Welcome to John's Gospel again this evening, and
we're up to the thirteenth chapter of John's
Gospel, and we're at chapter thirteen.
Last week we went from verse one right
down to the end of verse seventeen, and
tonight we start at verse eighteen, and we're
going down to the end of verse thirty.
Just thirteen verses this evening, and these verses
deal with our Lord Jesus Christ strutting in
the upper room with his disciples at the
Passover supper, and they deal principally with our
Lord exposing the traitor Judas.
And there are quite a number of things
that we need to say about Judas this
evening.
There are five things that I want to
underline for you in these thirteen verses.
First of all, I want to underline what
I'm calling the graphical exposure of Judas, something
that was done very definitely, very distinctly done,
this exposure of Judas.
And then I shall take a moment or
two, just a moment or two, to deal
with the facial expression of the disciples.
You see, when the Lord Jesus said in
verse twenty-one, "'One of you shall betray
me,' then, just at that moment, the disciples
looked one on another, doubting upon his face.
And there are quite a number of little
truths just cobbled up in that wonderful expression.
And they looked round at each other with
a doubt upon their faces as to who
the betrayer was.
And then I want to take a moment
in dealing with the informal expedient of Peter.
See, verse twenty-four, "'Simon Peter therefore beckoned
to John.' And when we come to that,
I think you'll see how informal it was.
I don't think that he spoke actually to
Peter, I think he just beckoned with his
hand and gave Peter the sign.
He gave John the sign to ask the
Lord Jesus, "'Who is it?' And then I
want to just take a moment or two
with what I'm calling the conversational experience of
John.
As he laid his head upon the Master's
breast and had this quiet, very intimate conversation
with him, where he gained the secret of
the Lord.
And then we shall finish with the final
exit of the traitor.
Verse thirty, "'He then, having received the stop,
went immediately out.' Subject words read, "'And it
was night.'" I want to underline these things,
there are many truths connected with them.
Now we'll start at verse eighteen.
You remember when last week we dealt with
the tender truth of foot-washing?
How the Lord Jesus had left them an
example that as he had done to them,
so ought they to do to one another.
And he ended that wonderful portion with these
words, "'If ye know these things,' verse seventeen,
"'happy are ye if you do them.'" And
then he just put this behind it, "'I
speak not of you all.
I know whom I have chosen.'" You see,
he wasn't speaking about future happiness for the
whole twelve, because he couldn't speak about happiness
for Judas, could he?
Because just a little bit ahead, just a
few hours ahead, he's dropping out of the
cage of Satan into the pit.
There's no happiness about that.
He said, "'I speak not of you all.
I know whom I have chosen.'" And I
don't think for a moment that the word
chosen here has anything to do with the
election of saints.
Usually when we talk about election of saints,
or the predestination of the sons of God,
well, it's always spoken of in the Scriptures
as being of God.
God hath chosen us in Christ, or we're
predestined according to the full knowledge of God.
You see, it is God who elects and
chooses us.
But when we come to service, and we
talk about the gifts in the church, or
even the calling of apostles, well, it was
our Lord Jesus who chose the twelve.
"'Have not I chosen you twelve, and one
of you is a devil?' So it is
not the election of sons of saints that
the word chosen is in connection with.
It's just the apostleship that he's thinking of
here.
"'Have I speak not of you all?
I know whom I have chosen.' "'But that
the Scripture may be fulfilled, he that eateth
bread with me hath lifted up his heel
against me.'" Now, he's bringing out the Scriptures
here.
Remember, our Lord Jesus knew the book wonderfully
well.
He's coming from the first, the forty-first
Psalm.
I want you to have a look at
it, because it is just a little bit
different there.
Just turn for a moment to the forty
-first Psalm.
On the way down in the Psalm there,
you'll find these words, verse nine.
"'They, mine own familiar friend, in whom I
trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath
lifted up his heel against me.'" Now, here's
something for the younger students in the class
this evening.
When you come to the Old Testament, and
especially to the Psalms and the prophecies, you
must always remember this, that there can be
to almost every passage, first of all, a
lecture and a historical background.
But it can go on down into the
deeper, spiritual truths, or prophetical.
You see, I believe this, that when the
psalmist penned these words, "'Ye, mine own familiar
friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat
of my bread, hath lifted up his heel
against me,' I believe that the psalmist was
thinking then, or writing then, of Ahithophel.
