Are you Judas by Nature?

All right, brethren, Acts chapter one. Now, the Lord had arisen. They watched him ascend. And there was 120 of them gathered. This was the mustard seed, the beginning. It grew and has continued to grow until this day, like our Lord promised. Peter stood up and he began to speak about Judas.

He said in verse 16, 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 God 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 the proper tongue al-saddamah, that is to say the field of blood. For it's written in the book of Psalms, let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein, and his bishopric let another take.

Now Judas is an example of a sinner who willingly betrayed the Lord Jesus. Judas did what was in his heart to do all along. He was not a chosen child of God. He was not regenerated by the Spirit. We know that because he betrayed the Lord. He betrayed the Lord.

He did what his nature dictated for him to do. And he did exactly what he wanted to do. Now, also, It's true that he did what God determined before to be done. Verse 16 shows that God used David way before, many years before, to record in the scripture exactly what Judas would do. The Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was God, to them that took Jesus.

Back in Psalm 41.9, it says, yea, mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. Whenever the Lord told the apostles that one of them would betray him, he said, I speak not of you all. I know whom I have chosen, but that the scripture may be fulfilled. He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.

For the sake of time, I won't have us turn there, but it also speaks of Judas in Psalm 55, verses 12 through 15, and it speaks of him in Zechariah 11, verses 12 through 13. It tells that he would betray for 30 pieces of silver, he would give it back, and then they would buy the potter's field with it. So two things are obvious. Two things are obvious.

Judas betrayed the Lord willingly. He did what was in his heart to do. He earned the wages of sin, which is death. Judas did that. God was just to condemn Judas because he earned it. And it's also true that Judas did what he did because God before determined for him to do it. God of old ordained him to that condemnation.

Now, When we're hearing what a sinner Judas was, my question for you and me is for us to look ourselves in the face and ask this question. Are you Judas by nature? Is your nature that you came into this world with exactly like Judas? It takes God to give a new heart to make us know that we are no different than Judas, absolutely no different than Judas.

Now my subject is reprobation and salvation, but I don't want to just preach that as a doctrine. I want to preach so that you that know the Lord will be comforted, and any that don't know the Lord, the Lord could use this to call them to Christ. I want you to hear what the Lord says. This is a, it's not a problem for God's people, but this is something that infuriates the carnal man to hear what we're gonna look at tonight.

Our text is gonna be in Romans nine. Let's go there. It's the best chapter on this subject. And we're gonna stay here the remainder of the time. And what we're gonna note is how God knows what the objection will be that the carnal man makes. And he raises the objection and then he answers it. Let's begin in verse 11.

Jacob and Esau were twins in their mother's womb. And verse 11 says, the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil. Now understand this is concerning God's electing grace. and God passing by. It says, the two had done neither good nor evil. That the purpose of God, according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto Rebekah, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Now here's the objection that the Lord knows will be in the heart of the sinner. He asked the question, what shall we say then?

Is there unrighteousness with God? Whenever a natural man hears this doctrine declared, this is his objection, it's not fair. God's not fair. God is being unrighteous to choose whom he will and pass by whom he will. Right now, any sinner hearing this who is not regenerated by God and taught of God, that's exactly what they think when they hear the passage I just read. They think that's unrighteous, that's not fair. Here's the answer God gives, verse 14, God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

So then, Election, salvation is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. This is God's purpose in divine election, to declare that election and salvation and everything God does to save, it is not of man's will. It is not of man's works. It is of God, salvation is of God, by his free grace, by his free mercy. God elected who he would save in Christ by grace. God loved whom he loved with no cause in us. The cause has to be in God. And it was not based on any good or evil. God chose who he would save and God passed by who he willed.

Now when men object to this, and they start defending their will and their works, hear what this verse says. It says, so then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God. Salvation is of God. And when men want to defend their will and their works, they're saying, no God, no God. Salvation is by my will, it's by my works. God says, no, salvation is of God, and it's of his mercy. Now, God gives an example using Pharaoh, and this is why God raised up Pharaoh. This is why God raised up Judas. Now, I want us to ask the question, are you the same as Judas by nature? Is your nature exactly the same as Judas? Well, is your nature exactly the same as Esau? Did you come forth a sinner just like Esau? Jacob was no different than Esau.

