Let us open our Bibles this morning
to Mark chapter 14. Mark chapter 14, and we'll be
looking today at verses 43 through 53. And immediately while he
yet spake. cometh Judas, one of the twelve,
and with him a great multitude with swords and staves from the
chief priests 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 goeth straightway to him and saith, Master, Master,
and kissed him. And they laid their hands on
him and took him. And one of them that stood by
drew a sword and smote a servant of the high priest and cut off
his ear. 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 the scriptures must be fulfilled.'
And they all forsook him, that is, all of his disciples, and
fled. And there followed him a certain
young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body, and
the young men laid hold on him. And he left the linen cloth and
fled from them naked." and they led Jesus away to the high priest. Now last time, last Sunday morning,
we looked at the Lord Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane,
praying in the garden the night before his crucifixion. This
morning we continue with what followed, and that is his arrest. Now all four of the gospel narratives
record this, But John relates some things in his gospel that
the others don't. So as we look at his arrest today,
we'll stay here in Mark, and then we'll look at some things
in John. But first, I want us to look
at the conduct of Judas. The conduct of Judas, verses
43 through 45. And immediately, while he yet
spake, cometh Judas, one of the 12. Now, it goes without saying
that the Lord Jesus knew of those coming to arrest him. If you
look back at the text again, verse 42, we didn't read this,
but our Lord said to his disciples, rise up, let us go. Now, he didn't say, rise up and
let us escape, or rise up and let us flee. No, he said, rise
up and let us go. Let us go to meet those who come
to arrest me. Now, there are three things I
want to point out that we see in these verses about the conduct
of Judas. First of all, we are told that
he led a multitude, that he came with a multitude to arrest him. This multitude was made up, of
course, of Roman soldiers, not only Roman soldiers, but Roman
soldiers, and in John's account, he tells us a band. A band of
Roman soldiers would consist of 1,000 if it was a full band. So a great number that came to
arrest the Lord Jesus Christ were these soldiers. But as Mark
says, also the chief priest, the chief priest among the Jews,
the scribes, those who interpreted the law, and the elders, those
of the Sanhedrin. So there was a large multitude
that came to arrest the Savior. The second thing I'll point out
is Judas gave them a sign how that they would know him, how
they would recognize him. And that was a kiss. The one
that he kissed would be the one who they should arrest. Luke tells us Judas, or Lord
Jesus, spoke to Judas and said, Betrayest thou the son of man
with a kiss? Now a kiss normally is a sign
of love. We kiss those that we love. A
kiss sometimes is a sign of loyalty, especially in that day when men
were loyal and showed their loyalty. A kiss is a sign of submission,
but here we see it is a sign of his treachery. And as I thought
about this, that Judas kissed him, I could not help but think
about the Psalm, Psalm 2, where men, all men, you, me, and every
other man, we all are admonished to kiss the son. God has set
his son, that Psalm tells us, Psalm 2, God has set his son
as a king on Mount Zion. The Lord Jesus Christ, we must
recognize he is King of kings and Lord of lords. This little
Jesus, this Jesus that is proclaimed in so many places today is not
the Jesus of the Bible. You know, the apostle Paul, he
said many Christ are preached. There's many Christ that are
preached. But there's only one true Christ of God. There's only one true Christ,
the anointed of God, that He has sent into this world to be
the Savior. And He is seated today at the
Father's right hand. And all power and all authority
is given unto Him. And so God admonishes in that
psalm, that second psalm, it begins by, why do the heathen
rage? And the rulers imagine a vain
thing as though man thinks he can somehow overturn God's purpose
and God's plan. Why do they do this? And then
that advice is kiss the son, kiss him, acknowledge him. Come to him, receive him, kiss
the son lest he be angry and you perish from the way. Now
listen, when his wrath is kindled but a little, his wrath, the
Lord Jesus Christ, just a little wrath is great wrath, kiss him. Acknowledge him, bow to him,
receive him. This is God's word to all men. Judas came, of course, and with
a kiss, he betrayed the Lord, the master. The third thing that
I point out to us is Judas counseled this multitude of people that
came and he said, take him. Take him. Now Matthew in his
account says that Judas said, hold him fast. Take him and hold
him fast. Now why would Judas say that?
