So if you would, turn with me
to Acts chapter 1. Acts chapter 1. Acts chapter 1. And I'm going to read right now. This is not really my text, but
I wanted to start here. So Acts chapter 1, verses 15. And in those days, Peter stood
up in the midst of the disciples and said, the number of names
together were about 120. Men and brethren, this scripture
must needs have been fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by the mouth
of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them
that took Jesus. For he was numbered with us and
had obtained part of this ministry. Now this man purchased a field
with the reward of iniquity, and falling headlong he burst
asunder in the midst and all his bowels gushed out. And it
was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem, insomuch as that
field is called in their proper tongue Alcadama, that is to say,
the field of blood. For it is written in the book
of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell
therein, and his bishopric let another take. Wherefore, of these
men which have accompanied with us all the time that the Lord
Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of
John to that same day that he was taken up from us, must one
be ordained to be a witness with us in his resurrection. And they
appointed two, Joseph, called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justice,
and Matthias. And they prayed and said, Thou,
Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, show whether of these
two Thou hast chosen, that he may take part of this ministry
and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he
might go to his own place. And they gave forth their lots,
and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was numbered with the
eleven apostles. Here in Acts 1, we read of the
account when Christ had already arose from the grave, and then
he ascends to the Father's right hand. That's this account. That's
what's happening right here at this time. And once they were
told by the angels that Christ would return in the same manner
that he ascended, they all went back to Jerusalem. So there at
Jerusalem were gathered about 120 people, it says, and then
Peter begins to preach. He begins to teach about events
spoken of in the Old Testament writers of which Judas was spoken
of. Not by a specific name, but still
spoken of nonetheless in the Old Testament. I find it quite
a serious thing to think about this in scripture, this particular
scripture. I think about myself as it concerns
this passage, and it's a serious thing to think about what Judas
did. But it ought not be a surprise
to anyone because we are all spoken of in scripture one way
or the other. Some are spoken of by names specifically
as to who they are. Rahab the harlot, David and Bathsheba,
Judas and Balaam, just to name a few. And let me be clear, some have
their name mentioned specifically, but all of us are mentioned,
even if it is just a general comment, if you will. We're all
talking, spoken of here. Sheeps and goats, believers and
infidels, speaks about all of us. It talks about all of mankind
down through the ages. The question is, what does it
say about us? What does it say about me? Here
it says, speaking of Judas specifically, and it says he was counted part
of the ministry. He was part of the 12 apostles. It says he obtained part in the
ministry. It did not turn out good for
him. The fruit or the reward for his iniquity was a field,
and what happened to him in this field is not a pretty sight.
Because of this field, it is called the field of blood. The
place where he dwelt was a desolate and it was a lonely place. He,
according to the scripture, was replaced. So then they had lots
cast for these two others, Joseph for justice and Matthias. One
of these would replace Judas as the 12th apostle. So then
they would then take part of the ministry. both take part
of the ministry. It's just amazing to me when
I think about this. Judas was part of it, but it
says it here, he by transgression fell that he might go to his
own place. We read in scripture that we
are not to be high-minded, but fear. We're no different by nature
from anyone else. It is only by the grace of God
that we stand. And as Walter mentioned last
week, even the apostles, when they were taking the bread and
wine, and Christ said, you know, that one of them was going to
betray him, they all said, Lord, is it I? I know the sentiment. There are times when I think
on this kind of thing and I question, Lord, is it I? Don't let me be
that Lord. If he does not hold me up, I
will surely fall. Psalms 37, 23, and 24, we read,
the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth
in his way. Though he fall, he shall not
be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. I will fall, there is no question
about that. The question is, does the Lord
uphold me? Will my fall be a falling away
to my own place? We know that all things are ordained
of God. even what happened on the cross
and what Judas did. For our eternal benefit, Acts
2.22, we read, Ye men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth,
a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs,
which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also
know. Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain, whom God hath raised up, having
loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should
be holding of it." God meant it for good. Men meant
it for evil. It was both true at the same
time. Jude 4 we read, for there are
certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained
to this condemnation, ungodly men turning the grace of our
God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord
Jesus Christ. Reckless behavior, filthy behavior,
not caring for the safety of others. That's what these who
crept in unawares were. That's what they do. They come
in to destroy rather than to build up in Jesus Christ. They deny the Lord Jesus Christ
in many different ways. These, as we read there, were
ordained to this condemnation. Is that not a serious thought? Let's read one of the passage
where it's referring to Judas, where it says in Psalms that
it was wrote of him, there was two places. This is what Christ
thought of Judas and others who were like him. Turn over to Psalm
109. Psalm 109. And let me just read, I'm gonna
read the first 10 verses. And we know this is Christ speaking.
