Well, good morning, everyone. If you would care to open your Bibles with me to Mark 14, it's where our lesson will be taken from this morning. Before we begin, let's bow before our Lord together. Our Father, we carefully, reverently, and humbly come into your presence this morning, daring only come in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, pleading his obedience is our only righteousness is all of our righteousness, pleading his sacrifice is the only hope that we have of the cleansing of our sin and forgiveness of our sin. And father, how thankful we are that you have Provided sinful men and women like we are to a way to come into your presence Accepted in the Lord Jesus Christ how we thank you for the Savior that you sent How we thank you for his complete and utter success and saving all of his people from all of their sin and father we thank you for giving us the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to to hear to believe to to to have our hearts encouraged and comforted by always being pointed to our Lord Jesus Christ. And I pray that would be the case this morning that father, by the power of your spirits, you would take the words that are said here today, that you cause them to go forth in power, to bring glory to your name, to reach the hearts of your people, to bring salvation, to, to reveal to us the Lord Jesus Christ and cause us to rest in him. Father, we pray for those who are away from us today traveling. We pray that you would be with them. And Father, we pray that you would continue to watch over, lead, and guide this flock, Father, that you would be with us in a mighty and a special way. All these things we ask, and we give thanks in that name which is above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Now, I've titled our lesson this morning, The Betrayal of Christ. I'd like to begin reading in verse 41 of Mark 14. This is when our Lord has been praying and the disciples keep falling asleep. And in verse 41, he cometh the third time and saith unto them, sleep on now, take your rest, it's enough. The hour has come. Behold, the son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise up, let us go. He that betrayeth me, is at hand. You see how the Lord was not hiding from this at all. He's the willing sacrifice. In verse 43 and immediately while yet spake cometh Judas, one of the 12 and with him a great multitude with swords and stays from the chief priest and the scribes and the elders. And he that betrayed him had given them a token saying whomsoever I shall kiss that same as he take him and lead him away safely. And as soon as he was come, he goes straightway to him and saith, master, master, and kissed him. Now here are the enemies of Christ. And the first thing I see about this thing and the betrayal of Christ, the enemies of Christ are everywhere. You find them everywhere because it's just the natural condition of the human heart to be an enemy of Christ. And sometimes we're not surprised where those enemies come from, are we? You know, it sounds to me like that the chief priests and the scribes and the elders, they might have gone down to the local place where ruffians hang out, you know, and they got some of them to, you know, to come with them and, you know, they scoured the bars and the gutters and houses of ill repute, you know, whatever. We're not surprised if an enemy of Christ arises from those areas. It's just the flesh, areas of the flesh being poured out. Of course, they're the enemy of Christ. We're not even surprised at false religionists being the enemies of Christ. You know, much of these men who came here to take the Lord on this night, they're the chief priests. They're the scribes. They're the elders. These men studied the scriptures daily. They transcribed the scriptures. They studied them. I mean, they were serious about this matter of studying the scriptures. Now, they didn't see Christ in it, did they? But boy, they had a thing of memorizing laws and things they thought they could do that would glorify their flesh, but they can't see Christ. They don't see Christ because they're blind. And even though this shows you how blind man by nature is, you can study the scriptures and memorize large, large parts of it. And still yet, all you see is self. It's something for self to do, something that self can do to earn a righteousness, to earn God's favor. That's the way these men were. They were high outward moral character guys. Now, inwardly, they're just as dead as we are, but outwardly they are. outwardly moral people. Their behavior was very important to them. They wouldn't be caught dead, you know, doing certain things out in public. But they're without Christ. They're empty of Christ. It's just that's what religion without Christ is. And of course those people are going to be enemies of Christ. Somebody that reads and studies the scriptures to see what they're supposed to do in order to earn God's favor, of course they hate the gospel of Christ. Because if we preach Christ, that he is all, he's all in salvation, he's all in everything. Well, what does that say about us? What does that say about the flesh? Well, if I need Christ to be all of my righteousness, I need him to be Jehovah Sidkenu for me, then my so-called righteousnesses Filthy rags and they got to go not only are they not commending me to God. They're actually bringing God's God's anger upon me If Christ is all he is all of salvation He accomplishes it all by himself by his will by his