Because Judas no doubt had witnessed several times in the life over
those three years from the time the Lord Jesus Christ began his
public ministry to this point many times His enemies tried
to take Him. In fact, the very first time
the Lord Jesus Christ, after His baptism, the very first time
that He stood up in the synagogue in Nazareth and read the Scriptures
and preached from those Scriptures, they tried to kill Him. Turn
with me to Luke chapter 4. Let's read that. This is the
very first time, turn over just a few pages. After our Lord was
baptized of John in the river Jordan, he returned to Nazareth. And he went into the synagogue
as his custom was, verse 16, and he came to Nazareth where
he had been brought up and as his custom was, That's a good
custom, my friends, to go to the house of God every Lord's
Day. That was a Sabbath day. I know
that's Saturday. He was under the law. He was
made under the law. I understand that. We worship
on Sunday, the Lord's Day. And don't fall for that lie that
says, well, some pope changed the day. In the New Testament,
we are already told that the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ
gathered together on the first day of the week, the day in which
the Lord was raised from the dead. This is the Lord's day. Sunday is the Lord's day. And our Lord, His custom was,
He was born under the law that He might keep the law for you
and I, His people, But the law was on the Sabbath day, they
would go into a place of worship. And in that day, it had become
the synagogues that were scattered all over Palestine. As his custom
was, he returned to the city in which he'd been brought up.
And on the Sabbath day, he went into the synagogue. And I just
want to emphasize that. The Lord's Day, people use it
for recreation. People use it for everything
under the sun, other than to worship the Lord. But we should
recognize this blessed day, one day out of seven, that God has
set apart for us to come together. And the scripture says, not forsaking
the assembling of ourselves together, God's people need to come together
on the Lord's Day, that's a good custom to have. That's a good
habit. That's a good habit. And I know
most of you are in, have that habit because you come here every
Sunday. And I'm thankful for that, thankful
for you. That's a, that's good. Our Lord,
that was his custom. He went into the synagogue on
the Sabbath day and he stood up for to read. And there was
delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias, or Isaiah. And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me. The Spirit of the Lord was upon
him like the Spirit of the Lord was never upon any other man.
The Spirit of the Lord came upon men. The Spirit of the Lord stayed
upon him, remained upon him. We read that in the Gospel of
John. We know at his baptism, the Spirit
of God descended in the form of a dove. And remained, John
tells us, remained upon him. Now he's reading this Old Testament
prophecy. All the prophets, Acts chapter
10, all the prophets spoke of him. No matter which prophet
in the Old Testament, the whole book, the Bible, it's all about
him. It's a him book. It's a him book. The spirit of the Lord is upon
me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.
Are there any poor people here today? I'm not talking about
poor financially. Are there any poor in spirit?
Poor because of your sin before God. Blessed are the poor in
spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. He hath anointed me,
the Lord Jesus Christ said, to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. Anyone have a broken heart? Recognizing
that you have sinned against God. To preach deliverance to the
captives. Anyone here recognize you are
under the dominion of Satan? If you've never been released
by him, you are. Recovering of sight to the blind,
spiritually blind. set at liberty them that are
bruised to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed
the book and gave it again to the minister and sat down. Well,
that's a nice sermon, isn't it? He just read the scripture. But
then he's going to give a couple of illustrations. His first illustration
concerns the fact that when God sent a great drought, to the
nation of Israel, three and a half years, no rain, that God passed
over all the widows in Israel and did not supply them with
food, but he sent his servant to a Gentile widow, and Elijah
and her and her son were supplied over that time period when there
was no rain. Remember when Elijah approached
her, she said, all I've got is just a little meal in the barrel
and I'm out here gathering a few sticks. I'm going to cook that
meal, make two cakes, one for me and one for my son. Elijah
said, prepare me one first. And she did. And God supplied. them with food over that whole
time period. Our Lord told those people in
the synagogue that day. They knew it was true. They had
the scriptures too. And then he illustrated it again
when he said, in the days of Elisha, there were many lepers
in Israel. And leprosy was an awful disease,
a picture or type of sin. And God passed over all those
lepers and sent his message to a Gentile leper by the name of
Naaman. Do you know what happened? Look
here, if you will, in Luke 4, verse 28. And all they in the
synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath.
Why did they get mad? He just quoted their scripture. It was the Old Testament scripture. They had it in their Bibles.
