Luke 13, excuse me, John 13, 25. Then leaning back on Jesus' breast, he said to him, John, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, it is he to whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have dipped it. And having dipped the bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. Now after the piece of bread, Satan entered him. Then Jesus said to him, what you do, do quickly. but no one at the table knew for what reason he said this to him for some thought because Judas had the money box that Jesus had said to him buy those things we need for the feast or that he should give something to the poor having received the piece of bread he then went out immediately and it was night you may be seated may the Lord bless his word to our hearts as this morning while you're being seated I'm also going to read Matthew The 26th chapter, one verse that the two other gospel writers include at this very moment. John undoubtedly knew that this was here. And so he did not repeat it, but I'm going to read Matthew 26, 23, and actually we'll read through 25. He answered and said, he who dips his hand with me in the dish will betray me. The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of him. But woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been good for that man if he had not been born. Then Judas, who was betraying him, answered and said, Rabbi, is it I? He said to him, you have said it. May the Lord bless his word to our hearts. Let's pray together and ask the Lord to bless us. Father, we thank you for your goodness to us. and ask that you would teach us this is a sober and yet a glorious passage of scripture so Lord come by your spirit and preach your own grace to us we ask in Jesus name Amen we need to consider the dark path of a reprobate man obviously if you see in the bulletin that the sermon title is Judas Iscariot it's going to be all cotton candy and it's going to be sweetness and light no it's a serious it's a serious moment in the history of redemption And certainly a serious moment in Judas's life. So we're going to talk for a minute. How did Judas get here? What was his path? Why was it so dark? Then we're going to look at that verse that is shocking that I just read to you in Matthew 26, 24. That it would have been better had that man never been born. That in itself is worthy of consideration. And then we're going to look at what it meant that Judas left Jesus and why Jesus has a moment of peace when he does leave. May the Lord bless his word to our heart. Let's look for a moment at the dark path of a reprobate man. How did Judas get here? Earlier in Galilee, you may remember in John 6, the Lord asked to his disciples, or said to his disciples, have I not chosen you twelve and one of you is the devil? John chapter 6 verse 70. I wonder if Judas may have cringed a little bit when he heard this. Did the eleven cringe? The others? You know, when the Lord speaks we should examine our hearts. and ask him to examine our hearts, but apparently no one did. Would we? I mean, do we respond now to gospel warnings or go on our way like the Pharisees? Have I not chosen you twelve and one of you is a devil? That's serious. The devil is a very real enemy, Peter would later write, and he seeks to devour us and for us to hear that a professing follower of Jesus Christ is actually a devil, should shock us into honest self-examination and calling upon the Lord to search us and know us. This is not just Judas. A devil pretending to be a disciple is found whenever anyone like Judas is contented with external and cultural godliness but never coming to Jesus to ask the Savior to break your will. to break your own mind from the darkness and to bring you into the light. Devils pretending to be disciples shield themselves from the light and will not have their dark places examined and confronted by the word. Our Lord taught that in John 3.19 that those who are in the darkness hate the light and they won't come to the light lest their darkness should be exposed. Remember externalism, looking good on the outside but inside being a rotting corpse. This is Satan's religion. It's not God's. Paul would later describe it as a form of godliness, but without any power to transform the mind, the will, and affections. But here's something that I think we ought to know. I don't think Judas thought of himself as a devil. I think Judas sincerely, as he then understood his own heart, followed Jesus. He was born probably about the same time as our Lord. His parents probably saw in him some indications of maybe future greatness and usefulness. Judas was born in a time, like all the disciples were, of political upheaval and messianic expectation. Remember, they all had Daniel 9. They knew that the 70 weeks was over with, and assumed that great events were afoot. Then they heard about that wild man preaching in the wilderness, whose name was John. And one day he pointed out the Lamb of God, and many became his followers. And over the next months, the Lord chose his 12 disciples. Why would he choose Judas? Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? Why? I don't know. I don't know that we should delve into the secret things, but it's enough to know that the Lord did choose Judas. Yes, there's Psalm 41.9, which we've already looked at. But I think he also was giving Judas every opportunity to face his demons and respond to the love and grace Remember, God's sovereignty does not at all diminish that God rules over everything. You can't say, therefore I don't have personal choice and responsibility. Actually, it's just the opposite. Because God is sovereign and rules over everything. Your personal choices, my personal choices are extremely significant. So use your opportunities wisely and hear God's word humbly. We know God has a plan. And he uses means to accomplish that for good or evil. But Judas was chosen. And Judas began to hear things from the mouths of Jesus. Initially it was the flush of excitement and here's John pointing out this Messiah and he saw miracles and he was there at Cana in Galilee at the wedding and saw the water turned into wine. He saw the healing of the nobleman's son. This was great. But he also saw some things that were very different from the worldly expectations, the kingdom expectations. He saw a modesty in Jesus. He saw a humility in Jesus that was very different from his own self-serving heart. It probably began to be repulsive to him. Most Jews in that day were like a lot of Americans today and even some surface Christians. They want peace and prosperity. They want the bad people, then the Romans, now fill in the blank. They want the bad people driven out of the land. But they didn't want their own heart's sins dealt with. They thought of God's kingdom as outward prosperity, general morality, cultural religion. We hear calls for that today. Just give us a cultural Christianity. But our Lord was exploding these myths and these lies. Judas heard him talk about repentance and the new birth and the Holy Spirit. And what in the world did Jesus mean by loving one's enemies and forgiving? I mean, he heard parables that would have greatly unsettled the idols of covetous and worldly fame in his own heart. But then something happened at Bethany. You may remember that Here Judas is approaching his personal crack of doom and Jesus called him out in front of the other disciples because while Mary was washing Jesus' feet, Judas rebuked her for wasting her money. You know, he could not appreciate open shows of affection for Jesus. And he certainly didn't like the thing of so much money being washed down the proverbial drain and lost to the common purse, which as we learned from John, he evidently treated as his own personal wallet. Such close exposure to the truth troubled Judas. It didn't gain his heart. He didn't want to open his heart to the Lord. He began to set up walls. He began to be suspicious. He began to fear exposure. He was like those who hear sermons condemning sin that lurk in their own hearts. But instead of running to Jesus for cleansing, they either turn on the preacher or even turn on Christ himself. And reshape Jesus to allow them to keep their idols and their sense of well-being. Of course, this is like walking on the edge of a cliff. It's only going to last until a crisis comes. And Judas has now came, as we turn to our text in John 13. But sometime between Bethany and where we are in the upper room that night, Judas made his deal with the Jewish leaders. Remember this was prophesied in Zechariah chapter 11. But would Judas follow through with his bargain? You know, he was stewing on these things that night and being driven by his evil heart. That night was one of the most unpleasant of Judas' life. Jesus was washing the disciples' feet, including Judas', and Judas must have... What a fool Jesus is. I mean, now is the time to be sharpening swords and planning the assault on the royal palace. And what is he doing acting like a slave? This is not the Messiah. This is a milk sop. This is a weakling. He ought to be with the women, not with the big boys. Judas was like many, I have no doubt today, who want to do something and want to do it now. But again, being strangers to the real kingdom dynamics of love and mercy and godliness, they prefer the pseudo-masculine virtues as the way to advance God's kingdom. They trust violence and want to meet fire with fire and line everybody up and shoot it out. They do trust the wrath of man to accomplish the righteousness of God. They know little of the power of prayer and the power that you have of individual influence through your gospel witness. The power that you and I share together in union with Christ of personal obedience and consecration to him that Satan himself cannot overthrow. Judas is looking at all this and he's thinking it and suddenly he hears this. We looked at this last week. One of you will betray me. And it must have shocked him back to reality. I mean, he must have been sweating and squirming. Maybe he was not even thinking of moving forward with his plan that