen,
you either love Christ or you hate Him. He didn't love Jesus
Christ. He didn't believe Him. He hated
Him. He despised Him. And he did what he wanted to
do out of rebellion. Out of his meanness? Out of unbelief? God didn't make him do it. God
didn't force him to do it. God didn't coerce him to do it.
God didn't nudge him to do it. Judas did exactly what he wanted
to do, and in doing exactly what he wanted to do, he exactly fulfilled
the sovereign will of God. Now that's just true. Judas listened to the same preaching
the rest of the men listened to. Judas saw the same miracles
the rest of the men saw. Judas beheld the kindness and
the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ just like all the other disciples
beheld his kindness and mercy. Judas, his unbelief, that's his
fault. That's his fault. He bears full
responsibility. And at the same time, the sovereign
will and purpose of God was fulfilled. Don't ever, don't ever apologize
for God being the first cause of all things. Better shut your mouth before
you ever do that. Because God has his way in the armies of
heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And Judas was an
inhabitant of the earth. And God had his way. And yet
God's hands aren't dirty. Judas is to blame. And the will
of God was fulfilled. After all, whatsoever the Lord
pleased, That did He in heaven and in earth and in all deep
places. Most people say, well, the Lord
knew ahead of time what Judas was going to do. Well, you see,
that's to take away from God's eternal determining purpose. All things are of God. Listen
to this, for of Him, speaking about God, for of Him and through
Him and to Him All things. That's what it says in it. All
things. To whom be glory forever. Amen. Our Lord Jesus was going forth
as it was determined, but woe unto that man by whom is betrayed. It had been good for him if he
had never, never been born. Go back to the text here. Let
me just show you something else and I'll wrap this up. Watch what it says here in John
13, 31. Therefore, when he was gone out,
when he was gone out, he left, he left. And he went into the darkness,
leaving the light behind. I said, Lord, he's the light
of the world. There's the light in that room. He's in the presence
of light. But men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds are evil. And he went out. He's gone out. He's gone out. Look at 1 John
2, verse 19. 1 John 2, verse 19. He's gone out, and this verse will give us some
understanding of it. Why'd he go out? 1 John 2, 19. John, in verse 18, he says, little
children, it's the last time. As ye have heard that Antichrist
shall come, even now there are many Antichrists, whereby we
know it is the last time. They went out from us. I wonder if when John wrote that,
his thing about Judas, he's one of the ones that went out. I'll tell you, Paul talked about
Demas. He went out. He went out. He said, Demas hath forsaken
me, having loved the world. He went out. They went out from
us. but they were not of us. Judas
wasn't really of Christ's children. He had a profession, but he wasn't
one of the Lord's people. For if they had been, if he had
been, if I read it that way, if he had been of us, John says,
he'd still be with us. He'd still be with us. People come and hear the gospel
and make a profession of faith and they love what's being preached.
They love the grace of God. And then they leave. They leave
the gospel. They leave the Word of God. Why
did they go out? Because they weren't with us.
They weren't one with us. They didn't love the message
of sovereign grace. They didn't love the crucified
Savior. They didn't love salvation by
His blood and righteousness. They didn't love that. They didn't
love that. And something happened and one
day it finally dawned on them. So that's what that preacher
is saying. This preacher told me the other
day, somebody came, attended for three or four years, and
then all of a sudden they didn't come back. Said they finally
got what I was saying. It takes a while sometimes, but
people say, is that what you're saying? Are you saying my will
isn't free? Are you saying it's all in Christ? It's all of grace, and I make
no contribution? Is that what you're saying? Well,
I don't believe that. And you say, well, I've been
saying that for the last three or four years. You just haven't
heard it. Why'd they go out? They weren't one of us. Bless
their hearts, they weren't one of us. It's religious, but they
weren't one of us. They said the right words, but
they weren't one of us. Judas, where are you going? You
going to buy groceries? That's what some of the other
disciples thought. You going to buy groceries for
somebody? No, no brother. He's going out because he's not
one of us. Because if he had been one of
us, he'd still be right here. He'd still be right here. Well,
why did he go out? They went out that it might be
made manifest. Oh, sometimes God manifests,
God shows, God gives an indication that these people who put on
a good face, that they're just hypocrites. That it might be made manifest
that they were not all of us. John Newton. He wrote lots of
good songs. Many. In fact, every one I ever
read is good. But he wrote one song, and I
didn't bring the words with me. It's quite lengthy. In fact,
Spurgeon said he didn't put it in his song book. He thought
it was too negative. And there are some people who
think it's too negative. I think it's honest. And he wrote
him, and here's the first stanza, and if you want the rest of it,
I give to you, it's a bunch of stanzas. He said, and this is
an honest man. Heard Brother Mahan make a statement
one time, he said, honest people don't wind up in hell. He meant
people who are honest with God and honest with themselves. Newton
said, do I love the Lord or no? But you're a preacher. He says,
do I love the Lord or no? Am I his or am I not? Boy, those are searching questions. Do I love the Lord or no? Am I his or am I not? Maybe you could ask yourself
those questions. Do I love the Lord or no? Am
I His or am I not? I wanna know. I wanna know. And get down toward
the end of the song and basically it says this, Lord, if I hadn't
loved you before, let me start right now. And that's what I
want. What's in the path? That's all,
as we say, water under the bridge. But I want to be genuine. My
soul, I don't want to wind up like Judas. Not at all. Do I love you, Lord? Or do I
not? And if I hadn't loved you before, If all these years that I've
been thinking that I love you, if I really hadn't loved you
before, help me start loving you now. That's what I want. And I don't want to die
hanging on to my Bible and my sermon notes. I preached all these years, don't
count for nothing. All that matters to God is His
Son and His sacrifice. Amen. And that's all that better
matter to you. And that's all that better matter
to me. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Well, let's sing 460. Number 460. And we'll go home. Number 460.
leaning on this