All right, now let's look at Pharaoh, verse 17. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore, hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and on whom he will he hardeneth. God raised up Pharaoh to be the most powerful man in the world, to destroy Pharaoh. That's why he did it. To show God's power to save, so that God's name would be declared throughout all the earth. He said that. You don't have to turn, let me give you this.

In Exodus 10.1, the Lord said to Moses, he said, go into Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I might show these my signs before him, and that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son and of thy son's son what things I have wrought in Egypt. and my signs which I have done among them that you may know how that I am the Lord. That's why God raised this man Pharaoh up.

God makes his child know we are sinners. We are no different than Judas. We are no different than Esau. We are no different than Pharaoh by nature. And he does it to make us know we're saved by God's power. We're saved by God's mercy, his name saves us. It's to make us believe on Christ and be his witnesses, to spread the word that he is the power, he's the Lord, he's the one who saves.

God only had to leave Pharaoh to himself. The scripture says every man comes into this world and our heart is stoned by nature. It's already hard. And so all God had to do to harden Pharaoh's heart was let Pharaoh do what Pharaoh wanted to do, leave him alone. And that's all he had to do. In fact, when natural man hears the truth of God, they harden their own hearts. When any man hears this word, unless God intervened by his power and grace, Man hardens their heart.

Listen to this, from Zechariah 7, 12. He said, yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts has sent in his spirit by the former prophets. Therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts.

Even after all the good things that God did for Pharaoh, just think about it. Pharaoh was lifted up by God to be the most powerful man in the world. Think of the luxuries that God gave Pharaoh. His life was wonderful, all his life. He had everything carnal men want. But Pharaoh thought he did it by his own will and his own works. He would, like men say, Pharaoh thought he was a self-made man. Pharaoh was a sinner. God raised him up.

When sinners get angry at this, when they hear this word and they get angry, the only thing they do is reveal that it's true. When we got angry, when we were lost and our nature was just as, our heart was just as hard as Pharaoh's, and we heard this without God's grace, all we did was harden our heart. All we did was be angry at it. And all we did was prove exactly what God said. Our heart is hard by nature.

Now, God even made Moses tell Pharaoh. Moses went to him and told him that God raised him up to make his power known that his name might be declared in all the earth. Now, men like to talk about a free will. Moses declared that to Pharaoh and Pharaoh saw the miracles that the Lord worked. If Pharaoh's will was free, shouldn't he have cast himself on the mercy of God? Wouldn't that have been a good time to cast himself on God's mercy when you see what God's working in front of you? in sending the plagues he was sending, and God's told you what he's doing, wouldn't a man have sense enough to fall down and beg God for mercy?

No, because the heart is bound by that hard heart. It's that nature, that sin nature, our heart can only do what our sin nature will let it do, and that's just harden our heart more. Now, is that you by nature? Is that me by nature? This is our question. We're looking ourselves in the face and saying, am I like Judas by nature? Am I exactly like Pharaoh by nature? We are. We're exactly like, no different, no different. Now here's the next objection man raises. Man, here's all this. And then he says this, verse 19.

Thou wilt say then unto me, why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted his will? Hearing salvation is only by God choosing whom he will, seeing that God passes by whom he will, seeing that God hardens the heart of men, just leaves them to their hard heart, and seeing that it's only by his grace that men believe, Men will say, well, then why does he condemn anybody? Why does he find fault with anybody seeing that we only do his will? Everybody's gonna do his will. Well, that's true. Everybody's gonna do God's will. But listen to the answer God gives to that objection.

He says in verse 20, nay, but O man, who art thou that replyest against God? Shall the thing form, say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Have not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor? When men object, God says, who are you? Who are we to try to stand in judgment of God? Who are we to accuse God of being unrighteous and then say, well, he's being unjustified and fault? We're only doing what he willed for us to do. God says, who are you to sit in judgment of me?

