Okay, turn in your Bible again
to Mark 14. Mark chapter 14. The title of the message today
is, The Lord Betrayed by a Friend. The Lord Betrayed. Sold out. Sold out for 30 pieces of silver. The Lord Betrayed by Judas. Verse 42 of Mark 14, the Lord
says, Arise, rise up, let us go. You see the resolve and courage
and boldness as he goes to meet the enemies of God. He that betrayeth
me is at hand, the Lord knowing all things that must come to
pass. He marches with boldness, His
face like a flint, toward Calvary's tree to die for our sins. And we studied last week how
the Lord prayed as our Savior and Mediator to do the will of
God in accomplishing our salvation. He prayed, Lord, not my will,
but Thy will be done. Now we see the purpose of God's
sovereign providence unfolding before our eyes as the Lord begins
to drink the cup of God's purpose in accomplishing our salvation. May we never forget, our sins
are the reason of His sorrow, His suffering. It's my iniquity
that my Lord is bearing. It is my transgression that my
Lord is carrying. In Romans 4.25, these words are
recorded, He was delivered for our offenses, raised again to
justify us. Delivered for our offenses. Bruised for our iniquity. He
was wounded for our transgression. Bearing our sin in His own body
on the tree is the reason of God's wrath falling on Him. The
reason of His suffering is my sin. The sin of God's people. As we read these events of this
day here recorded for us in all four Gospels, may we be mindful
that there are many tremendous spiritual lessons to be learned
from these events. Not just the mere fact. Not just
the mere fact of what's recorded here, but what can we learn from
this scene? What can we glean and what spiritual
lesson can we be benefited by in seeing the Lord surrendering
to these enemies of the gospel? I want to consider five things,
five things for you this morning as we look at these verses. The
first thing we see is this. We see the enemies of the Lord
Jesus Christ doing their deeds. You remember Luke said, this
is the hour of darkness. We see the enemies of the Lord
Jesus Christ doing their wickedness against the blessed Savior. The Word of God describes who
these enemies of God are. The enemies of God's Gospel.
Threefold. Judas. A friend. The Lord called
him, said, friend, do you betray me? Was he really a friend? No, he was a traitor, a turncoat. Secondly, we see the armies of
Rome. They come prepared to fight with swords and clubs. How many? I don't know, but a multitude. Some of the old Jewish writers
said that they expected the Lord Jesus Christ to have an army
marshaled of 2,000 disciples. And so they came with an army
to fight. But the Gospel is not established
that way with swords and clubs, is it? Thirdly, we see the established
religious crowd talking about the enemies of the Lord, a supposed
friend, the armies of Rome. And then thirdly, the religious
crowd of the day. You notice, as we read those
verses, who sent these to arrest the Lord Jesus? The chief priests,
the scribes, the Pharisees, the established religious crowd of
that day, the fundamentalists of that day. They sent this army
to do battle with the Lord, to put him out of business. Who
are the enemies of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ today?
Who are the enemies? Does he have any? Does he have
any enemies today? You know, it's the same crowd. It's the same exact crowd. Like
the godless Romans of that day, the worldly infidels of our day
try to put God out of business with their swords, with their
clubs, by their power, by their rules, and by their regulation,
they would have God out of business. As a matter of fact, there is
a great campaign going on in New York City right now. No God,
no problem. Put God out of business. Turn
to Psalm 2. The same crowd, the worldly infidels of that
day, joined up with the religious of that day to put God out of
business. We read about this in Psalm 2,
verse 1. Why do the heathen rage and the
people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
His Christ. Psalm 2, verse 2. And they say,
let us break their bands. Goodbye God. Put God out of business. And let us cast away their cords
from us. Notice the response of Almighty God. He that sitteth
in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision,
contempt. Then shall He speak unto them
in His wrath, and He shall vex them in His sore displeasure. When we preach the gospel of
God concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, when we preach that men
are totally depraved and dead in sin and unable to please God,
who is God, who is holy. The enemies of God rise up in
opposition and rebellion. And we see the enmity in their
heart begin to leak out against God, don't we? Secondly, like
the God-hating religious fanatics of our day, The established religious
crowd of that day were determined to put God out of business as
well. To put an end to the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps
no one is so opposed to the gospel of God's grace than a lost religious
fool. The self-righteous crowd. The
fool has said in his heart, no, God. The religious has said,
who is Lord over us? You remember Pilate brought forth
the Lord Jesus that day in front of that religious crowd, and
they said, Pilate said, Behold your king! Remember what they
said? Away with him. We'll not have this man reign
over us. Away with him. We have no king,
but Caesar's our king. Being ignorant of God's righteousness
provided in the gospel, this same religious crowd They go
about to establish their own righteousness by the deed of
their hand. Thirdly, here's the third group
we see. Who are the enemies of God? This
godless world. This God-hating religious world.