Remember that story in 2 Samuel 17, where
Ahithophel, David's own familiar friend, rebelled against him
with his son Absalom, and turned against the
king.
He was David's own familiar friend.
And now he was trying to put a
seal upon the king and crush him in
the dust.
That was actual and historical.
But you see the Lord Jesus fastening on
this truth, and he's taking it now into
a deeper depth.
And what the psalmist had penned here, he's
applying it now to Judas, with a right
application to.
Now, how can the Lord Jesus call Judas,
out of the twelve, my own familiar friend?
Very simple.
But it's a very wonderful thing.
You see, there were twelve apostles.
And when I was giving Bible readings here
on the tribes, I pointed out on more
than one occasion that eleven of the apostles
came from Galilee, came out of the two
tribes of Naphtali and Babylon.
Eleven of them came from Galilee.
And only one came from Judas.
In fact, he came from a place in
Judah called Karion.
That's why his name is Judas Iscariot, which
actually means Judah of Karion.
He is the one who came from Judah.
Now, our Lord Jesus Christ belongs to the
tribe of Judah.
And when they all walked together, here were
two from one tribe, Christ and Judas Iscariot.
And in that sense, he looks upon them
as his own familiar friend out of the
twelve, because he came from the same tribe.
My own familiar friend in whom I trusted.
You see, just in the very sense that
the master in any business has to trust
the servant, so our Lord Jesus trusted Judas.
And then he went on to say this,
Which did eat of my bread?
In fact, at the very moment that he's
looking back at this verse, Judas was at
the Passover table with him.
My own familiar friend has lifted up his
heel against me.
And the moment we touch the word heel,
we're beginning to see the horror and the
awfulness.
Of the deed that Judas was about to
perform.
You know, he was really going to put
his might on the very head of the
Lord and crush him into the dust.
The very thing that God had prophesied the
Lord would do with the devil.
The devil was going to use Judas.
Do it with the Lord.
It was a terrible deed.
And the Lord's beginning to expose it here,
first of all, from Scripture.
Let's get the hold of that.
Now go back to verse 18, where we're
out in John, and watch it now.
I speak not of you all, I know
whom I have chosen, but that the Scripture
may be fulfilled.
He that eateth bread with me hath lifted
up his heel against me.
Now, I tell you before it comes, that
when it come to pass, ye may believe
that I am.
And the word heel is in italics.
You see, the actual prophecy in the Old
Testament in the Psalms has a deep, messianic,
prophetical meaning.
And that's why the Lord went back to
the Psalms.
Oh, it may have an actual one as
far as David is concerned, and a historical
one as far as Ahithophel is concerned, but
it's got a messianic, unprophetical one as far
as the Lord and Judas is concerned.
And the fulfillment of that, he says, will
prove that I am the Messiah.
And it was just about to be fulfilled,
just there and then, six hundred odd years
later, here is the fulfillment.
And he's telling them now, I tell you
before it come, that when it is come
to pass, ye may believe, without any doubt,
that I am the very one spoken of
in the Old Testament.
Then he went on to say, verily, verily
I say unto you, he that receiveth whomsoever
I send receiveth me, and he that receiveth
me receiveth him that sent me.
And at first glance you would think I've
got no connection with anything in the chapter.
You see, I think it's connected like this,
and this is wonderful.
You know, the moment that the eleven apostles
became deeply conscious that one of the number,
one who had troubled with the Christ, one
who had plodded his feet, one who had
learned the deceit, was about to do such
a dastardly act, the whole apostles were being
thrown into confusion.
Who receiveth now?
Who has been good now?
He said, now just take your time, take
your time.
Just because this fellow has failed, and is
going to fail in such a terrible way,
he doesn't alter the commission, you know, that
I've given you fellows.
He says, verily, verily I say unto you,
he that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me,
and he that receiveth me receiveth him that
sent me.
You know, he's very wonderful here, he's very
careful with his own, isn't he?
He's got them round him in the upper
room, hasn't he?
And he's about to reveal now, in no
uncertain manner, that one of them is going
to be the betrayer, the traitor.
And he's very careful to point out, first
of all, this was told in the Old
Testament, and this will prove that I am
the Messiah.
And I want to tell you, this doesn't
alter your commission.
But very wonderfully what?
For our Lord is really wonderful.
He was very careful here, and very tender
with his beloved apostles.
Now, having touched the Word of God through
exposed Judas, the next word comes in verse
twenty-one.