I'm gonna tell you something, brethren, when God, reveals the gospel and reveals Christ in us. It makes us know we are the sinner, exactly like Pharaoh, like Esau, like Judas, like every other sinner in this world. When he makes you know that, it'll not only stop us from standing in judgment of God, it will stop us from standing in judgment of one another. This is what makes us, our hearts be humbled to where we know. that we're not different than anybody else. This is what'll help you remember Romans 2 when the Lord gave that long list of horrible sins in chapter one. And then he turned around and said, and when you condemn another, you condemn yourself because you do exactly the same thing. It's what my heart is, my sinful nature is what yours is. We cannot stand in judgment of God And we have no business standing in judgment of one another. God's the creator. We are the creation.

He said, shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why have you made me thus? He gives the illustration of a potter and clay. Had not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor. The potter can take one lump of clay and he can make one vessel beautiful and he can make one vessel ugly.

He can do what he wants to with it. God is the creator who created everybody. He can make us like he wants to make us. He can do with us what he wants to do with us. He took dust and he formed a body for Adam. Man was created from dust. So this illustration's a good one. God created man from the dust. And there's a lifeless body God created. And God breathed into him life. And Adam became a living soul. And God sustains our life. We have life because he gives it. When he takes away, takes it from us, it's gone.

But so of the same lump, God can make one vessel into honor and another into dishonor. And we can't find fault with him for doing it. We cannot stand in judgment of God for doing what he will with his own creation. Do you like it when somebody finds fault with how you do with something that belongs to you? We don't like that very much.

Imagine a holy God who only does right If a little puny sinner's gonna stand in judgment of God? The Lord hath made all things for himself, yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. That's the true God. And if God's working in our heart and he teaches us, I know exactly what we'll say. We'll say amen. We'll say amen. I don't have a right. to find fault with anything God does. However he does it, it's right. He did it. It's right. Now, let's hear God declare why he does all this and that he does it for the sake of his elect. What is he teaching? All right, verse 22. This is a question, just one long question, but listen to it.

What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured, just put up with, with much longsuffering, the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had aforeprepared unto glory. even us whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles." You see, if we're gonna behold God's mercy to us and the riches of his grace to us, he's gonna have to make us know we are sinners like everybody else in this world, even like the worst of the sinners, even like a Judas or like a Pharaoh or like Esau, he has to make us see We are no different in any regard. No sinner will and no sinner can call on God of ourselves. So he has to teach us, God has to teach us. And if we're gonna see his mercy, he has to teach us that we ourselves personally have sinned against God, that we are the sinner and make it real to us that we're no different from Judas by nature.

Now, when unbelievers hear Romans 9, they accuse God of being the author of sin. They suppose that and interject that from what it said. It doesn't say that. Don't ever try to make scripture say something it doesn't say, and don't try to make scripture not say what it does say. No. God's not the author of sin.

Now, it was according to his purpose, and God wasn't surprised, but it's man who sinned against God. Man brought sin in by disobeying God. We're the ones who sin, and we're the ones who disobey, and we're the ones who brought sin in. Mankind did it. As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so for that reason death passed upon all men, for that all have sin, and Adam all have sin. Sinners boast they have a free will, and we don't. God made one man in the beginning upright with no sin. No sin. His will was not in bondage to his nature. He had no sin. He was upright. And Adam willingly sinned against God. He willingly did what he did.

And sin entered, and death by sin. And so that's why death passed upon all men. in order to behold God's mercy to us. Because we are sinners and because we are no different than Judas, our natural hearts deceitful above all things, desperately wicked, nobody can know it. God has to come and make us know we're the sinner. The carnal mind is enmity against God. That was us. We hated God.

That's all the sin nature is. And not only that, We're not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can we be. Man by nature hates God, man by nature we couldn't submit to God's word, we wouldn't and we couldn't. 1 Corinthians 2 says, the natural man receiveth not the things of God, their foolishness to him, neither can he know them, because they're spiritually discerned.