They read it. Why did they get mad? Why were
they filled with wrath? And they rose up and thrust him
out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon
their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But now notice. he passing through
the midst of them went his way. That didn't happen just one time,
but several times in his ministry. Judas told this multitude, you
take him, you grab him, you get a hold of him. No doubt he had
seen the Lord Jesus Christ escape from stoning, from being murdered
several times. And always the reason was, His
hour was not yet come. His hour, the hour that God had
appointed from all eternity, the hour in which the Lord Jesus
Christ should give his life a ransom for many. And until that hour
came, men were impotent to do any harm to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I would say the same is true
of you and me. On God's calendar, there's an
hour. It's fixed. You and I, we don't
know it, and it's a good thing. But God knows the day, the hour,
the minute that we are going to breathe our last in this world. It's fixed. It's appointed. And as one old preacher said,
that's one appointment we're all going to keep. It's appointed
unto men once to die, but after this, the judgment. Judas said, you take hold of
him. Why did they get mad? Why did
they want to kill him that time? Because By his illustrations, he simply
showed what the Bible teaches, that God Almighty has a right
to do what he will with his own. We are his people. He made us. And he has a right to do with
his own what he will. The sovereignty of God. Why do
men hate the sovereignty of God? Religious men. Religious men,
they hate to hear that God Almighty is sovereign in creation. He didn't have to create. Sovereign
in providence. The fact that you were born in
this country at this time with the parents that he gave you,
all of that is according to his sovereign will. And if the Lord should save you,
it will be because of His sovereign grace. Men hate that. Men somehow feel that they need
to be in control. Listen, that's the spirit of
anti-Christ. That's the spirit of anti-Christ,
against Christ, that's already in the world, operating in the
world. Well, let's move on to my second
point. I said a whole lot more there
I had not planned to say. But I pray the Lord will bless
you. It was all true. It was all true. But I want us to turn now to John
chapter 18. I want us to look for just a
moment at the conduct of the Lord Jesus when they came to
arrest him. We have this in the first part
of chapter 18. I want to point out four things
here about his conduct. First of all, John's, I want
us to see John, the Apostle John, who was inspired and wrote this
narrative, John's confession of the deity, of the Savior,
that is His omniscience, or His omniscience, as some people pronounce
that. The fact that He knows all things. Notice that in verse four. Or verse, yes, verse four. Jesus
therefore, now this is John writing, Jesus therefore knowing all things. Now, that's one of the attributes
of deity, isn't it? To know all things. And I recognize
that what John had reference to here was limited in its scope
when he said, Jesus therefore knowing all things that should
come upon him. Now, John, what he writes here
is limited, but we know what he said here is true. It's true
in everything. John is speaking about his arrest,
his false judgment, his crucifixion, but we know that there's no limit
to his knowledge. Peter, the apostle Peter, later
confessed, Lord, thou knowest all things. There's so much. There's so much
about this physical creation, God's creation. There's so much. that men do not know and men
probably will never come to know. So much about it, but he knows
all things. There's nothing about creation
that he doesn't know because he is the creator of all things. By him, all things that were
made were made. He knows all things. Men speculate. It amazes me sometimes to hear
the ages that men come up with. I read an article just recently
about a part of a meteor that they found, this man found in
Australia, and they finally took it to somebody who's supposed
to know something, you know, and he said it's 400 and some
million years old. Now, how in the world does he
know that? I mean, just guess at it, right?
Just put along, man doesn't know. There's so much about this creation,
God's creation, that man doesn't know and will never know. I'm
glad we don't have to know that to know God, aren't you? We don't
have to understand all of that. But there's one thing we must
know, and that is that Christ is the only Savior. And He's
God's Son. He's the Savior that God sent
into this world to save sinners. We must know Him, whom to know
is life eternal. But He knows all things. The
scripture says, He knows the end from the beginning. Known
unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world. As
men, we wait upon God's providence. We see God's providence and we
recognize that what is taking place is the working out of God's
purpose, God's counsel that was made before the world began. We don't know his purpose, his
counsel until it's worked out in providence, but the Lord Jesus
Christ knows. He knows all things. Don't you
just love that Psalm 139 that speaks about the fact that he
knows our down-sitting, our uprising? There cannot be a word upon our
tongue but that he knows it altogether. John says, John testifies here
to his deity, he knowing all things. And then second, I want
you to notice that Jesus, the Lord Jesus, that he confessed
his deity. He asked the multitude, let's
read this here in John 18. Whom seek ye? Verse four. He
asked the multitude, this band of soldier, who are you looking
for? Who are you seeking for? And
they responded, Jesus of Nazareth. That's who we're looking for.
Jesus of Nazareth. He whose mother, Mary, still
lives here. He whose brothers and sisters
are still here. We seek Jesus of Nazareth. He who worked in the carpenter
shop. He who attended synagogue week
after week after week. Our Lord said, whom seek ye? Well, we seek Jesus of Nazareth. Who is Jesus of Nazareth? When
the Lord responded, he responded, I am. I am. Now we know, and the scripture
says they all just fell backwards. Just this confession of His deity,
I Am, and they were overcome by His power. I Am is the name
Yahweh, the name Jehovah that we speak about, and the Bible
reveals. And that name especially reveals
to us His eternity, His eternality. The God of the Bible, my friends,
is an eternal God. He's a living God, and He's a
covenant God. That name brings out the truth
that God is a covenant God. Whom seek ye? Jesus of Nazareth,
I am. And they all went back. Then notice here in John chapter
18, the surety's confession of the Father's gift. Jesus answered,
I have told you that I am. Now notice this, if therefore
you seek me, let these go their way, that the same might be fulfilled,
which he spake, of them which thou gavest me have I lost none. Now, we recognize that those
words especially are speaking of those 11 disciples. There's no question about that.