doing that that means I am totally dependent on him. I Can't make a decision for Jesus. I can't start start doing better in earning God's favor I'm completely and utterly dependent on Christ to save me And if I'm gonna be saved, I'm gonna have to beg him to save me. Now he don't have to, but the only option I'm left with is begging him to save me for Christ's sake. Not because of anything I've done, but all because of who he is and what he has done. And of course the self-righteous religionists hates that. Of course they hate it. because they love self so much. Of course they hate it. So we're not surprised to see enemies of Christ coming from those camps, are we? But tell you when we're surprised, when it comes from amongst a group of believers. Someone that outwardly says, I believe this, I believe Christ, and they've been around a long time. Maybe they're like Judas, they preach, they teach, Judas performed miracles, Judas was with the Lord all this time, and he seemed like he was the same as all the other 11. And that's who betrayed the Lord, who displayed himself to be an enemy of Christ. And it shocked them. As the apostles write, you can just tell Every time they come to Judas, they're shocked. He betrayed the Lord. I mean, they just can't, it's like they write Judas, betrayed the Lord. They just always identified him that way, because they're so shocked. They couldn't believe an enemy of Christ came from that inner circle of the Savior. From Luke's account, we know our Lord was not surprised. He knew what was going to happen, because he's the one that ordained it to happen. But it sounded like the Lord was surprised. Judas, are you betraying me with a kiss? Judas had a good outward show for a long time, didn't he? At least three and a half years, he had a good outward show. But eventually what was revealed is he had an empty heart. A heart that was void of faith. He was a reprobate from the beginning. He's a religious hypocrite. And I don't know that there's anything more dangerous than a religious hypocrite hiding amongst the sheep. It's a wolf in sheep's clothing that eventually will display themself as a wolf. Now again, if this doesn't drive home this point, I don't know what does. Salvation is the gift of God. Faith in Christ is the gift of God. It's a gift that God has to give us. You can't be educated into it. Judas was taught by the Lord Jesus himself, just like the other 11. He saw the miracles. He saw all the things that the Lord did, and none of those things gave him faith in Christ. Salvation is believing Christ. It's believing him. It's committing to Christ. It's not just, you know, hanging around other believers who believe him and other people are committed to him. It's being committed to Christ. But what Judas was doing was like all these other religious hypocrites, he'd been mad for a while and he's just waiting for his something to happen to, to, to be his excuse to display himself, to show himself as an enemy of Christ. And when that comes from the camp of people that we think are believers, it always shocks us, doesn't it? I guess it ought not, because there's always tears amongst the wheat, but it still always shocks us. Well, what lesson can you and I take here from Judas? I don't want to be Judas. I don't want to be an enemy of Christ. I don't want to be somebody with false faith that just hangs around the gospel for whatever reason. A person could be doing it. There could be a million reasons why a person is just hanging around the gospel and really doesn't believe it. I don't want to be somebody that knows the doctrine, the doctrine of grace, the doctrine of Christ, and doesn't know the person of Christ. I don't want to be somebody that knows the doctrine but doesn't love the person. I don't want to be somebody that knows all the ABCs but is not in love with Christ, doesn't believe Christ, doesn't need Christ. I don't want to be that person. Pass me not, O gentle Savior, while on others thou art calling. Don't pass me by. Lord, don't let me be a reprobate standing in the pulpit or sitting in the pew where the gospel's being preached. I want to constantly examine myself to see if my faith is in Christ alone. I don't want to examine myself to see if there's anything good about me, because there's not. What I want to examine myself to, is my faith in Christ alone. Am I trusting Him? Really, am I trusting Him? If not, Lord, give me faith today. Lord, if I've never believed you before, give me faith today. If I've never come to you before, draw me to Christ today. I want to be the one who comes to the worship service seeking Christ. I don't want to come seeking glory for myself. I don't want to come and have my flesh puffed up. I come and I really do really enjoy talking to all of y'all. But I come here because I want to hear of Christ. I want to learn of Him. I want to have a word from Him. I live in a body of sin and rebellion and darkness. I need to hear again of God's grace and mercy to sinners. I need to be told again, you come to Christ. Whatever it is, you come to Christ and trust Christ and Christ alone. You know, the enemies of Christ are everywhere, and my prayer is, Lord, don't let me be one of them. Lord, give me the faith to believe you. Give me a heart to love you. Now, we're always going to be surprised when an enemy of Christ pops up from amongst the midst of us. But when that happens, now don't quit. Don't quit in frustration, don't throw up your hands and say, well, I just quit. If