Now that's where we all are by nature. And God has to teach us that. He has to show us that. So to make us see his mercy toward us, he must send the good news of the gospel to us. He has to send this word to us. Not only that, God the Holy Spirit has to create in us a new spirit that we didn't have. Not only that, God has to reveal Christ to us. not only that, God has to give us the gift of faith. Not only that, God has to grant us repentance from looking to ourselves for anything. It's all of God. He has to make us know personally, I am the sinner.

I'm no different than any other sinner. I don't tell you how many times I've preached this, and somebody come up to me afterward, a visitor, and say, so are you saying that you're You're just better than everybody else? No, that's just the opposite of what I'm saying. I'm saying we're no different than anybody else. We're all sinners. But what that remark is saying is I'm not a sinner like everybody else.

I deserve for God to treat me differently. That's what's at the heart of that kind of a statement. No, we're hard-hearted the same as Pharaoh. We're betrayers the same as Jews. No matter how many times we betrayed the Lord Jesus, I've been hating God in my heart before God saved me, just like Judas was.

That's what we have to be brought to see and know and confess. But God makes us know that by his grace alone, he made us vessels of mercy. hear the gospel, and we see it as being against us. We put ourselves naturally on the side of those God passed by. We all do that by nature, and that's why we say it's not fair.

But God has to come and work a grace in your heart and make you see that before time, he puts you on the side of those that he's for and those that he saves. Then you'll start liking this message because he makes you know, first of all, you're a sinner like everybody else.

And if God hadn't shown you grace, you would have perished. And if he had come and revealed it to you, you'd have never known. And if he hadn't shown you Christ and revealed Christ, you would have never known him in spirit and in truth. And if he hadn't given you faith, you'd never trust him. If he hadn't granted repentance, we'd never stop looking to ourselves.

When he reveals Christ, he's gonna make you to see he prepared us, aforeprepared us unto glory. When did he do that? When he chose his people in Christ. Scripture says when he chose his people in Christ, he blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. He chose his people in Christ. And Christ entered covenant to be our surety.

And when he did that, he became the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. God never looked to any but his son, none but his son. And the son of God took the nature of God's elect. He didn't take the nature of angels, the Hebrew writer said. He took on him the seed of Abraham. That's the elect. He took the nature of his elect without sin.

Preeminently, the reason for the cross is to show us God's just everything we, He's opposite of everything we accuse Him of being. By nature, men accuse Him of being unrighteous and unjust, and He's declaring by the cross that He's perfectly just, He's perfectly righteous. Our Lord knew no sin, would never sin, did never sin. But his obedience was he presented himself the spotless lamb of God. He presented himself to God and he hath made him sin for us who knew no sin. Why was that a necessity? Why didn't God just make him a curse before that? Because God will not condemn the just and he will not clear the guilty. That's the point of the cross.

And so God made him sin for us, and then God made him a curse for us. Our Lord Jesus bore the condemnation from God that every one of his people earned by our sin. The wages of sin is death. Man earns condemnation just like a man earns a wage at a job.

And that's the purpose of the cross, preeminently, is to show how God is righteous. And I say this, especially on this passage in Romans 9, because when men hear that God chose whom he would and passed by whom he would, men accuse God of arbitrarily condemning men because he passed them by in eternity. No, God is just. This book everywhere declares that the wages of sin is death. Men earn condemnation. And this book everywhere teaches the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. What does that mean?

That means when a man is condemned in the day of judgment, It will be because that man refused God, he rejected God, he sinned against God, and he will be condemned for his sin. And the man that God gives eternal life, with him forever, will be because Christ made him righteous. The condemnation will be just by God, and the gift of eternal life will be just by God. Entirely so. This passage declares God's election of some and him passing by others is not based on anything in us, nothing in us, before we had done any good or evil to declare it's not of man that willeth, it's of God that calleth, that showeth mercy. But when God condemns, it's just because man sinned against God, and when God gives eternal life, it's just because Christ made us righteous. And say, well, I can't reconcile that. There's nothing to reconcile. It's God's word. He said it. Believe it. That's what he calls you to do is believe him. There's nothing to reconcile. It's true.