I can tell this here. I'm sure you can too. So Psalm
109 verses one through 10. Hold not thy peace, O God, of
my praise. For the mouth of the wicked and
the mouth of the deceitful are opened up against me. They have
spoken against me with a lying tongue. They come past me about
also with words of hatred, and fall against me without a cause.
For my love they are my adversaries, but I will give myself unto prayer. And they have rewarded me evil
for good, and hatred for my love. Set thou a wicked man over him,
and let Satan stand at his right hand. When he shall be judged,
let him be condemned, and let his prayer become sin. Let his
days be few, and let another take his office." See, we're
talking about Judas there. Let his children be fatherless
and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually
vagabonds and beg. Let them seek their bread also
out of their desolate places. I want to be a part of Jesus
Christ's ministry. but I don't wanna be a betrayer.
And if you read that in Psalms, you don't either. If God's done
something for you, you don't either. I cannot tell you who
is a child of God and who is not. Every single one of them
said, is it I? It's not up to me to decide.
The scripture says the Lord knoweth them that are his and he will
add to the church daily as he sees fit. I am to mind myself
that I be not high-minded, but fear, Romans 11, 19-21. Thou wilt say, then, the branches
were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Well, because
of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear. For if God spared not the natural
branches, take heed, lest he also spare not thee. We stand
by faith. and faith is the gift of God,
so there is no boasting in myself. No boasting in what I know, no
boasting in what I do, as it concerns the worship of God. I did nothing to change my state,
and I will not change anything to keep myself. What I boast
in and what should be boasted in is Jesus Christ and what He
has done. Paul teaches us this in 1 Corinthians
2. He says, For I determined not
to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I'm not here today to try to
tell you who is a betrayer or who has part of the ministry. Having been given light and life
in Jesus Christ, that's how you're part of a ministry, if he does
something for you. That's not my part in the ministry.
And if you're one of his, it's not your part either. We are
to hold forth, we are to support Jesus Christ and him crucified. the magnifying of the Lord Jesus
Christ and what he has done and we have no confidence in this
flesh. What exactly does that mean?
It means we do not look to anything we do because if we are, we are
a betrayer. Here's what we should do and
what I want to talk about. Isaiah 51.1, if you want to turn
there, you can. I've got it in my notes here
and it's just one verse. 51-1, Isaiah 51-1. Isaiah 51-1. Hearken to me, ye that follow
after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord. Look unto the rock whence ye
are hewn, and to the hole of the pence whence ye are digged. So I want to talk about today,
hewn from a rock, dig from a pit, and what is righteousness. So
hewn from a rock. To be hewn, that means to cut,
to split, or to engrave. But it also says, look unto the
rock which ye were hewn. And let me say, the rock spoken
of here is not your friend in this flesh, and it's not your
grandmother, it's not your husband, it's not your son or your daughter.