When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled
in spirit, and testified and said, and
I think this must have been spoken with
emotion, verily, verily, I say unto you that
none of you shall betray me.
I want you to get that little bit
in before we go any further.
I want you to get that emotional saying
of the Saviour here, that is part of
the exposure of Judas.
I know the word from the Scriptures is
already there, but here is something that's coming
from the very innermost, moved soul of the
Master.
I say unto you that none of you
shall betray me.
And he was moved.
He was troubled, you know.
He wasn't troubled about what Judas was going
to do.
Not at all.
He wasn't troubled because the devil was working
overtime.
Not at all.
He was troubled because a man who had
stayed in his presence for three and a
half years was about to turn his back
on him and go to hell.
And some of you live with them and
they're going to hell.
But the Master was troubled.
My dear unseen friend, you get a grip
of it if the believers listen.
You get a grip of it.
He was troubled when Judas would go to
hell.
Don't you ever forget that either.
Aye, it wasn't anything nice to him that
Judas should do.
And just the way this saying came out
now.
You know, the exposition of Scripture didn't seem
to touch the Apostles.
Who considered the first Sam and Registrar Luke.
But when his soul is moved and it
comes out, none of you shall betray me.
My, that really caught them, didn't it?
And that brings us to that other portion.
Just leave it for a moment.
The twenty-second one, then the disciples Luke
one and another, doubting of whom he speaks.
Just leave that for a moment.
You can see that the Lord is exposing
Judas from the Scriptures and then by the
very saying from his own moved soul.
And then at last, not least, mind you,
he took the shop.
And he said to John, Whomsoever I give
the shop to, he's the betrayer.
And these three things are placed together to
expose the tricker.
You've got the unerring word of God.
You've got the saying from the moved soul
of the Master.
And you've got the shop handed over at
the Passover table.
And remember what a touch this was.
You know, even today at the Jewish Passover
supper, that the host puts the shop, just
a piece of broken unleavened bread into the
vinegar and hands it to any of the
guests.
Well, first of all, it's an honor to
whomever, whomsoever it's handed.
And it means this.
Should there be any one single thing between
us just now, I'm prepared to forgive you
right on the spot.
Mind you, when he quoted the Scripture, his
soul was moved.
And he handed over the shop.
And you put them all together and you've
woven the classical exposure of Judas.
Now, let's get this other little bit in.
That's the expression on the faces of the
disciples.
And it teaches us certain things.
Verse 22, Then, just at that moment, then
the disciples looked one on another, doubting of
whom is left.
Now, you would pass that by quickly, wouldn't
you?
There isn't much in it, so you would
think.
But it teaches us three things.
First one is this, that for three and
a half years, Judas has been inwardly thinking
of betraying the Master.
Yet, he is toyed of risk with the
idea of betraying Him and getting the silver.
But with all the evil that filled his
soul, he has successfully covered it from every
other above.
Then they looked one on another.
You know, if he had given it away
in any hint, or any word, or any
act in the last months, they would have
immediately turned and looked on him.
But they didn't, you know.
He was a success in covering his evil
from the other disciples.
And then, I think that secondly, it means
this.
You see, when the disciples turned and looked
one on another, you know, actually, Matthew puts
it like this.
They turned and looked one on another and
said, Lord, is it I?
They didn't say, is it Judas or not?
You know, each of them, the eleven, they
must have known that deep down in their
own hearts, they had never once thought such
a diabolical thought.
Never once.
And yet, now that the Master has said,
one of you shall betray me, they believed
his words, rather than the dictates of their
own hearts.
And that's to their credit.
Mind you, within the human breast, there's a
heart that would betray the Lord.
And there's enough left in every believer in
this meeting to do a diabolical act.
These men, why they believed his words, rather
than what their own hearts would say.
And another of them said, Lord, is it
I?
Would I do it?
I think this little look on each other
not only tells us that Judas succeeded in
covering his sin, and that the rest of
the apostles were prepared to take the Lord's
word against the dictates of their own hearts,
but it also tells us this, that the
Lord Jesus, the blessed Lord Jesus, right down
through three and a half years of walking
and working and toiling with Judas, had never
said one word or one hint to let
him know that the Lord Jesus turned an
angry eye on him.
But the patience, and the tenderness, and the
love, and the grace, and the compassion, and
longsuffering that was shown to all had been
shown just exactly the same to Judas.
What a Lord!
What a wonderful Lord!
The very fact that they looked one upon
another and said, Lord, is it I?
