Let me read for you the first
several verses here in John 18. We've been talking about these
events that lead up to the cross, the significance of the little
brook, And we went back into the Old Testament and looked
at the different things associated with that brook Cedron, or as
it's called in the Old Testament, Kidron. And now our Lord's in
the garden and He's praying in the garden, and we looked at
those things and those agonizing things that He did last week,
and how that our great sin offering and sacrifice was identified. in his prayers and agonies. And today I want to talk to you
about the man who betrayed Christ and that betrayal. So let's just
read these first several verses. When Jesus had spoken these words,
referring back to John 17, his prayer, he went forth with his
disciples over the brook Cedron where was a garden into which
he entered and his disciples, and Judas also, which betrayed
him." Now, you're going to find, if you read back through the
Gospels, at almost everywhere where he's spoken of, Judas Iscariot,
you're going to find that type of language, and Judas also. Judas also. which betrayed him knew the place.
For Jesus off time resorted thither with his disciples. Judas then,
having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests
and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and
weapons. 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. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed
him, stood with them. As soon then as he had said unto
them, I am," if you'll notice that he is in italics, means
it was added by the translators. What he said to them was, I am,
a clear revelation of God. They went backward and fell to
the ground. Then asked ye them again, Whom
seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.
And Jesus answered, I told you that I am. If therefore ye seek
me, let these go their way. Now the lesson this morning is
about betrayal. All four Gospels record the betrayal
of Christ. All four Gospels record the man
who betrayed Him. And all four Gospels record the
place where he was betrayed. And you can find the exact accounts
of these things here in John 18. You can find them over in
Matthew chapter 26 and 27. You can find them in Mark chapter
14 and also in Luke chapter 22. And then I'm going to give you
here a little bit later on. We're going to go over to Psalm
109, and I'm going to show you Judas over there. And you can
also find him in Zechariah chapter 11. But I hope you'll take time
this afternoon to read through these things. But for time's
sake, I'm not going to go into all these references. And I have
two things this morning that I hope the Lord will permit us
to see in talking about this man who betrayed Christ. And
the first is that Judas Iscariot is, without controversy, the
man who betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ. And then the second thing I want
you to see is that his crime represents the hearts and mind
of every natural man. Every man born of Adam could
put his name right underneath Judas. He's a Judas. Now let's
look first at the betrayer and at his betrayal. Judas Iscariot. As I study and read through these
various accounts of this man Judas, it become clear to me
that the Holy Spirit of God has singled this man out. If you
take, like Peter, sometimes he was called Peter and sometimes
he was called Cephas. and sometimes he was called Simon,
and sometimes he was called Simon Peter. But Judas is very, very
seldom called Judas. Most of the time it's Judas Iscariot. And the book of Jude, that apostle's
name was also Judas. And any time the Bible referred
to him it said, and Judas not Iscariot. You see how the Holy
Spirit, it's got His name singled out so that He's separate from
every other man. Make no mistake about it. This
man, Judas Iscariot, this single individual, the Holy Spirit of
God is telling us that this man is guilty of this crime. He's
guilty of it. And all the way through, as you
read through these Gospels, and I recommend that you do it, You'll
find out that there's something, there's a revelation here in
his name, in his specific name. It's just time and time. He hardly
ever gives a man's second name like that. Sometimes he called
Peter Simon Peter, but every time he called Judas, Judas Iscariot. This was a real man. He was an
individual. And he committed a horrible crime
against the Son of God, and he was judged for his crime. And
as many others were before him, like Cain and Ham and Nimrod
and Pharaoh and Korah, Dathan, Abiram, Esau, you can go on and
on and on with the list of names. There are just countless testimonies
in the Scriptures about these individual men. God singles them
out. gives you his name and then tells
you why he gave it to you. Later on in the New Testament,
you find that Cain is called in that way of Cain. They went
the way of Cain. Esau, same thing in Hebrews 12
or 13. And there are just countless
testimonies in the scriptures concerning Judas Iscariot And
I doubt if I was to go person by person, individually after
the service this morning, and ask you if you had any doubt
that Judas Iscariot was a betrayer of Christ, I doubt I could find
one person in here that disagreed with me. I think everybody's
pretty much convinced that this is the man. So let me get off of that and
get on to something else. I want you to see the betrayal. I want you to see what this man
Judas did. And I want to point out to you that it was a man. That's the
first thing that struck me. This was a man. Now, I'm not
preaching universalism. I'm not preaching a gospel that
saves every man, woman, and child, so don't misunderstand what I'm
telling you. But there's a sense, there's
a sense in which Christ was sent forth before the whole world
and is when we stand up and preach. This was not a demon. It's not
an evil spirit, not Satan, but a man. A man. Christ came into
this world to save men. Don't you find it odd that a
man would betray Him? Among the very race for which
He came to save, a people for the glory of His Father's name,
that a man would betray Him? He took not on Him the nature
of angels, but the seed of Abraham. He was a point of God, a mediator
between God and men. There's one mediator between
God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. Judas was a man. 1 John 2, verse 2, it says this. Now, you're well aware, I quote
that scripture from Romans 3 all the time, that God has set him
forth to be a propitiation for our sins. through faith in His
blood. Now watch this. And He is the
propitiation, the mercy seat, the way of redemption, the way
of salvation. He is the propitiation for our
sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the
whole world. Boy, that goes down sideways,
don't it? Huh? That's hard to choose. But
what he's saying here is that God has set forth His Son in
such a way, so freely, so openly, that any man, any woman, anywhere,
anytime can look. They can look. He's been set
up like that standard that Moses raised up, that brazen serpent.