I hear folks say, they're my rock. We may have folks that
are dependable for us by the grace of God. But when it comes
to salvation and anything that is righteousness before God,
there is but one rock. That rock is Jesus Christ the
Lord. What is a rock? We're a boulder,
as it means here in Isaiah 51. It's unmovable. It is large,
it's heavy, it will crush anything under it. It cannot be destroyed
by man's hand. Go try to beat a boulder with
your fist and see if you can destroy it. But this rock for
certain will never be destroyed or hurt above what he is intended
to be. And I say it that way because
the scripture does speak of Jesus Christ, you know, being wounded
if you will. Genesis 3 15 at the very beginning
we read, and I will put enmity between thee and the woman and
between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head and
thou shalt bruise his heel. There was a hurt that was ordained
by God. It was a bruise. When his foot
came down on the head of the serpent, that serpent being Satan
and sin, it was the pleasure of God to bruise Jesus Christ,
his son. Isaiah 53 10 we read, yet it
pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. The rock was able to withstand
this bruising. Not only was he able to stand,
he ascended to the Father's right hand. Him being the righteousness
of God. This is the rock which some are
hewn or engraved. I remember that message that
Joe preached from Exodus. Exodus 28 now, I'll just read
one verse from that. And thou shalt take two onyx
stones and engrave on them the names of the children of Israel.
They were not penciled in or wrote on with chalk. They were
engraven in two stones. Those stones in that passage
were wore on the shoulders, signifying that his strength is our strength. All those hewn from this stone
are a part of him. He did the hewning, not us. He is the engraver, the potter,
the creator. If we are hewn in or from this
rock, then we are immovable as he is immovable, because we are
hewn in him. Those who are hewn came from
somewhere. And where is that place that
they all came from? A pit. So digged from a pit. And I've said this before, but
that pit is the grave of death. It was a pit that we put ourselves
in. It happened when our federal
head, Adam, fell in the garden. And I said, the scripture talks
about all of us, and this is where we're seeing this. But
listen, we prove that out every day. We all fell on Adam, but
we prove it out every day when we sin. We judge the scriptures
right when we sin. It says, Romans 5, 12, wherefore,
as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin,
and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. So he dug us from a pit, and
that pit is our grave that we put ourselves into. That place
is cold, it is lonely, it is our own place. And you know that's not the worst
of it. The worst part about this place, it is absent of God. A place absent of God is a place
of no light and no life. And I've often told you about
my experience. I will probably continue to tell
you this, but there was a time when I said, if that is who God
is, I don't want a God like that. I proved myself to be a hater
of God by nature, just like Judas did. I went to church. I went to the front. I kept going
to the front, rededicating my life. What a waste of time. I was trying to pull myself from
the pit myself. The problem is I could not do
it. No matter how many righteous acts I did, which were many,
let me be honest, there were many. I mean righteousness in
men's eyes. There were not many of those. I certainly did not do any righteousness
that was God worthy. But when the truth was put right
before me, I responded with the words which God heard. God heard these words from my
lips that I did not want a God like that. I thank my God that
he hewn me from a rock and pulled me from this horrible pit which
I was in, just digging myself deeper into it is all I was doing.
A lot of folks run up the aisle because they feel guilty. Judas
felt guilty, didn't he? Matthew 27 3-5 we read, 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 elders, saying, I have sinned, in that
I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is
that to us? See thou to it. And he cast down
the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged
himself. He felt guilt for what he had
done. Judas, no doubt, preached the
kingdom of God with the rest of the apostles, but preaching
never saved anyone. He, no doubt, performed the office
of a deacon because he held the bag, but performing the office
of a deacon never saved anyone. Not one thing we do commends
us to God. Even the scripture says, when
we've done all we do, we're unprofitable servants. But I heard a message
by Joe Terrell on this passage, on that passage in Matthew 27.