Teaches us that Judas had succeeded in covering
his diabolical act, that these men believed the
word of the Lord rather than what their
hearts would say, and that the blessed Lord
had been very tender and loving and compassionate.
I don't know how he was, but he
was.
My, if you thought that there was somebody
in the meeting who would betray you and
put you on the scaffold and offer your
life to the world in so many months'
time, how would you go on with them?
But the Lord went on.
And you'll see why as we get on.
Now, we're rushing it a bit because we
need to get into the depth of the
end.
I want you to notice next the informal
expedient of Peter who devised the way of
getting the secret of the Lord.
Now watch.
Verse 21.
When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled
in spirit and testified and said, Verily, verily,
I say unto you that one of you
shall betray me.
Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting
of whom he said.
Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one
of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.
John himself, he always puts his name in
like that, whom Jesus loved.
Simon Peter, therefore, beckoned, now watch the word
beckoned, beckoned to him that he should ask
who it should be of whom he speak.
And I think you'll need to get the
order up the table here before you get
the loveliness of this idea.
I think that you all know that at
the Passover table in those days, they didn't
sit on chairs round the table, you know.
They actually lay down and inclined on their
left arm and they took their foot with
the right, so that all of them were
lying on their left side.
If we take the Master as the principal
one at the feet, well, lying just in
front of him, of course, was John.
That was the place of privilege.
It doesn't mean that he was just leaning
on the Master's bosom all the time, but
he was there.
And when he wanted to speak to the
Master, he had to lean back and look
up, and he leaned on his breast.
Of course, I believe that behind the Master
was leaning Peter.
He was at his back.
And, you know, the moment the Master said,
one of you shall betray me, there was
quarrels.
But Peter was quickly back, but it was
only back then, you know.
And I believe that behind, behind, in front,
in front of John was Judas.
And he didn't speak to the Master.
You know, some of the old Protestant expositors
say this, that Peter couldn't have been the
first pope, because on this occasion he was
using the intercession of John to get the
answer of the law.
Another expositor said, Well, John was in his
boozing, but Peter was behind his back.
He was beginning already to follow apart off.
Now, I don't give very much for either
of the expositions, to tell you the truth.
We've got to face things honestly.
There's no use in running away with a
story and making something out of it that's
not really there.
Look, physically speaking, only one could be in
the place of privilege.
And physically there, John Ross, of course he
was.
Now, the question is still unanswered whether he
was...
Oh, I know that physically he was in
his boozing, but was he there spiritually?
Let me tell you, it was Peter.
I said, you ask him.
He jumped into the breach here, and it
was Peter, no matter where he was placed,
who thought the thought, and who beckoned with
the hand to get the answer of the
Lord.
You see, what I see in the thing
is, I see John in the bosom of
the Master, I do.
But I see Peter knocking at the Lord's
house door.
And what I believe is this, that both
of these things can be altered.
Spiritually, you can be near to the Lord
and get the answer if you're really in
touch.
And both should be you.
A very lovely little thing that was informal.
I don't think that Peter often did that.
It was doing something behind the Lord's back.
He was just battening with the hand.
It was an informal expedience.
But it really got the answer of the
Lord.
And then, watch again.
I think that we should notice John.
And the book says, verse 23, Now there
was ringing on Jesus' bosom, one of his
disciples whom Jesus loved.
Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him that he
should ask who it should be of whom
he spoke.
Then he then lying, that is him turning
around, you see, and lying on Jesus' breast,
said unto him, Lord, who is it?
He had the experience of being in the
near place.
Whether he was there spiritually or not, we
just cannot say.
But it is possible to be there spiritually,
you know.
It is possible to live in this world
down here below, that you can lean back
in the hour of need, and look into
the face of your beloved, and just ask
him for the very thing you want.
Oh, it is possible.
He experienced the near place, and then he
experienced leaning on his beloved.
I know that physically he did that.
I wonder, was he doing it spiritually?
You know, it is possible to be where
the bride was in the son of Solomon
in a spiritual sense, coming up out of
the wilderness, leaning on her beloved.
Stayed upon Jehovah!
What a place to live in.
And I will tell you this, if you
are actually leaning on him and looking into
his face, my, you are under the shadow
of the Almighty.
And I will tell you this, you will
get the secret of the Lord.
This is how it works, you see.
If you are spiritually in the near place,
where he filled your mind with peace, stayed
upon Jehovah, we get perfect peace.