Thirdly, we expect opposition from the ungodly world and even
from this lost religious world. But sometimes we are betrayed
by those who profess to be lovers of the gospel, who in reality,
like Judas, are wolves in sheep's clothing. Judas once numbered
among the Lord's disciples, now identified with this bloodthirsty
crowd, and he leads the opposition, being numbered not with the Lord's
disciples now, being numbered with the enemies of God and His
Christ. Psalm 41 verse 9 tells us about
this. Yea, my own familiar friend in
whom I trusted, which did eat my bread, hath lifted up his
heels against me. The Apostle Paul warned those
elders at Ephesus. He said, from among your own
selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw disciples
after them. He said, I've warned you of these
things. The Scriptures warn us of these days and trying times
that when they come, we may not be shocked by those who depart
from the Gospel. Our Lord said in John 15, if
the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated
you. Our Lord turned to that crowd
of 5,000 that day when He declared unto him, unto that crowd, the
sovereign God will have mercy on whom He will have mercy. He
said, no man can come to Me except the Father which sent Me draw
him. And the multitude of that crowd turned their back and walked
away. They will not have that God. And the Lord turned to His disciples
and said, will you also go away? Peter said, no. We believe and we are sure that
you are that Christ, the Son of the living God. John talked
about that. Turn over here to 1 John chapter
2. John describes that crowd who
appears to be a professed believer, but by and by when times get
difficult and times get hard and persecution comes for the
gospel's sake, they turn. and walk away. Were they ever
really lovers of Christ? Absolutely not. 1 John chapter
2, little children, verse 18, as little children, it is the
last time as you've heard that antichrist shall come, even now
there are many who are antichrist whereby we know that it is the
last time. They went out from us, but they
were not of us for if they had been of us, They would no doubt
have continued with us. You reckon John had thoughts
of Judas when he was penning these words? But they went out
that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. They went out. They left the
Lord and the preaching of the gospel. Who are the enemies of
the gospel? Same crowd today. The second
lesson is this. We see the nature of the Lord's
kingdom. It is a spiritual kingdom, not
a natural kingdom. Look at verse 48 in Mark 14,
verse 48. And Jesus answered and said unto
them, Are you come out as against a thief with swords and clubs
to take me? The nature of the Lord's kingdom
is a spiritual kingdom, not a natural one. When they came to arrest
the Lord Jesus, these God-haters must have expected that they
would not be able to arrest Him without a battle, without a war,
without a fight. And indeed, Peter, not understanding
all that was going on, did attempt to defend the Lord by cutting
off the ear of Malchus, the servant of the high priest. And the Lord
put an end to that conflict by healing his ear. And then we
see Peter, being rebuked by the Lord. Turn back over to Matthew
26. When Peter draws the sword to try to defend the Lord, the
Lord tells him in Matthew 26 verse 52, Peter, put up your
sword into the place, for all that take the sword will perish
with it. Thinkest thou that I Cannot now pray to my father, and he
shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels,
but how then shall the scripture be fulfilled? Thus it must be."
It must be. Our Lord told Pilate later, it's
recorded in John 18, 36, He said, my kingdom is not of this world.
If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight
that I should not be delivered to the Jews, but now is my kingdom.
It's not a natural kingdom. It's a spiritual kingdom. The
spiritual kingdom of God. And salvation in the Lord Jesus
Christ is not promoted, maintained, listen to me, by strong-arm tactics
of the flesh or by fleshly entertainment. And that's what we see going
on in religious circles today. It's stand up and be counted.
Come down front and make a decision. Do something physical, something
fleshly to enlarge the crowd, to entertain the crowd. Whatever
it takes. Active. Get them in. Give them
something to do. Maintain the kingdom by your
fleshly deeds and doings. Is that the way of the kingdom
of God? Is that what it's all about? Fleshly activity? The
arm of the flesh? The reality of the gospel and
the truth of salvation does not depend upon the flesh. The gospel of His grace stands
by the power of God. by the sword of the Holy Spirit,
which is the Word of God. The Word of God is quick and
powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. It pierces the
heart of God's people. Zechariah the prophet put it
this way, not by might, nor by power, but my spirit saith the
Lord. God conquers His people not with
the strong-armed tactics of the flesh. You see that going on
in religious circles today. At the end of every religious
service today, what will they do? They'll try to strong-arm
people down front to make a decision for Jesus. That's what they say. Is that salvation? No, it's nonsense. That's just the flesh. Preach
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and leave folks in the
hand of God. He'll convert. He'll convict. He'll convince. Anything else
is nothing but That's right. Turn over here to 2 Corinthians.
You remember from our Bible study? In 2 Corinthians chapter 10.
Turn over there. 2 Corinthians chapter 10. We don't come with the sword
of the flesh. We come with the sword of God.