night. We don't know. But now Judas knew at some level he was discouraged. He was found out. He was discovered. Jesus knew him. He had to leave. The light became unbearable. And then, to make matters worse, Jesus gave the direct sign that the betrayer is whoever I give this sop of bread to. And he gave it to Judas. This is too much. Judas, I think, was thoroughly alarmed at this point for the wrong reason. John knows. John's sitting right there. Probably Peter, who is catty-cornered at the U-shaped table. And then he hears that verse that we read from Matthew 26. Whoa, it would have been better had that man never been born. And he could not stand the pressure. He feared the light. He hated the light. And there, dark Satan entered. into Judas, listen closely, not to begin, but to complete his apostasy from Jesus. You see, Satan enters a man, listen, this is where Judas I think is, we need to use him, he's in hell, he's lived his life, but what do we learn from this? Satan enters into a man when he learns to live with the evil in his own heart. Satan enters into a man when confronted with his evil as Judas was. A man does not turn to Jesus. But he turns either to himself, maybe to the bottle, maybe to sexual indulgence, drugs, whatever it may be. Satan and darkness enter into a man, I pray none of us, When we resist the light for so long that we begin to hate the light. Now Satan entering into Judas doesn't excuse Judas for his betrayal. It actually intensifies Judas' guilt. Because the reason Satan entered into Judas is because Judas rejected Jesus. Judas actually, I think, rejected Jesus the moment he began to follow him. But really began to understand what he was all about at some level. The rejection intensified over time. It became more self-conscious and then developed into full apostasy. Why did I read Philippians 2 this morning? Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Because the sin of apostasy is not created. The sin of turning away from Christ, denying Him, is not... This doesn't happen in an hour, but it happens over time. in the face of many opportunities to turn to the Lord. The sin of apostasy is not committed when a sudden temptation comes upon you and you fall and yet you want to run back to Christ. But the sin of apostasy is a prolonged rejection of offered truth and grace. Jesus reaching out his hand to you by his word and by other believers but our pushing his hand away. The devil is only too willing to enter into a heart made cold toward Jesus by the love of self, lust, the world, money, whatever. Rejection of mercy and the fear of exposure. Again, the devil entered into Judas because Judas forsook the Lord. And as John says very dramatically in verse 30, when Judas received the piece of bread, he went out and it was night. Now this is where somewhere in here, back to look at Matthew 26 for just a couple of minutes. I think this is important for what will come up in the next verses in John. This is where the Lord Jesus says, the Son of Man goes as it is written, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It had been better for that man if he had not been born. Can you imagine those words coming from the mouth of our Savior? Son of man. Everybody turn if you have a Bible and you're able. Daniel 7. Let's see where this comes from and just make a few comments about this. Because in John 13, 31 and 32, which we'll look at the next time I'm with you here in the morning, Jesus draws on this. Daniel sees this vision in Daniel 7.13, I was watching in the night visions and behold one like the Son of Man. coming with the clouds. He came up to the Ancient of Days and they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed. What does Daniel see here? Daniel sees the Son of Man coming up to the Ancient of Days and receiving a universal eternal kingdom. Now our Lord gave himself that name which means that he sees himself and saw himself as the one to whom Daniel was talking about. And what does that mean? Upon our Lord's completion of his sacrifice he went up to his father and received the kingdom promised to him. If you'll turn to Acts 2, that's why we reject in our reformed history of doctrine this idea that Jesus is a king and waiting until he comes and sets up some earthly geopolitical kingdom in Palestine which gives rise to all the false Zionism that we hear in our culture. No, this is what scripture teaches about this. Acts 2 verse 30 Verse 29, men and brethren let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David that he is both dead and buried and his tomb is with us today therefore being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body according to the flesh he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne he foreseeing this, David, spoke Concerning the resurrection of Christ that his soul was not left in Hades nor did his flesh see corruption and here's Peter This Jesus has God raised up of which we are all witnesses therefore being exalted present tense to Peter to the right hand of God And having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which you now see and hear. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself, the Lord said to my Lord, Psalm 110, 1 and 2, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. So who is Jesus? He is the exalted Son of Man, who having laid down His life on the cross, has gone up to the Ancient of Days, His Father, and received the kingdom promised to Him, and He is reigning at the right hand of the Father. Now what a contrast to Judas. Jesus Christ, what does it mean for Him to be the Son of Man? This would be worthy of a whole series, but I'm just going to give you a few ideas. I think, first of all, it means He's a real man. It means he's the true man. It means that he's man as man should have been. The perfect man. The man true to God and thus true to man as God's image bearer. And as the perfect man, he's able to be what? Our mediator and our representative. And to be obedient. But also as son of man, he's more than a man. Because only God himself could go up to God and offer a sacrifice that would be acceptable for our sin. So he is the God-man who now appears in the presence of God for us. So the Son of Man implies a variety of ideas, the perfect man, the true man, the representative man who appears in the presence of God for us and he can do that because he is the God-man, the eternal Son of God who took a human nature to himself to be the only mediator between God and man. And the Lord says to Judas, who is still there at this moment, and he warns him and he says, it was prophesied that the son of man would be betrayed. But notice what he says there in Matthew 26. He says, verse 24, woe, woe to that man. Woe is a word that means doom. He says, see the horror of one who professed to be the friend and follower of the Son of Man, the perfect man, the exalted man, the God-man. See the horror of him promising to be Jesus' follower but betraying him into the hands of sinners. It would have been better had he never been born. I want us to stop here for just a second. I don't think there's a worse curse that could ever be pronounced from the mouth of the Son of God in our flesh, the Son of Man, No worse curse. Judas was born, however, and the curse fell upon him. He was a false son of the kingdom. He was a professor, someone who professed loyalty to Christ, but he betrayed the Son of Man with a kiss. He was a hypocrite. He wore a mask on his words, on his heart, on his face to hide his true state. He ate and drank with Jesus. But he lifted up his heel against him. Jesus washed Judas' feet, but Judas then trampled upon Jesus with those very feet. Never a heart became so black. If Jesus is the son of man, you know who Judas is from the mouth of our Lord. He's the son of perdition. This is what man, abandoned to his sin, becomes when he turns away from the light. So Judas is the anti-son of man. He remains a warning to each one of us. Many have asked the question from this text, would it have been better had we never been born? Now as I ask just for a minute, go down this line of thought, please understand something. Jesus had the 11 hear this. He didn't say, hey guys, I've got something really hard to say to Judas, so y'all go wait outside for a minute. He wanted them to hear this. And I think we need to hear this because we're told to work out. Why are we told? Why aren't we told to work out our salvation with cartwheels and giddiness? Work out your salvation with teacups and flowers on the table and sweet smelling coffee because that's exactly what it'll be like when you stand before God on the day of judgment. No, it's because it's with God we have to do. And so when we see this in Judas and we hear this curse, Are we false professors? I pray no one's here. I suspect no one. That's not the point of this. But again, it's for each one of us to examine our own hearts. Are we true in devotion to our Lord? Or have we become religious? Many have. To hide and practice our lust, our covetous, our pride. Do we like for other people to praise us as good people? In fact, we're more like Judas, a serpent at the table, or as Jude wrote, a blight on the love feast. You know, if you'll go to John 13 for just a moment, it seems like he breathed so much more easily for a moment when Judas left. We'll look at these verses next time. But notice in verse 31 of John 13, so when he had gone out, Jesus said, Now the Son of Man is glorified. Our Lord breathed a little easier when Judas left the room, at least for a moment or two. A heavy weight was temporarily removed from his soul and he could talk freely to his disciples about glory. I've asked myself before, do I make true believers sad? Judas did, particularly as they came to understand his life among them. Let me ask you a question, young people. It's interesting, isn't it, that the Proverbs say continually that a wise son or daughter makes his father and mother glad. When you walk into your room, does your dad brace himself? Does your mom brace herself and say, what's going to happen now? We have to be