He will fill your mind with peace, but
then he will fill your peace with his
mind.
Did you get that?
Because it is the mind that is at
peace in the near place, under the shadow
of the Almighty, that knows the mind of
the Lord.
Take off the mind of the Lord.
Did you get that, dear?
Because that is very important, you know, to
be where your mind is at peace, and
where the peaceful mind knows the mind of
the Lord.
Lovely, you know.
Now, we get on now.
I want to take time with this final
excerpt of the Seder.
Verse 26, Jesus answered, He it is to
whom I shall give a sop when I
object it.
And when he had dipped the sop, he
gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of
Simon.
And after the sop, Satan entered into him.
Actually, it means that Satan took absolute possession
of him.
How dreadful.
Then said Jesus unto him, Thus thou doest.
Do quickly.
Now, no man at the table knew for
what intent he speak this unto him.
For some of them thought because Judas had
the bag, that is, he was the treasurer
of the clout, that Jesus had said unto
him, buy those things that we have need
of against the feast, or that he should
give something to the poor.
He then, having received the sop, went immediately
out.
And it was night.
Why, those are four simple words.
And it was night.
Now, seasonally it was night.
Yes, it was night.
It was night-time, that's all about that.
In a seasonal sense, it was night, yes.
We know that.
But there's something deeper here.
The Spirit of God has put this very
powerfully.
Not only in a seasonal sense, but in
a spiritual sense.
Night has fallen upon his soul.
And not only in a spiritual sense, but
in a final sense, in an eternal sense.
He's gone out into eternal life.
No wonder the Lord was moved.
Let me tell some of you sinners this.
Let me tell you this.
That it is possible to rise from that
sickness this very night and turn your back
on the Savior of the world who's holding
out his hand to unite.
And know this, there's twice of us, and
there will never come a ray of light
to your soul again.
And you'll be left in your darkness to
dwell doomed and bound Why tell me this?
What terrible cases those were.
I can almost see him getting up from
the table.
Taking the last look at the Lord.
Turning his back.
He's down.
Oh, one saved friend in the meeting.
Go out slowly tonight, will you?
Go out slowly.
How horrible.
Now there are a lot of why's asked
about Judas.
I think this is the important part of
the subject now.
I think that there are more questions asked
about Judas than any other character in the
book.
Why was he chosen in the first place?
That's always a question.
Why did our Lord Jesus Christ choose Judas
and number him with the twelve?
Why?
Why was he sent out to preach when
they were sent out two by two?
Why?
Why was he allowed to continue for three
and a half years when right from the
very beginning the Lord knew he would betray
Him?
Why?
Why is all this recorded in the Old
Testament and is still numbered with the Lord's
disciples?
Why?
Oh, there are a thousand why's about Judas.
Let me try to answer some of them
for you and figure this thing out.
It must be time for this.
When our Lord Jesus Christ the Eternal Son
who was ever in the bosom of the
Father when the fullness of the time was
come came down lords and angels and took
upon them the form of a servant he
came into this world with this cry in
his lips I come to do thy will
O God and the first and foremost answer
is this that it was the will of
God that Judas should be numbered with the
twelve.
That would settle all arguments but God must
have had something in putting him there.
First of all, I think this that Judas
was placed there to prove to the world
mark that, to the world the submissiveness of
God's Son as the heavenly Jehovah.
God said, I want you to take Judas
I want you to put him under the
twelve and I want you to put up
with him for three and a half years
and at the end he'll betray you and
send you for thirty pieces of silk.
And the blessed Lord Jesus was submissive to
the will of God.
All this proves beyond any doubt how submissive
he was to the will of God.
Just because it was God's will he put
up with them.
I and he was tender to them and
he loved them and he blessed them and
he did a thousand things for them just
because he was submissive to the will of
God.
I think that God put Judas in there
not only to prove to the world the
submissiveness of his Son but to prove to
all in family the defectiveness of the human
heart.
I want you to get the hold of
this.
The heart that was in Judas as a
fallen son of Adam's wife is the very
same as the one that's in your breast.
A fallen creature.
And everything that Judas ever did and everything
that Hitler ever did and everything that Eichmann
ever did you could do.
And God is proving to all in family
that the heart in the human breast is
this peaceful above all things and desperately wicked.
Who can know it?
Only God.
Isn't this man of all the privileges there
was?
My, he sat for three and a half
years and listened to the Master preaching.