Christ's obedience is what made his people righteous. When He makes you see this, He makes you know that God's long-suffering to the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction was God being merciful to us. It was God doing that for the sake of His people. And when He makes you know you're the sinner, no different than anybody else, and yet Christ loved us freely and laid down His life, He makes you know because God trusted you to Christ from eternity. God makes you know the riches of his glory, the riches of his glory. He makes you know you're a vessel of mercy. He makes you know he of Thor prepared you unto glory by choosing you in Christ.

And then he came and called you and taught it to you. This is how we know that salvation is of God. And that's when we will stop calling God unfair and unrighteous and wrong to judge in him. That's when you'll bow, and that's when you'll thank God for saving us by his grace. Isn't it so, brethren?

Judas betrayed the Lord because it was his heart to do it. He did what he wanted to do. That's why he did it. God let Judas do what was in his heart to do, and it was exactly what God determined before to be done. Nothing is surprising God. And it was for the salvation of God's people. That's so of everything that comes to pass. If there's sin and wrath from men, it's gonna bring glory to God. And the remainder, he restrains it and doesn't let it come to pass. That's sovereign God, brethren. And this sinner and every sinner who God saves, in and of myself, in and of yourself, we're no different than Judas.

No different. There's one reason. There's one reason any of us right now are not betraying Christ at this moment. There's one reason. There's only one thing that made us to differ, and that's the grace of God. He asked, who maketh thee to differ from another? What hast thou that thou didst not receive? If you received it, why dost thou glory as if you had not received it? God's people know the only difference is God's electing grace, Christ's redeeming grace, the Holy Spirit's regenerating grace, God's preserving grace. And he's gonna one day give us glorifying grace and bring us to glory. And it will all be the salvation of God beginning to end. And the only one that's gonna get the praise and the glory is God.

And that's so in our hearts right now. We know, and I'll tell you something, anytime you have a fault with one another, anytime you have a fault with anybody in this earth, it's this right here that God uses. to remind us, you're no different than anybody else.

You're saved by grace. It's the riches of his glory on you that saved you. That's how he humbles us. That's how he makes us to submit to him. That's how he reminds us he had the power to save us. He has the power to save his people. My brother, my sister, and that's what makes us submit ourselves to him and to one another and pray for one another and continue walking, looking only to the Lord Jesus. Let me say this, if it's the first time somebody's sitting here and you're hearing this for the first time, God's making you hear what he's teaching you. You go to Christ, you call on him for mercy, and you ask him to save you. You believe on him, you cast all your care on him, and confess Him in believer's baptism, and walk the rest of your days looking only to the Lord Jesus Christ.

He will bring every one of His people to do so, and He will keep us, and He will save us, and He will not lose one. And I pray that's what He does. And for you that know Him, I pray that He just keep making us know we're no different, but for the grace of God who saved us totally, outside of ourself, totally, all of his work, all of his will, all of his mercy. He did it. I pray he make us know that. Keep knowing that. All right, brethren. We're gonna close in prayer since Adam's working the controller.

Let's go to the Lord. Our heavenly Father, Lord, what love and grace You've shown to sinners unworthy, unjust, and yet, Lord, you had mercy on us. How we thank you for trusting our Savior, your dear son, our prophet, priest, and king, our righteousness, our holiness, our redemption, our wisdom, our all. Lord, keep being merciful to us for his sake alone. Keep us by your power alone. And Lord, keep us remembering what we've heard. And Lord, we pray you keep teaching this to us and keep teaching our brethren, and that you continue to keep us by your grace. And we trust your word as you shall. Lord, we pray you call your lost sheep. We praise you, we give you the glory, and we thank you, Father. In Christ's name, for his sake, amen. All right, President, you're dismissed.

Are you Judas by Nature?

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Are you Judas by Nature?

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