And we use that. And God will bless His Word.
Notice in 2 Corinthians 10, look at verse 3. For though we walk
in the flesh, we do not conduct our ministry after the flesh. We do not war in the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds,
casting down imagination and every high thing that exalted
itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ." Now that's the weapon
we use. You see, my friend, it's the
gospel of God that's the power of God in salvation. It's not
my oratory ability. It's not my charisma as a public
speaker. that the Lord uses to entice
people, to draw people. It is a mere, plain declaration
of the gospel of God concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Who He
is, absolute sovereign. Who we are, absolute sinners. Who the Lord Jesus Christ is,
altogether accomplishing salvation and quickening by the power of
God the Holy Spirit. It's the gospel of the power
of God unto salvation. It's not the strong-arm tactics
of religious flesh to coerce people, to con people, to connive
people, to get a bigger crowd, a bigger hearing. I'm not interested
in those things. I had the least interest whatsoever
to fill this building with people. I could do that if I wanted to
that quick. This place would be running over
next week. I mean running over. We'd have to rent out this parking
lot next door to park all the cars. That's just the flesh. What I'm interested in is preaching
the gospel of God concerning Christ. And those who are not interested
in that just have to find someplace else to go. Because we're going
to contend for the gospel of God's grace come flame, flood,
hell, or high water. Going to preach Christ. Christ
and Him crucified. The church of the Lord Jesus
Christ can only be established through the preaching of the
gospel. That's right. It pleased God through preaching
to save them that believe. If you would do God's work, if
we would do God's work, if we would do it in God's name, we
must do it God's way. Preaching Christ and Him crucified.
There are no shortcuts. There's an article in the bulletin
today, I hope some of you will read it, by my friend Todd Nybert,
Pastor Nybert in Lexington. Some of his folks are here today.
But he wrote that article taking that analogy from the scripture,
if a man doesn't strive lawfully, if he doesn't run the race lawfully,
if he tries to cut corners in the race, he's disqualified.
And that's what preachers try to do today, they try to cut
corners. to fill the building, to gain a following. We're not
interested in those things. Preaching Christ and Him crucified,
whether it be the one or two or the two thousand, it makes
no difference. Christ alone is to be declared. We preach the gospel of God and
wait on the Lord. Don't buttonhole people, pressure
people. That's not my business. That's
not my responsibility. Our responsibility is to declare
the gospel. God will call his sheep to himself. I'm confident of it. I'm just
confident. Here's the third thing. The word
of God must be fulfilled. Must be fulfilled. Look at verse
39 of Mark 14. Mark 14, verse 49. I was with
you. I was daily with you in the temple
teaching. And you took me not, but the
Scripture must be fulfilled." The Scripture must be fulfilled. Our blessed Redeemer died for
our sins according to the Scriptures. How He died for our sins according
to the Scriptures. How He was buried and how He
was risen again the third day according to the Scriptures. That's why the Lord told Peter,
put up your sword, for the Scripture must be fulfilled, thus it must
be. He must be denied. He must be
forsaken. He must be rejected. He must
die. He must be raised again. He must
be seated in glory. Turn over here to Luke 24. Luke
24. This was all written about. hundreds
and thousands of years, way back in Genesis 3.15, the seed of
the woman would bruise, crush, destroy Satan's dominion and
sin. In Luke 24, verse 44, these are
the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you,
that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law
of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning
me. Then he opened Then opened he their understanding that they
might understand the Scriptures." He's dying for our sin according
to the decree of God. Thus it is written, thus it behooved
Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day that
repentance and remission of sin should be preached in His name
among all nations beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses
of these things. He dies for our sin according
to the Scriptures, the steps of our Lord. From Gethsemane
to Calvary are ordered of God. The Scriptures verify that. In
Psalm 37 verse 23, the steps of a righteous man are ordered
of God. He'd been on this path from all
eternity as a lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
The Lord of glory dies not by accident. Calvary is not an accident. It's not an afterthought. but
rather as a result of the determined will and purpose of God. Let
me show you that. Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter
2. Verse 23. Him being delivered. Acts 2.23. Calvary is not an
afterthought. It's not an accident. He dies
according to the will and purpose of God. Acts 2, 23. Him being
delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, you've taken by wicked hands, have crucified and slain. Whom God raised up having loosed
the pains of death because it was not possible that he should
be holden of it. Turn over to Acts chapter 4.
He quotes here from Psalm 2 that we just read in Acts 4 verse
26. The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered
together against the Lord and against his Christ. For betrothed
against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed both
Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of
Israel, will gather together for to do whatsoever thy hand
and thy counsel determined therefore to be done. He dies by the determinate
counsel of God. All that happened to our Lord
was only the working out of God's great design and accomplishing
our salvation by His redeeming blood. We are redeemed with the
precious blood of Christ. He shed His blood, the Lamb of
God. All that happened to Him happened
by purpose, happened by decree, happened by God's will. What
can we learn from that as believers? Salvation is certain and sure.