He was raised up Everybody, he said, whosoever looks on the
serpent, look at him. That's all you got to do. And
everyone that did was spared. The eternal God of glory in a
permanent act of love and grace took to himself the body of a
man. And as such, took their place
under the law of God to fulfill all that the law demanded on
their behalf. And as an appointed substitute,
he was scrutinized before men, all men, religious men, heathen
men, heathen gangs. He was scrutinized. He was examined. He was looked at. They find no
fault in him. Ain't that what Pilate said?
I find no fault in this just man. Neither did anybody else. Our Lord said to those Jews who
hunted for something, scrutinized him to find something in him.
He said, which of you accuses me of sin, convinces me of sin?
Not one. They couldn't find any fault
in him. Wasn't any fault in him. Satan took him out for 40 days
and tempted him and found nothing in him. Found nothing in him. As an appointed substitute, he
was scrutinized before men and then offered up as the atoning
blood sacrifice demanded of God. He was the Lamb of God, John
said, that taketh away the sin of the world. Not every sin of
every man, but that sin, that sin by which this world was cursed
and condemned. Sins of his anointed, sins of
his chosen, of his elect. And the one who betrayed him
was of this race and out of which the living God sent His Son to
redeem a people. Don't you find that striking?
I do. A man. A man would betray. And Judas
was a religious man. He was a Jew. I find that striking. He was
a Jew. He was an Israelite. Paul said,
to whom pertaineth the adoption and the glory and the covenants
and the giving of the law and the service of God. whose ancestors
were the prophets, and of whom concerning the flesh Christ came."
He was a Jew. He was a son of Abraham. He wasn't
raised in the jungle. This man was raised in the synagogue. He was raised with hearing the
Scriptures. He knew. When you talk about
Jeremiah, Judas knew who Jeremiah was. He knew what Jeremiah said. You strike up a conversation
with somebody today out of the Old Testament, unless you're
talking about Samson or one of the great stories that they talk
about in the Old Testament, they ain't got a clue what you're
even talking about or who you're talking about. But Judas did. He did. He was well acquainted
with the Old Testament. And Judas Iscariot was a reformed
man. He followed Christ. He wasn't among those Pharisees.
He wasn't among those scribes and those chief priests. Judas
followed Christ. He was called to be an apostle,
a preacher, called to be one of the twelve. Sit around at
night and listen to the Lord. He didn't speak to them as he
spoke to other men, but in the privacy of their home, Christ
would call them aside and explain to them what the parables were
all about. Judas sat there and listened.
He sat there and listened. I was a member of 13th Street
Baptist Church. My pastor was the man who wrote
this message here that's in print. And I was daily around him. I
lived in the parking lot. There was one house left on that
whole block, and I lived in that house in the parking lot of the
church. He ate lunch with me. I went with him often to his
meetings and things that he did. I talked with him in the evenings.
I talked with him in his study. I talked with him privately.
I know the man. I know what he preached. I know
what there is to know about him. Judas did. He sat with Christ. He walked with Christ. He was
taught by Christ. He was an apostle, a preacher. I've got no reason to believe
that he didn't have gifts to cast out demons. All the rest
of them did. Peter describes Judas Iscariot
in Acts chapter 1 verse 17 as one who was numbered with us. and had obtained part of this
ministry. He was a reformed man. And the
Lord Himself said this when He instituted the Lord's table.
He looked at all of them sitting around that table and He said,
Have not I chosen you twelve and one of you as a devil? He was a religious man. He was
a zealous man. He held the only office outside
of their apostleship, he held the only office of the 12. He
was a treasurer. He carried the bag. Only office
holder I know of. And then notice this. Why did
he betray Christ? This was a man who did this,
a religious man, a reformed man, a man who ought to have known
better. A man without excuse. A man who had every advantage
that a man could have. I mean, we're not just talking
about a preacher, we're talking about the eternal Word of God.