But they also show us the truth about God's everlasting covenant. That in that covenant, He was
given a people. And they were given unto Him,
and He to be their surety. Their surety. In Hebrews chapter
7 and verse 22, we read, by so much was Jesus made a surety
of a better covenant, a better testament. The Lord Jesus Christ
was given a people in that eternal covenant, and he was given to
be the surety for those people. Now, synonym for that word surety,
you don't see this anymore, But John Bunyan used this word, undertaker. And I like that. I like that
so much. Because when the life departs
from this body, who do you call? The body cannot do anything for
itself. It needs to be buried. It needs
to be washed and cleaned up and put in a casket and put under
the ground. But the body can do nothing for
itself. So the Lord Jesus Christ, as
His surety, He's the undertaker. He does for His chosen people,
those who were given to Him, what they cannot do for themselves. Does everything. Once the Father
gave His people to the surety, then God the Father looked to
Him. Look to Him, the surety, for
all satisfaction. For all satisfaction. They need
to satisfy God's justice. How are they going to do that?
In themselves, they can't do it. But oh, thank God for the
surety. The surety, yes. The Lord looked
to Him. God Almighty looked to Him. In
John chapter 6, our Lord said, All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. This pictures to us our Lord's
substitution. Let these go their way, that
the same might be fulfilled which he spake of them which thou gavest
me have I lost none. The Lord Jesus Christ is not,
is not, going to lose one of the sheep that the Father gave
unto him in that eternal covenant. He's going to appear one day,
and all of his children, we will appear with him, and he will
say unto the Father, Father, here I am, and the children whom
thou hast given me. And not one of them's going to
be missing, not one of them. You say, I sure would like to
know. I sure would like to know if I am one of those that the
father gave to his son. There's only one way to know. All that the father giveth me
cometh to me. That's the only way. Make your
calling and election sure. Have you come to, do you come
to Christ? You say, well, I came when I
was about 12 years old. No, I came this morning, didn't
you? To whom coming? To whom coming? Yes, there was
a first time when we came, when we looked to Christ, but we ain't
stopped looking since. Not if we've really come. To
whom coming? That's the only way anyone may
possibly know if he was given to the son by the father. But
know this, if you come to him, if you look to him, you say,
well, I think I do, but my faith is so small. Do you think you would even be
concerned about your faith if you didn't have faith? Do you? I don't think so. If you were
still dead in trespasses and sins, know the very fact that
you lament the fact that you don't trust Him more, that you
don't have greater faith. That's just evidence that you
do have faith, that you do believe in Him, that you were given to
Him before the foundation of the world, and that He has satisfied
God on your behalf. and that he is all your salvation. The fourth thing, notice here,
the great physician's power to heal in verse 10. You know, Peter,
like always, he was quick to react. And he pulled out his
sword and cut off one of the servants of the high priest,
one of his ears. You know, it's interesting to
know that of all four gospels, All four Gospels, they all tell
that Peter struck this man with his sword, but only one tells
us that the Lord healed this man. Can you imagine which one
it would be? Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John?
What was Luke? A physician. The beloved physician,
Paul calls him. He's the only one in his gospel
who tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ healed him who had his
ear cut off. The Lord Jesus is a great physician,
and he's the one who said, they that are whole need not a physician,
but they that are sick. What is required to be one of
his patients? Don't you want to be one of his
patients? He's a great physician. He's
never lost a case. Nothing's impossible for him.
Don't you want to be one of his patients? I sure do. Well, let me tell you something. He did not come to call the whole. because they don't need a physician,
but they that are sick. Are you sick? Well, physically,
I'm not talking about physically, I'm talking about spiritually. You have a problem, a sin problem? The Lord Jesus Christ, he only
takes those to be his patients who know that they have this
disease of sin. And he's the only remedy, and
his blood is the only curative. His righteousness alone justifies
before God. Well, I'm going to skip over
that third point. You folks are so good listeners. And I could finish this sermon,
but I'm not going to. Not today, at least. But next
time, the Lord willing, we'll look at his trial, if you could
call it a trial. But his arrest. I'm so thankful that he was taken
in my place, aren't you? Amen. We're going to sing a hymn.
Just as I am. You know, a lot of people think,
well, that's an invitation hymn. Well, Christ is the one who gives
the invitation. I like the words of this hymn.
Just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for
me. O Lamb of God, I come. As I said
a few minutes ago, we came, there's an original coming, I understand
that. But I want to come every day,
don't you? I want to come to that fountain every day and be
washed. I want to come to that robe of
righteousness every day to be clothed. I want to come to Christ. To know Him is to know the Father,
just as I am. Number 249, and let's stand as
we sing this hymn, number 249. Just as I am without one plea,
but that Thy blood was shed for me, that Thou bidst me come,
to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am, and waiting not,