He cannot be defeated. He is the victorious Christ. Thanks be unto God who has given
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Something else
we can learn from this, personally as believers before His sovereign
throne, whatever takes place in our lives is under the sovereign
rule and almighty authority of our great God and King. We do
not pretend to understand all that infinite wisdom of God's
sovereign providence, but we know this and we submit to his
sovereign rule that whatever he works in our lives is not
by accident, but by God's determined purpose. As Paul writes, and
we know that all things work together for good to them who
love God, to them who are the called according to God's purpose.
Here's the fourth thing. Notice in Luke 14 verse 50. Salvation is for sinners. Weak, frail sinners. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We've turned everyone to our own way. Look at verse 50. They
all forsook Him and fled. All of them. Peter, where is
your resolve? John? Beloved, where are you
at, John? He's running for his life. They
all forsook him and fled. You see, my friends, salvation
is for sinners, weak, frail, ungodly sinners. We've seen this
over and over again in the Scripture. The Lord makes no attempt to
cover the failings and the sin of the most well-known saints.
Noah, a preacher of righteousness, 120 years, built an ark. What happened when he came down
out of that ark? You remember? He got drunk. Abraham lied on Sarah. Jacob, a deceiver. David, the king of Israel, a
murderer, committed adultery. God doesn't make no attempt to
cover up the failings of his people. John, James, they all cut tail
and run. Their former claims were all
forgotten. Their promises to die with Him rather than deny
Him were all cast to the wind. Fear got the best of them. When
their faith gave way to fear, being overwhelmed by their present
circumstances, they forgot the Savior and fled for their life. You say, well, I wouldn't do
that. Oh, wait a minute, my friend. You would too. I would too. The
fear of present danger got the better of their faith. Now later
they regrouped. Later they came back. Peter preached
that great sermon at Pentecost. Remember how many times the Lord
said to his disciples, Oh ye of little faith. What can we learn from this?
What's deeply instructive? Romans 15 declares, for whatsoever
things were written aforetime were written for our learning,
that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might
have hope. What can we learn from the failing
and failures and weakness of these disciples? Five things. All flesh is grass. All flesh is grass. I mean weak,
frail, sinful grass. Man in his best state is altogether
vanity. We are to have no confidence
in the flesh. Secondly, what can we learn from
the failures of these recorded in Scripture? Salvations of the
Lord. Salvations by His grace alone.
Salvations by His faithfulness, His obedience, not mine. Now
God's people are faithful. But their faithfulness has nothing
to do with accomplishing salvation. You understand what I'm saying?
It's His obedience. It's His faithfulness. His obedience
unto death. He accomplished salvation. Salvations
of the Lord. Thirdly, our only righteousness
before God is that which is imputed to us through Christ and Him
crucified. Blessed is the man whom the Lord
would impute righteousness without works. Let us all remember this, when
all others fail and forsake us, there is one who will never,
no, never fail us or forsake us. Isaiah 42 talks about him,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the servant of God, my righteous servant,
the elect of God, and it says of him in Isaiah 42, he cannot
fail. Lamentations 3.22 talks about
the Lord Jesus Christ. It is of the Lord's mercy that
we are not consumed because of His compassions. They fail not. His love is an everlasting love. Now I send you home with this
thought. Mark 14. Turn back over there. Verse 51
and verse 52. And there followed Him a certain
young man. Some maybe think it was Mark
himself, John Mark. Being aroused by the crowd and
being in this vicinity, having on a linen cloth cast about his
naked body. And the young men, the soldiers,
laid hold on him. They were going to take him into
custody. And he left the linen cloth and
fled from them. They grabbed his clothes and
he ripped away and ran off. Why is this recorded here? It
just seems kind of out of place. John doesn't mention it. Matthew
doesn't mention it. Luke says nothing of it. The
only one that says anything about it is Mark himself, the writer
of this gospel. Well, I think what we have here
is a glorious picture of the gospel in this young man fleeing
here. A glorious picture of the gospel
is found here for us to rejoice in, and here's the thought. Remember
what we read in John 18? Our Lord said, if you seek me,
let these go their way. The Lord is taken, the Lord is
arrested, and we go free. It's a picture of the gospel.
You see it there? On the Day of Atonement, remember,
one goat was slain, the other, the scapegoat, was set free.
Even so, we learn that Christ is slain for us, dies in our
place, and we're set free. justified by His blood. The Apostle penned these words
in Galatians 5, Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ
hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke
of bondage. He's redeemed us from the curse
of the law, being made a curse for us. Well, I pray the Lord
will bless that study to your heart cause you to remember these
things as you study His Word.