careful. Rebellion is nothing to be laughed at or dismissed. Do you make your parents sad by your rebellion? Or do you profess in Christian parents because we're warned on our side not to exasperate our children and make following Jesus look like misery? Beware this word of woe. I say this only because I love you. It is better never to have been born than to act the part of a friend of Jesus, but to be in heart a hater of his doctrine. I pray it's true of none of us. But we're supposed to examine ourselves and work out our salvation with fear and trembling. As I said a moment ago, this is hard to hear, but our Lord let the 11 faithful disciples hear this word of woe. Listen, He knew the only way. for our birth to be blessed as if our lives are saved. And he would rather, as John Flavel said, he would rather have us grown a little bit now when we face our sins than howl later. when he rips off the hypocrite's mask and sends him to hell. I pray there's none here. I don't think of you as this at all and I pray for all of you. But please hear this woe and turn and examine yourself. Turn to 1 Corinthians 11 31. We don't hear this today because we're told we're okay, we're all okay. Everything I want to do must be good because I want to do it. 1 Corinthians 11 31. This is in the message on the Lord's Supper that Paul was giving to the Corinthians. He says in verse 29 of 1 Corinthians 11, he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself. Can you imagine Paul, oh I'm sorry if I made you feel bad by writing that. Not discerning the Lord's body. Verse 30, for this reason many are weak and sick among you, and weak and sick in many sleep, many have died. Look at verse 31. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. You know, when we pray, one of the things that we need to pray, we need to have praise in the Lord. Make sure when you pray, you don't just start in like, you know, God's genie in the sky. You make sure you praise the Lord. Make sure you give him thanks. And make sure you say, Lord, search me and know me. Okay, I can confess what I know, but I don't want the dark places in my heart. I don't want to be a false professor of you. Ask yourself, had it been better if I had not been born? Have I encouraged those around me to love the Lord Jesus? When you stumble into sin, do you run back to Christ and confess it to him? Does your life show? Does my life show? Please pray for me. I'm supposed to work out my salvation. with fear and trembling. Do our lives show the Savior's love and grace? Do we love Him for dying for us? Judas was right there. He heard many of the same sermons that you hear now in the Word. He heard them live. And the more he heard, the more he hated. Until finally, living with his sin for so long, it took hold of him. Let me encourage you. Let me encourage you. to give your life to the Lord Jesus Christ. Ask Him as we sing in the hymn, Lord take my life and let it be consecrated to you. Pray daily for Him, Lord get rid of the idols of my heart. Maybe your idol is nothing more complicated than you're just mentally lazy. And I just want to be left alone Lord. I don't want to think about these serious things. My mom and my dad are reading the Bible to me and I'm like, Yeah, mm-hmm, yeah, mm-hmm. What did you learn in Sunday school? What did you hear from the sermon? Oh, God, okay. That's fine when you're two, but when you're 12 or 14 or 18, it is time for you, my young friend, to give yourself to Jesus Christ. And allow no root of bitterness, allow no idol of your heart to say, you know what, I'm willing to go this far, but no farther in my service to Christ. Say, Lord Jesus, you get all the false views out of me. You get everything about Judas out of me. If only Judas had heard the woe and turned to Jesus. But he didn't. He left him and went out into the night. And he remains in blackest darkness at this moment reserved for judgment. You will see him on judgment day. Don't join him. Now the disciples are confused by all this in John 13. They're very confused. They're not complicit but they're confused and even terrified by one of you will betray me. And even when the Lord identified Judas as his betrayer and he left they had no real idea. Notice what John says. Maybe he's gone to give something to the poor. Verse 29. Maybe he's gone to buy more supplies. Maybe John connected what Jesus did and said with Judas and betrayal. But it's not easy to identify false disciples. So don't be tricked by your own heart. Please stay with me a little bit longer. It's not easy to identify false disciples. It's not easy sometimes. They're not even known to themselves. And we don't need to be setting up our own little test to see who's true and false. But we should always examine ourselves. And there's one clear way. Look in Matthew 7. And this is for all of us. And it's not just the external, but it's also the internal heart. Because when Jesus comes to us and saves us, and he'll save you, so come to him. And ask him to save you and wash away your sins. He works a