And he said, where did Judas go when he felt this guilt? Did
he turn to the Lord? No, he turned to the law, basically. He turned to man. He repented
himself, it says, but he was not granted repentance by God. He went to his own place. I want
and I need repentance granted by God. And to know his righteousness
and not my righteousness, which is of the law. So next, what
is righteousness? And you all know the answer to
this. I'm not here to tell you anything new. What is the righteousness
spoken of there in Isaiah 51? It tells us right there, what
is the righteousness? It says, hearken to me, ye that
follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord. The righteousness
to seek after is the Lord. Jesus Christ, the righteousness
of God. The rock, which is the righteousness
of God, is where I want to be found and hewn from. Romans 10,
1-4, we read, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for
Israel is that they might be saved, for I bear them record
that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about
to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Everyone that believeth is the
hallmark of those who have been saved by the righteousness of
God. You deny him in any way, then
he will deny you before the Father, the scripture says. What did
we read in Jude? For there are certain men crept
in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation,
ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness
and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. If
you deny the sovereign God who is in control of all things and
deny that He is the one that ordains all things, even those
that creep in unawares, and or you deny the Lord Jesus Christ
who is that God and what He has done, then you are under condemnation. Now maybe that is only in your
mind. I pray it be with you and for
me that God has ordained that I am graven in him. I want to
look at his righteousness. I want to look unto the Lord
and to the rock from whence I was hewn and to know that he dug
me from my own place, that pit, where there is no light and no
life. I always think back to Ruth and
Boaz when I think of the righteousness of God, which is Jesus Christ.
Just love that passage. Boaz, which is a type of Christ,
did what the law could not do in that it was weak through the
flesh. Remember the man that he met? And he said, I can't
redeem her. I can't. It'll mar his inheritance. But Boaz went to the gate where
judgment was to be made. And what he did in his actions,
in his work, is to make me his own. He died the just for the
unjust, and that is the righteousness of God. But a lot of folks want to look
at what they do. Some, of course, look to the
law that they might glory in their flesh. But it's not just
those that use the law as their guide. It is anyone who denies
the Lord Jesus Christ and what he has done. Anyone who thinks
that anything they do recommends them to God and being accepted
by God, and in that, they are glorying in themselves, in their
flesh. But Paul tells us in Philippians
3, he says, for we are the circumcision which worship God in spirit and
rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Works are involved in salvation. It just isn't following sinful
man's work. It is the work of Christ that
is salvation. He is the righteousness of God
without works, without the law, without our works, and without
the law. He has to change us, and if we
are one of his, he will. Salvation never comes from my
works or your works. Our works are of a betrayal against
Jesus Christ, which is why he had to come and die for his people's
sin, else they would have to go to their own place. I don't
want to go to my own place. I want to dwell on that rock
and in that rock. I want to be hid with God in
Christ. And let's turn them over to Philippians
3. I know I turned that over there last week, but I want to
read that again, Philippians 3. Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3 verses
9 through 14. And be found in him not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith, Jesus Christ faith. that I may know him and the power
of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings
being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might
attain unto the resurrection of the dead, not as though I
had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow
after, if that I may apprehend that which also I am apprehended
of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself
to apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those
things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which
are before. I press toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. There's one thing I want to see,
one thing I want to know, one place I want to be. And that
is in Jesus Christ. I want to look to him for all
things. Anywhere else that I look is
a betrayal against Jesus Christ. Calls me to look to the rock
from whence I am hewn. What God does is forever. And
if he has hewn me in him, then I am his forever. And I'm glad
that it is that way. I pray he enlighten me and give
me the faith of Jesus Christ so that I might believe Jesus
Christ. I pray I turn to Jesus Christ
for forgiveness and not to man. There is forgiveness with God
because he delights to show mercy. Amen. Amen. Our dear Lord, most holy, sovereign
God, merciful God, we thank you, dear Lord. Often we're off doing everything
else, dear Lord, in this world, and we do have to do things to
live in this world, dear Lord, and we thank you for giving us
the strength to do those things, dear Lord. calls us dear lord
even in the dark times in fact in the dark times that's when
we look to you more calls us to to look to you to see you
dear lord and all these things we ask in christ's name amen