this is the way everybody's acting, I just quit. Because here's the second point. The Lord's kingdom is not of this world. Verse 46. And they laid their hands on him and took him. And one of them that stood by drew a sword and smote the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. Now in John's account tells us, this is Peter, he drew a sword, he was trying to cut the head off of this fella and he must have seen the sword come and just dodge a little bit, Peter cut off his ear. This was Peter, Peter's ready to fight. Peter really did mean it when he said, I'm ready to die with you. I mean Peter draws one sword, apparently all they had amongst the twelve there. was one sword, and here's this big crowd of swords and staves and pitchforks and all this stuff. Peter's got one sword, he's going after them all, you know. He's ready to die with the Lord. And the Lord stopped him. Peter, put your sword back up. We're not fighting this way. And Luke tells us that the Lord went and picked that man's ear up and put it back on and healed him. Now, isn't that the compassion of our Savior? I mean, he leaves us without excuse at every turn. The Lord had compassion on this man that came to take him by force and trickery and mocked up charges. And the Lord healed him. Because this is what the Lord's teaching us. There's no need to fight a fleshly fight here. There's no point in us getting to a sword fight because we're not in a fleshly fight. We're in a spiritual fight. Isn't that what the Lord told Pilate? I'm a king, all right, but my kingdom's not of this world. If it was, my followers would be fighting now, but they're not, because this is not a fleshly warfare. It's a spiritual warfare. And the same thing is true of us today. And boy, this'll keep a whole lot in perspective about the worship service. And what it is we do when we gather together here to preach and to hear to worship the Lord. We're in a spiritual warfare. I mean, it's a spiritual fight. We're fighting for the glory of Christ. We're contending for the truth, for the glory of Christ. We're contending for the souls of men and women. I mean, we're in a battle. We're in a battle for people to hear of Christ. Because the only way God's ever gonna save them is if they hear of Christ. We're in a battle for this. And since this is a spiritual warfare, we don't use fleshly weapons. We don't strike out in a fleshly way against these enemies of Christ. We're not trying to be the morality police of each other or other people. What a lost cause. I mean, what a lost cause. I mean, you know, we're gonna try to teach your children, but beyond that, I just don't know that we got any influence whatsoever being the morality police. And we're not trying to change the government into what we want it to be. It never has been what we want it to be. What a complete and utter waste of time. Be a good citizen and vote and let it go because our God's on the throne. That's not what this place is about. That's not what this group is about. This is a spiritual warfare and we're seeking God's sheep. We're seeking God's lost sheep to point them to Christ so that Christ the good shepherd will pick them up on his shoulder and carry them all the way home. We're seeking lost sheep. We're seeking sheep who have been harmed, who've been hurt, who are hungry and tired and thirsty. We're seeking those sheep to bring them to the green pastures of God's word and the deep still waters of God's word to strengthen their souls, to encourage them to keep following Christ. We're in a warfare telling the enemies of Christ about the kingdom of peace, about the king, king of peace, the kingdom of peace. We're, we're telling folks not how you can make your life better here on earth, but how God forgives sin. how He forgives sin through the blood of His Son. We're telling those enemies of Christ how reconciliation with God can be made. You can't make it, but God already did. Now you surrender. We're in the business of telling dead, guilty sinners about grace and mercy and love that's given in truth all through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the message. This is our goal. Now, why are we gonna get caught up in a fleshly fight? We got our hands full with what God's given us to do, don't we? Our hands are so full doing it, no man's sufficient for it. So we need to give ourselves to this thing. The Lord's kingdom's not of this world. And here's another thing with somebody surprises you hurt your feelings and you just can't believe that an enemy of Christ has popped up in this way. Just always remember this. This is always true. The Lord uses even man's sin to accomplish his eternal purpose. Verse 48, and Jesus answered and said unto them, are you come out as against a thief with swords and with staves to take me? I was daily with you in the temple teaching and you took me not. but that the scriptures must be fulfilled. Now, all of this is happening that the scriptures would be fulfilled, that God's eternal purpose would be fulfilled. Judas betraying the Lord with a kiss, I mean, it's just reprehensible, isn't it? I mean, it's just absolutely, utterly reprehensible, and there's no excuse for it. All Judas did is betrayed him, showed himself to be the reprobate that he always was from the beginning. But even though Judas is without excuse, he's guilty of this, you know it was all part of the Lord's plan and his betrayal so that he'd be crucified. This was part of the Lord's purpose without the Lord