Taught him, preached to him, walked with him, chose him. He was identified with him. Why in the world would he betray
Christ? What I find in the Scripture is this, and it comes up the
same no matter where you read it, for gain. Gain. Listen to this in Matthew 26,
verse 14, Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto
the chief priests, they didn't come to him, he went to them,
and said unto them, What will you give me? What will you give me? And I
will deliver him unto you." And they covenanted. They made them
a contract. They made a pact for 30 pieces
of silver. And Judas followed Christ for
gain. I believe that. I believe he
began to follow Christ for gain. And those who follow Christ for
gain will one day sell him out for the same. He followed Christ for gain.
And when he saw that he would not be the one to establish this
earthly kingdom, he believed just like the rest of them believed
that when Christ came, they were going to rebuild Israel. Israel was going to be returned
to their former glory and going to raise up a king. And Christ
was going to be another David, another Solomon. Rome was going
to be defeated. The whole world was going to
be at their feet. And they wanted that power. They believed. Here
was the chosen twelve. These were going to be six on
one side and six on the other. You remember one of the women
came to him, the sons of Zebedee, the mother of them. And she came
to him and she said, Lord grant that one of my sons sit on one
side and one on the other. She didn't have visions of them
sitting beside him in glory. She had visions of him sitting
beside his throne in Jerusalem. He said, grant that. He said,
you don't know what you're talking about. You don't even know what
you're asking. Jesus followed Christ for gain.
He wanted to be one of those twelve. He wanted to be one of
those key men in Jerusalem under the kingship of Christ. He had
visions of grandeur. He had visions of wealth and
money and influence and power. That's what Judas had in his
mind. And when he saw it wasn't going to happen, he sat down
and he said, hmm, I better go back. I better go back now. How
can I do this? How am I going to get back in
favor with old men? Old men despise me now. How am
I going to get back in favor? And so he went to them. He knew
what they wanted. And he pretended like he'd been deceived. Judas had an attitude and spirit
of the betrayer all along. You remember over in John, I
think it's John chapter 12, where Mary, the sister of Martha and
Lazarus, took that pound of spikenard, that precious ointment, and anointed
the feet of Christ with it? Judas said, why'd you do that? Why'd you do that? Why was not this ointment sold
for 300 pence and given to the poor? This he said not because
he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and had the bag and bear what was put therein.
Like the old tax collector, he carried the bag. He kept the
account, one for you, one for me. One for you and one for me. He was a thief. He was always
a thief. He was a thief when he first
came to Christ. And now it's going to be proven.
It's going to be proven. You're going to sell him out.
You're going to pretend that he was deceived. And this would
go a long way to restoring him back into favor with the Jews,
or so he thought. And his betrayal was planned.
This wasn't one of them spur-of-the-moment things where Judas just, I know
what I'm going to do. No, this is the thing he thought
about this. If you go to Psalm 109 and you
read the judgments of him, you'll see it's very clear, very clear,
that he knew exactly what he was doing. And so it says over
in Zechariah, Chapter 11. His betrayal was planned. It
was not an impulse. He carefully weighed what he
knew and what he saw. And he said in his mind and heart
what to do. That which thou doest. That's
what our Lord said. He knew what he was going to
do. And he knew Judas knew what he was going to do. That which
thou doest, do quickly. Judas also did what he did, being
influenced by one mightier than himself. Our Lord said, to whomsoever
I give the sop, that's going to be him that betrays me. And
it said, when Judas took the sop, Satan entered into him. And then finally, Judas Iscariot
betrayed the Lord with a kiss. Not with a pointed finger. He
didn't come into that garden and say, there he is. There he
is. He ran up with his arms open
and kissed him. He kissed him. He betrayed him
with a kiss. Now here's the second thing I
want you to see. Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Christ, is but
a representative of every natural man. He's the very expression of their
hearts. He's the very testimony of their
character. Now turn with me over to Psalm
109. The real story of the betrayer
of Christ begins in the Old Testament. It begins a long time before
Judas ever came on the scene. A long time before he was ever
born. Look over here in Psalm 109. I'm just going to read this to
you and kind of comment on it as we go. Hold not thy peace,
O God, of my praise, for the mouth of the wicked And the mouth
of the deceitful are opened against me. Now, let me tell you what
this is saying. I used to love to watch old gangster
movies, The Godfather and all them old gangster movies. And
in those movies, the mob always called the lawyer the mouthpiece.