And he never heard anything in Morrigan like
that, you know.
For never man speak like this man.
And he sat for three and a half
years and he heard the greatest messages that
ever fell on a mortal ear.
And he sat for three and a half
years and he watched all the miracles.
My, he saw Lazarus coming out of the
grave.
He saw the storm hushed.
He saw the leper cured.
He saw the blind getting tight.
Oh, what privileges he had.
And then in the inner circle in the
shadows in the evening he saw the tenderness
and the loveliness and the graciousness.
And at the end of three and a
half years there's something in his breast that's
a good price on the cross.
And you're not a good bastard.
Not one bit.
That's why the Bible's emphatic about we must
be born again.
You need a new heart.
That old one's rotten.
We must be born again.
And if you're so big and stupid and
foolish and proud and stubborn to much that
you think, no, this is not me.
Maybe one of these days you'll wake up
to find it is in me.
That is, in my flesh dwelleth no good
thing.
Did you learn that?
But I think that God placed Judas there
not only to prove the submissiveness of his
son to the world and the deceptiveness of
the human heart to all in family, but
he put him there to prove the emptiness
of example for sinners.
Ah, this is the gospel, the preach now.
They say, you know, all you need is
an example.
Well, Judas said that's all right.
They say, you know, we should be lifting
up the Lord as an example.
Let the Pope see his grace.
Let the Pope see his love.
Let the Pope see his mercy.
Let the Pope see this, that, and the
other.
All we need is an example.
Well, here's a fellow who had it.
And he went to hell at the end.
Is that true, Stevie, that the example is
not enough?
Well, you're stupid if it doesn't.
I can't do very much for you.
You may only waste your time at the
class.
I beg of you to listen to this.
It is not an example from the life
of Christ the Trinity.
It's life from the death of Christ the
Trinity.
I'll say it again.
It's not an example from the life of
Christ that you need.
It's life from the death of Christ.
It's not Christ's life that you need.
It's Christ's life you need.
A sacrifice that can blot out your sin.
One that can meet the requirements of God.
An offering that can defeat Heaven.
Someone to rise in your favor.
That's what you need.
Have you got him?
Ah, it's a sacrifice.
Not an example you need, this fellow, but
all the examples that were going in his
head.
What is the accumulation you're speaking of?
I know it's not very obvious, is it?
Well, are you?
You're an example.
You're an imitation.
There's Judas.
There he is.
Three and a half years he's got and
then he's in Hell.
My dear friends, nothing can for sin atone.
Nothing but the bloody Jesus.
Unless it proves the emptiness of example to
sinners, doesn't it?
Then it should prove this, the subtleness of
Satan with those who are hesitating.
You know, for three and a half years
Judas had the opportunity of really giving his
heart and life to the Lord, but he
never did it yet.
Well, he wasn't saved at all.
Friends, there are people in this meeting, you
know.
Oh, I know I've got to say this,
and some of you are my best friends,
but I can't help it.
What can I do about it?
Listen, if some of you are in this
meeting, and you've been my best friend for
nine, ten years, and you're on your way
back home at this moment, and you think
you're clever too, I'll tell you this, the
subtleness of Satan I'll put some of you
in the picture.
You're not clever enough with Satan.
Go on, fiddle about with him for another
few moments, and you'll go to hell.
The devil lifted him out of the upper
room, you know, and took him out of
the Savior's presence and through the curtain and
down the road and into the pit.
And oh, my dear friend, if the old
arch enemy should put his hands on you
tonight, then God should let you go.
In spite of all the tears and prayers
and tributes...
Remember, there's a subtle enemy in here, and
he was in the upper room too.
I think God put Judas in there to
prove the submissiveness of his son, and to
prove the deceptiveness of the human heart, and
to prove the emptiness of example for sinners,
and to prove the subtleness of Satan, and
to prove the awfulness of turning your back
once more on Christ.
Oh, I said this at the beginning, and
I'll say it again.
I'm trembling, you know, tonight.
Friend, you could turn into the aisle and
turn your back on Christ who died in
Calvary this very night in August for the
very, very, very last time.
If you get it into your mind tonight,
that you can go out through that door
tonight for the last time, and it can
be written over your tombstone, and it was...
Now the problem really starts, doesn't it?
If God testified, and he did, if God
testified in many of the Psalms, I've only
looked at one of them, you can look
at the rest of them.
I'll not take the time I was going
to do that.