ever being the author of sin. If you try to figure that out, your mind's just gonna melt. It's just what a believer believes. That this is part of the Lord's purpose, sinful and rotten as it is, without him ever being the author of sin. And that should help us. That should help us rest in the sovereignty of God in everything that happens in our lives. Let me show you a couple of scriptures. First, Isaiah chapter 45. When these things happen, be surprised. Be surprised. Be hurt if it's something that is hurtful. But just rest knowing even this came from the purpose of God. Isaiah 45, verse five. I am the Lord, and there is none else. There's no God beside me. I girded thee, though thou hast not known me, that they may know from the rising of the sun and from the west There's none beside me. I am the Lord and there is none else. There's no authority that can even begin to threaten the Lord's authority. I'm the Lord and there is none else. I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. Drop down ye heavens from above and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open and let them bring forth salvation and let righteousness spring up together. I, the Lord, have created it. Everything that happens in this earth, God did it. That's what he says here. I form the light and I create the darkness. I make peace, I create evil. And he does it all to accomplish God's purpose in the salvation of his people. that righteousness would spring up from the earth. And the Lord had to be betrayed here in the Garden of Gethsemane. He had to be betrayed. He had to be taken at this very moment. The Lord pointed out, you could have taken me anytime. There I was in the temple. I mean, I wasn't hiding from you. I was daily in the temple teaching. Why didn't you take me? Because it wasn't His hour. See, it wasn't their choice. It's His choice, isn't it? This was His will. He could not be taken until all things were accomplished. Now He's accomplished righteousness. He brought in eternal righteousness for His people. And this moment is the moment for Him to be betrayed and taken because it's the moment ordained of God from all of eternity. Now this is one of the most monumental, monumental, events in all of human history. It's God's will being carried out. The same thing is true of you and me in life's significant or insignificant breezes that blow through our life. It's God's will being carried out. And if we could just take a moment and remember that, we'd have a lot more peace. We really would. Look at Psalm 41. You know, this thing with Judas is so horrible. But it's God's will being carried out. The Lord prophesied of it through David, through his interaction with Ahithophel years and years and years before. Psalm 41, verse five. Mine enemy speak evil of me. When shall he die and his name perish? And if he come to see me, speaketh vanity, His heart gathereth iniquity to itself. When he goeth abroad, he telleth it. All that hate me whisper together against me. Do they devise my hurt? An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast to him. And now he lieth, he shall rise up no more." Now that's the enemies of Christ that don't know him, that thinks Well, he's dying because he's a sinful man. He's getting what he deserves. You know, he's been evil all this time. You know, we knew it. But look at verse nine. Yea, my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, wished to eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. That was all in the Lord's purpose that Judas would do that. He foretold of it here. but the Lord used it to bring about the salvation of his people. Because look what the Lord goes on and says, but thou, O Lord, be merciful unto me, and raise me up, that I may requite them. By this I know that thou favorest me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me. Oh, the enemy had him put to death, but they didn't triumph, did they? No, he was risen again. As for me, thou upholdest me, in mine integrity and set us before thy face forever. The Lord's enemies, they did what they did because it was the Lord's eternal will and purpose, and they were defeated, just like it because it was the Lord's eternal will and purpose, and he used them to sacrifice himself to save his people from their sin. And if you look back at Mark chapter 14, Here's the fourth thing we see about those people that the Lord saves. The Lord only saves sinful people. And even after the Lord saves us, we're still a sinful people. Verse 50 says, and they all forsook him and fled. Now, just a little bit ago, the disciples were, every last one of them, ready to die with the Lord. And when danger came, They took the first escape route that they could find and left the Lord all alone. They did what so many other faithful men and women had done before them. Isn't that what Abraham did? What Isaac did? What David did? They all ran scared, not trusting the Lord, and you and I would do the very same thing. You and I would do the very same thing that they did. You know, one thing about a real believer is this. We're never satisfied with ourselves. Never satisfied with my faith. I'm satisfied with the object of my faith, but I'm not satisfied with my faith. I'm not satisfied with my conduct. I'm not satisfied with my love for the Lord. I'm not satisfied with my commitment to the Lord. And that's a good thing that the Lord teaches us. to not be satisfied with ourselves because we can't trust ourselves one bit. We're not as stable as water. And when the Lord teaches us that, you know what that does? It keeps us looking to Him. It keeps us trusting Him and Him alone. And even though, now again, just like Judas, there's no excuse for the disciples leaving the Lord alone like this. It had to be that way. It had to be that. This is the Lord's will. Look over at John chapter 18. Here's John's account of this night. John 18. Verse four. Jesus, therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth and said unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. I love this, and Jesus saith unto them, I am. You notice that word he is in italics. It's been added by the translators. The Lord didn't say that. What the Lord said is, I am. I am that I am. I am that met Moses at the burning bush. I am. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with him. And as soon as he said, I am, they went backward and fell to the ground. Then he asked them, Then ask ye them again, whom seek ye? They say, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I've told you I am. If therefore you seek me, let these go their way. That the same might be fulfilled which he spake of them, spake of them which thou gavest me, I've lost none. The Lord's commandment was, let these go free. You take the shepherd, let the sheep go free. And it had to be that way, didn't it? As awful as it is to think about how alone the Lord Jesus was as he suffered for the sins of his people. It's so awful to think about. Nobody's ever been as alone as he is, as he was at that time. But if anybody had suffered with him, say Peter and James, they, they, they, they went and they suffered with him. And it was Peter and James crucified on either side of the Lord. And all the while that they're suffering, they're encouraging the Lord, they're expressing their love for the Lord, they're encouraging the Lord and trying to comfort his mind and his spirit as he suffers to put away sin. If that had happened, you know what you and me would have done? We'd have given Peter and James some of the credit for our salvation. We'd have elevated them above a position that they never should have been in. Salvation is in Christ and Christ alone. It's accomplished by him and by him alone. It's by his will, by his doing, by his application, by his mercy, by his grace, by his sustaining power. Salvation is in Christ and Christ alone. And all the disciples may as well left him because he didn't need their help. He needed no help from anybody. He went to the cross and accomplished the salvation of his people all by himself. And he ordained his betrayal because he couldn't have been taken any other way. Now, look at verse 51 back in our text. This is something that's very interesting that always has intrigued me. And there followed him a certain young man having a linen cloth cast about his naked body. And the young man laid hold on him and he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked. Now I spent some time looking at this this week, and I still don't know why the Holy Spirit put this story here. I'm just gonna be completely honest with you, I don't know why the Spirit put this story here. But it is here for our learning, for our good, for our instruction, to show us something more of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now I don't know where this young man came from, I don't know why he happened to be there at that moment, maybe he'd been asleep. and he'd been wrapped in, you know, this sheet, asleep, and he heard the commotion, you know, he woke up, and he just kept the sheet wrapped around him, went to see what was going on. I mean, I don't, maybe, I don't know, I have any idea how it was that he came to be there at that time. But what he saw was this bloodthirsty mob coming after the Lord, and I mean, they just, I mean, they wanted to get their hands on anybody they could, and slit their throat, or beat them to death, or, they're just bloodthirsty. And they grabbed at this fella. He must be one of them. He's hanging around here. We're gonna take him and mistreat him too. It'll be a lot of fun. And they grabbed at him, but they only got a sheet. And he ran away from them naked. Now, like I say, I don't exactly know why the Holy Spirit put this here, but I do see a picture of the gospel here. The picture of this young man is me trying to hang on to my rags of righteousness to cover my nakedness, and it's just not working. And the law reaches out to grab hold of me. It reaches out to destroy me, and rightfully so, but all the law got was my filthy rags, and I ran away naked. Actually, it was grace. It was God's grace that caused the law to reach out and grab hold of my filthy rags of righteousness and strip them from me. It was God's grace that revealed to me who and what I am. It was God's grace that stripped me naked. And here's how I know it was God's grace. I didn't run away looking for more rags. I ran away to Christ to be clothed in his righteousness. And not just have His righteousness cover up my nakedness and my sin and my shame and my corruption, but to be made righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ. I ran to Him for righteousness. I ran to Him for forgiveness. I ran to Him for covering. And because He allowed Himself to be betrayed and taken to Calvary's tree, He can clothe me. He can make me righteous. I want to be that nameless man that's just naked and running to Christ. That's all I want to be. That's all I want to be. I hope you do too. All right. Lord bless you.