real change in us. Notice what he says here to these false ones, like Judas. I won't read the whole thing. You know it well. Matthew 7. Many will come in my name. I did all this. And notice what Jesus says in verse 23. And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Maybe a minute or two of brass tacks. What is it to practice lawlessness? Well, it's Sunday, but I really don't want to go to church. But I have to because my parents are making me. You're practicing lawlessness in your heart. Because heart lawlessness says, even if I'm externally forced to do something that's right, but my heart is bucking out there like a wild pony. And when only I get my freedom, I'm going to do exactly what I want to do. Understand, you're practicing lawlessness in your heart. And this was Judas's issue. Judas looked the part. They didn't look at Judas and say, oh yeah, Judas is the betrayer. We should have seen it all along. They didn't do that. But there was in his heart, just like there is in the heart of every false professor, that we are warned to examine ourselves to see if we're true and to judge ourselves. There is a heart compliance. Wives, when you know you have to obey and give respect to your husbands, it's like, well, I'm respecting him, but boy, I sure do hate it. He's not worthy of it. And husbands, you know you better love your wife and speak kindly to her because if you don't, there's going to be you-know-what to pay. Emotional backlash, that's lawlessness. That is heart lawlessness. So you're 18 or 21. 23, whatever it is, and you're like, well, I know I better obey my parents because I want to eat. But I can't wait. Please understand, this is how we know our heart. Is there an inner compliance to, I want to do God's Word. I want to obey God's will. And when I don't, because none of us is perfect and we're going to fall flat on our face all the time. But when I don't, I go back to Christ and I'm asking for forgiveness. Judas was, Judas Here's the sop, Judas. Here's the warning, Judas. Hello. And Judas's heart is just black and dark. And he's woven this web of self-deceit. And he just goes out and we'll meet him in a few hours. And he comes up and kisses Jesus right on the cheek and says, Hail, Master. How do we know that? Is there inner heart? Do I love to think when the preacher says, hey, you know, you really ought to be meditating on scripture. Do you hear this other voice in your head? Awah, awah, awah, awah, awah. Okay, yeah, I'll do that when I'm 100 and I don't have any energy left. But right now I can memorize every baseball statistic and who won every game and at every video game level. But suddenly when it comes to scripture, there's like, well, I know he told me that the only way I was really going to overcome heart lust is if I saturate my mind with God's word. But I don't really want to do that. You know, right there, lawlessness is ruling your mind. And so the warning comes to us in your breathing, so there's still the chance to come to Christ. The inner lawlessness, the inner, I know what I'm supposed to do, but I don't want to do it. That is dangerous. Don't feed that. Stop it tonight. Ask God to forgive you and help you. But then if you're struggling another side of this, and you know, you're like, Lord, like Paul in Romans 7, the good that I want to do, I don't do. And the evil that I hate, I find myself doing. I can just encourage you and say, just keep coming to Christ. He will have mercy upon you. He will help you. He will forgive you. You're not a Judas because you want that inner, Oh Lord, I look forward to that day when there's no other voice, there's no other law in my members. Romans 7, trying to take dominion of me. I look forward to that day when I obey you with unfettered heart, unclouded mind, unbucking will, and I'm dedicated to serving you. That's our goal. That's what Judas teaches us to seek from the Lord Jesus Christ. And I encourage you to do this as I encourage myself because, and I'll conclude with this, you know, the only place you would ever find a Judas is in the church. You'll never find a Judas out in the world. If the world ever appropriates this metaphor, it's a false appropriation. Now it's not that other professing believer that we can fulfill Psalm 41.9. That was specifically about Judas. But only the church can produce false professors, false disciples of whom it could be said it would have been better for them had they not been born. Why is that? Judas would never have acted as he did and been driven to the extremes that he was driven to had he not become disgusted and truly alienated from the person and work of Jesus Christ. This is why in our culture, some who are exposed to sound doctrine for a time, and then they grow up, they become its loudest critics. Oh boy, I tell you what, there are websites galore. Hey, have you been abused in this church? Have you been under this kind of rule? Oh, come tell us, you poor soul. Sometimes those who have godly parents, they're not perfect. No parents ever have been. You will not be