If God testified in many of the Psalms
that this one would lift his heel against
Christ, and that he would fail a master
for thirty pieces of silver, and that he
would go by his own transgression down into
his own place and be the son of
perdition.
If God said that in the Psalms six
hundred years before this man was born, tell
me this!
Can he do anything else?
Tell me.
Did God tell him?
Don't you ever believe that?
Now you watch this bit carefully, and you
young ones watch it, because you can't repeat
this every day, you know.
And one day you'll come round and ask
me the question, and I'll know right where
you were sleeping in the Bible class.
I was preaching one evening some years ago
at a certain place from a text from
John 13.
It was the text in verse 27, where
the Lord Jesus leaned over to Judas and
said unto him, That thou doest do quickly.
And I preached on the choice that Judas
had.
And I preached about the choice that this
man had and the choice that this man
made.
And I'd only got down from the platform
and into the little vestry when a very
able high school master, the master of the
high school, came in and said, I said,
Willie, you talk the greatest lot of nonsense
I ever heard anybody talk.
I said, that's all right.
Sit down for a minute.
He was a friend of mine.
He'd come to tell me what he thought,
and I appreciated that every bit of it.
I said, what's up with you?
He said, you know, you were talking about
the choice that Judas had.
And you must know that God prophesied 600
years before he was born that he would
go that way.
He said, I know that God prophesied that
he would go that way.
He said, if God's word is infallible and
God's word is impregnable and unchangeable, well, where's
the choice for the fellow?
Where's the choice?
I said, you know, master, you're all wrong
in this thing.
You're that stupid you can't see it.
All right, I said, it's your turn to
give me more light.
All right, I said, we'll do it this
way now.
I said, we'll look at our watches.
And it was twenty past nine.
Twenty past nine.
I remember it all right.
I said, master, it's twenty past nine and
I'll say I'm God.
I'll pretend I'm God.
And just being God, I know all that's
going to take place this night and every
other night, don't I?
And I'm going to make a prophecy for
two hours later.
I'll say, master, two hours later there will
be a car smash at the crossroads.
Two hours later.
We'll write it down.
We'll write the prophecy up.
That the car coming up Union Street and
one coming down Market Street will have a
smash at the crossroads.
Two hours later.
Now, I said, we'll go up and stand
on the footpath and watch it happen.
And we stand there and it's coming very
near the time.
It's a quarter past eleven and it's going
on and exactly at twenty past because I
was God and I knew.
A car came up Union Street and one
came down Market Street.
Now, I said, didn't I foretell that?
I said, where do you see the police
coming up?
And they won't bother their head with me,
you know.
Who are they going to blame for this?
Did my foreknowledge and foretelling alter the rules
of the road?
Did my foreknowledge and foretelling take the wheel
out of either of their hands?
Did my foreknowledge and my foretelling do away
with their responsibility of driving?
My dear friends, by foretelling it doesn't mean
to say that you've put the fella in
the pit where he can't do the thing.
You've just foretold that he won't do the
thing and there's all the difference between can't
and won't.
And I looked into his eyes and I
said, a high school master should know that.
He said, you know, I never saw that.
He's very honest about that.
He said, I can see now that foreknowledge
and foretelling never altered a man's responsibility.
Of course God knows who will go to
heaven in this meeting.
Of course God could write down every name
of every soul that will go to hell
in this meeting.
But just because God could do it doesn't
do away with your responsibility.
It's only that he knows what you do
with your responsible position.
He didn't make it that you can't.
He just knows you won't.
Can you see that?
Friend Judas had a choice.
He was a human being.
And I believe the Lord went the last
mile with him when he handed over the
shop and said, look, even at this moment
although you've made up your mind to reject
me and despise me and sell me and
betray me, you're trickery.
Even at this moment, look, I'll forgive you.
He was going the second mile.
And if I'm not mistaken, he's gone almost
the second mile with somebody in this place.
Friend, we're going to bow our heads and
then we're going home.
You are the saved ones.
Go out safely.
Let us pray.
Oh God, we confess we're afraid.
And what more can we do?
Lord, we just rest on the fact that
Thou art God.
And we ask Thee to deal with every
unsaved soul in the meeting, with every soul
that's not really sure of where they're going.
And oh God, tonight we pray that Thou
would bring man to kneel before the Savior
and expect to grant more that even the
retelling of this dreadful, horrible story might bring
glory to Thy name and salvation to others.
Pass us in Thy fear and with Thy
blessing through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.