Ain't that what they called him? He's the mouthpiece. He represents us. When he goes
into court, what he says is the same as us saying it. That's
what the Lord is talking about here in verse 2. The mouth of
the wicked. He who represents them. He who
says what's on their hearts. The mouth of the wicked and the
mouth of the deceitful are opened against me. They compassed me about also
with words of hatred and fought against me without a cause. When
did men begin to do that? in the garden, and all down through time, and
all through the life of Christ, and even yet today when the Gospels
preached. Same thing. Same expression. They fought against me without
a cause. For my love, verse 4, for my
love they are my adversaries. But I give myself to prayer.
Let me give you two things here. For his great love for his elect,
he suffered them as adversaries. He put up with them. He endured
them, as what it says over in Romans chapter 9. He endured
those vessels of wrath fitted for destruction. And also, against
the revelation of love, they become adversaries for my love.
You do what you do against love. It's not against law that men
sin, it's against love. It's against love. Verse 5, And they have rewarded
me evil for good, and hatred for my love. The exceeding sinfulness
of sin is revealed in the death of Christ. Because men sin against
love. They sin against love. They sin
against kindness, gentleness, mercy, and long-suffering. Now watch this, verse 6. Set
thou a wicked man over him. Just put one up there. Let's
single out one man. One man. One wicked man. They're all wicked. Every imagination of their heart
is only evil continually. They're all wicked. But choose
you out, he said, a wicked man and set him over him. Put him
up there. Give him the opportunity. Give
him the witness stand. Put him up there where he can
testify and be heard. Pick out a wicked man. Pick out
a man to represent all men. Pick out a man that can go as
far as a man can go and not be saved. Pick out a man. And put him up here. Put him
up here. And let's hear what he has to
say. Let's hear what he has to say. And he uses this man to show
and express the utter treachery of the heart of man. Our Lord
said, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked. Who can know it? In all of his
character and walk and reasoning and ways, the Lord sets before
us the heart of natural man. He'll sell him out. I don't care
what it is. I don't care how ridiculous it
is. He'll sell him out. Imagine selling out the Lord
of Glory for 30 pieces of silver. Do you know where that amount
came from? If you go over, I think it's in Exodus 20 or somewhere,
21, right around in there somewhere. Under the law, there was a redemption
fixed for the Canaanite servant. And they had an ox. And this
ox was known to gore. He wasn't an obedient beast. He was a disobedient beast. He'd
been known in the past to gore and to push and to shove instead
of just doing his work. And if that ox was to gore a
servant, a Canaanite servant, a Gentile servant, if he was
to gore one of them, then the amount to be settled for out
of court, out of court. was 30 pieces of silver. That's
what it was all about. Judas sold him out at the price
of a Canaanite servant, a Gentile servant. He was a Gentile dog
in Judas' eyes. And they sold him for 30 pieces
of silver. And the Jews agreed with him.
They were in perfect agreement with him. Apart from divine intervention
were all the betrayers of Christ. Set this wicked man over him
and give him the opportunity. Give him the advantage. Give
him the circumstance. Give him the opportunity to choose.
To do what he thinks best and to do what he thinks he needs
to do. And let a wicked man have his say. And what he has to say
will always betray the Lord. Always. And then he says this
over there in Psalm 109. He said, let Satan stand at his
right hand. This man not only represents
men, all men, but he represents the whole cause and reason and
goal of Satan himself. Satan is going to stand at his
right hand in perfect agreement with him, perfect communion with
him, perfect fellowship with him. He speaks the words and vents
out the poison of the old serpent himself. And I've often warned
you, and I warn you even now, that what possesses the man becomes
the man. Becomes the man. It says Satan
entered into him. Satan enters into all natural
men. Did you know that? Yes, he does. Not personally.
He's not like the Lord. He can't be everywhere at once.
But through His influence, And through religious men who don't
know God, through his demons, through his
evil spirits, through his influence, he enters into all natural men
because they've got no way to resist him. He takes them captive
at his will, the scripture says. He's called the prince of the
power of the air. You know, when Satan's advantage
and influence over men is called into Scripture, the course of
this world in Ephesians chapter 2. We walk according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air.
And he's the prince of the power of the air because he fills the
air with his lies and deceit. And he's the prince of the power
of the air He moves as a spirit, undetectable, unnoticed, cannot
be seen. The only thing you can see of
Satan is the effects of where he's at. You don't see Satan
in Judas. Our Lord said, if not I've chosen
you twelve and one of you is a devil. And they all looked
at each other and they said, is it I? Is it I? Judas was over
there, is it I? The only way you can tell is
by the effects. It's the effects. And what are
the effects? They sell out. They sell out
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I'm out of time, so I'm
just going to stop there.