if you live that long. Some use their godly parents' sins as an excuse to rebel completely against Christ. See, this is part of the Judas woe. Many of our culture's proudest scoffers once sang in church choirs and had Christian parents. Perhaps their version of Christianity was warped and had a lot of holes in it, but instead of leading them to seek out the true, it turned them to the world. Brothers and sisters, we are saved by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Peter would deny the Lord, but the Lord prayed for him. So let me encourage you to take yourself to Christ. Believe in him, receive his truth, rest upon his person and word. Every sermon you hear, examine your heart and say, Lord Jesus, form your kingdom in me. Remove the idols of my heart. Remove my hard, lawless heart that we become so good in the church over time Again, we have good seasons. And again, I'm not saying any of this to you because I think poorly of you, but because I think so good of you and so well of you. Here, repent. Keep coming to the light. Don't let the darkness around you keep you from coming to the light. Keep coming to Christ. Ask Him to show you if you're true. Let me give you the hard side of that. Ask the Lord Jesus to show you if you're false. This is the healthiest desire in the world. Lord, show me now. If we're false, we want to know it, don't we? Because only the Lord Jesus can make us true. And it's in this way that we work out our salvation with fear and trembling and Judas did not. and he was lost forever. But you know the problem with a lot of sinners? A lot of sinners don't want to know that there's anything wrong with them. They're like the guy who goes to the doctor and he has all these tests and he's like, hey, could you just keep it in a file drawer? Because I really don't want to know because if I don't know it can't hurt me. And a lot of times we're like that. And I know it's like, oh man, he preached a heavy one tonight on Judas Iscariot. Why did he preach on Judas Iscariot? Because Because children of the light, when we come to the light, and I'm just sharing my own heart here with you on this, it hurts. Because there's things in us as Christians that are not good, that we don't like, and that we hate, and that we don't want to play pretend and cover up about. Willfulness, worldly affections, lust, lies, go down the list. I mean, find any character in the Bible you want to. And they have major problems. But what does a Christian do? He limps even if he just limps. Even if he's just Bartimaeus calling by the side of the road. Son of David have mercy upon me. Keep calling on the Son of God. Keep calling on Him. Encourage your children to call upon Him. Encourage your children not to push the Lord away and don't settle into this kind of, well I'll hear mom and dad's rebukes and their instruction but I'm really not going to do anything with them. Oh, that is the path to woe. Because when we're in the light, we want to come to the light. We must come to it and respond to it and believe it and obey it. And when we find so much weakness in us, we come to the great physician. You know, it's kind of tragic, isn't it, that the last one to speak that night at this stage in the dinner was Judas. And he finally did ask the Lord, Lord, is it I? And Jesus said, you have said it. And what did he do? He left. I'm done. You know, sometimes you're going to hear things and people are going to say things to you in your life that you really don't want to hear. Sometimes you really don't want to hear certain kinds of sermons. Sometimes you may be straying and you will hear rebukes and warnings and you really don't want to hear it. But you know, don't be, hey, yes, it's you. I'm out of here. Make sure you're like the 11. We're as confused as we can be. But Lord, you have the words of eternal life and we're sitting right here. Because we want to know you, we want to walk with you, we want to love you. And if Judas can, in a weird kind of backwards way, teach us that, not to settle for, well I look good, everybody thinks I'm okay. I'm not letting anybody know I'm not okay. I'm not really doing anything with what I hear. In fact, something in me kind of hates that. I wouldn't want to do what I want to do. And if I follow this Jesus guy, then he's going to be the Lord of my life. Those are dangerous thoughts. Let me encourage you to remember what the Lord Jesus did for us when he died on the cross for our sins and to come to him and to be consecrated to him with everything in you. Let's pray together. Our Father, we thank you for your word and we ask that you would help us to hear it and to heed it. These are hard cases and studies in scripture when we come across these warnings to work out our salvation and trembling and what a burden it was to your own heart that night. Just the difficulties of having to deal with Judas while you're about to become the burnt offering for our sins. Thank you and help us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. We ask in Jesus name. Amen.