Okay, please turn in your copies of Holy Scripture to the Gospel of John chapter 13. John chapter 13. We will be reading verses 21 through 30. John 13, 21 through 30. Hear now God's holy word. When Jesus had said this, he became troubled in spirit and testified and said, truly, truly, I say to you that one of you will betray me. The disciples began looking at one another at a loss to know of which one he was speaking. There was reclining on Jesus's bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter gestured to him and said to him, tell us who it is of whom he is speaking. He, leaning back thus on Jesus' bosom, said to him, Lord, who is it? Jesus then answered, that is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him. So when he had dipped the morsel, he took and gave it to Jesus, the son of Simon Iscariot. After the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Therefore, Jesus said to him, what you do, do quickly. Now no one of those reclining at the table knew for what purpose he had said this to him. For some were supposing, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus was saying to him, buy the things we have need of for the feast, or else that he should give something to the poor. So after receiving the morsel, He went out immediately, and it was night. Let us ask the Lord to bless the preaching of His Word. Our Heavenly Father, we pray that You would bless Your Word this morning to us, Lord God. Acknowledge that it is only by your blessing, by your illumination, by the Holy Spirit, Lord, that we can understand your word and receive any benefit from it. Lord, we pray this morning that you would bless the preaching, that everyone here would be blessed, edified by your word, that we would benefit from it, Lord. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. In 1995, the movie Braveheart was released. It tells a story of William Wallace, a leader during the First War of Scottish Independence. And there is a scene in that movie that is very intense, it's very disheartening. William Wallace goes to the nobles to try and unite the clans in order to defeat the English. He comes to an agreement with one of the nobles, Robert the Bruce. But on the day of the battle, he is betrayed by the nobles. They walk away when they are signaled to fight. But the most disheartening scene is when William Wallace pursues the king and his men as they ride away in victory. He is confronted by a soldier who is covered with a helmet so that you cannot see his face. William is knocked off of his horse, pretends to be dead, and when the rider approaches him, William overtakes him. He takes off his helmet and is about to kill him when he sees who the rider is. It is none other than Robert the Bruce. The look on William Wallace's face, played by Mel Gibson, says it all. A look of unbelief, numbness, and he just gives up. His hopes and dreams for a free Scotland gone in a split second because of this betrayal. Betrayals are very powerful and very, very hurtful. Anyone who has ever been betrayed knows the pain and suffering that is felt by it. And these kinds of betrayals are never committed by people who are distant from us, individuals with whom we have no real acquaintance with, but by close friends, loved ones, people that we trust. And this is what makes betrayals so painful. And there are many betrayals recorded in history, portrayed in literature, in movies, but the greatest and most famous betrayal of all is that of Judas Iscariot. And this is what our text this morning is about. We do not see the betrayal itself here, but Jesus, having just demonstrated his love for his disciples, is going to now announce that he is going to be betrayed. But not only does he announce that he is going to be betrayed, but that he is going to be betrayed by one of them. But the difference with this betrayal is that Jesus knows from the beginning who it is. He himself chose this person to be among his 12 disciples. So he knows he's not caught off guard, but that doesn't lessen the pain of the betrayal. It nevertheless brings pain and grief, not only to Jesus, but also to the disciples. In his betrayal, we see various reactions. and characters as Jesus announces it. And this is what we see in this narrative. We see the love of Jesus for his disciples and the comfort that we have in that love. We see that he knows us. He knows us better than we know ourselves and yet loves us with an eternal love. And because Jesus loves us and knows all things, we can find comfort in him during times of trial, and temptation, and even in our times, in times of struggles with sin. And so as we look at our text this morning, we're going to look at these different characters, these different reactions. First, we will see the tender heart of the disciples. Second, the hypocritical heart of the betrayer. And then thirdly, the comforting heart of Jesus. So again, as we look at our first point, the tender heart of the disciples, the fact that someone was going to betray him was stated in our text last week. We saw this in verses 1 through 20. In the narrative itself, Jesus tells them, though not as clearly. He hints at it in several instances. We see this, for example, in verse 10. Jesus said to him, he who has bathed, and he's talking to Peter, he who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not all of you. Hinting at the fact that one among them was not clean. Verse 18, I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen, but it is that Scripture may be fulfilled. He who eats my bread has lifted up his heel against me. So he's announcing that someone will betray him, though not as clear. But now, in this section of the Gospel, Jesus tells him plainly that someone will betray him. As John writes the gospel, this gospel, he knows who it will be. The audience reading this gospel knows who it will be. We have been told before. And most importantly, Jesus knows who it will be. But the disciples, with the exception of the betrayer, do not know who is going to betray their Lord, Jesus Christ. Even John himself, at the time that this was occurring, at the time of the supper, did not know who was going to betray Jesus. So having gone back to the supper after the foot washing, Jesus then clearly tells them that he is going to be betrayed. This fact alone would have been enough for them to be troubled, which they are, to cause them to worry. What would come of Jesus? What would become of the kingdom of God? What would become of them? But the greatest shock, the greatest shock of the betrayal was not just that he was going to be betrayed, but that one of them, his closest friends, was going to betray him. This is the true shock of the betrayal. He says, one of you, one of you will betray me. And for some time, Jesus leaves them in suspense as to who it is, even though he kind of signals and tells them who it will be. He says, truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me. He doesn't say, Judas, this or this man here will betray me. He doesn't point to him. He simply says, one of you will betray me. Last week, as I commented on verse 2, that the devil had put it into the heart of Judas to betray him. I said that Judas was not being forced to do something against his own will. That whatever influence the devil had upon Judas, it was an influence because the desire, the wickedness, the wicked desire was already there in Judas. that had Judas truly loved Jesus, any suggestion or influence to try to have him betray his Lord whom he loves would have been met with grief. But that is not what we see in Judas. And this is exactly what we see with the disciples. It says in our text that when they hear that one of them is going to betray Jesus, they begin to look at one another at a loss to know of which one he was speaking. In both the gospel of Matthew and Mark, we learned that upon hearing this, the disciples were looking at one another and it says that they were deeply grieved. They were deeply grieved at this announcement that one of them was going to betray the Lord Jesus. And John the disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, was reclining on his bosom. Now, a quick side note on this. The title of whom Jesus loved was a title most likely not given by John upon himself. He didn't give himself the title. Most likely, it was given by others to him. So he's not being arrogant here. We know that Christ loves all of his disciples. He loves all of his people. But here, this disciple whom Jesus loved, is John the Apostle, and he is reclining at the bosom of Jesus. And Peter gestures to him and tells him, ask him who it is that he is talking about. Peter thought that John, because he was the closest to Jesus, might know who Jesus was talking about. Because he didn't know. And so he asks, Lord, who is it? In the other Gospels, we read that the disciples being grieved at the thought that one of them would betray him, begin to say, Lord, is it I? And this, in this question. We see the tender heart of individuals who love the Lord. They are grieved at hearing this, that one of them is going to betray Him. And they ask, Lord, is it me? Not with excitement, but with grief, with sadness of heart. Is it me? Please, Lord God, don't let it be me. And though Jesus tells them who it is, He doesn't really tell them. He gives them a clue as to who it is, and He says, But all through the night, there was food being passed around. There was people dipping their bread into the bowl. Sometimes people ask, well, if he said this and immediately gave it to Judas, why wouldn't they know? Sometimes as the Gospels or the writers write their narratives, they will give you the information all in one paragraph, in one succinct sentence, without us knowing that there's probably some time that went in between some of these events or some of these actions. It might not be that Jesus immediately gave him the bread, so we don't know exactly what the circumstances were, but we do know that He does give them a clue, and that upon this, John himself says that nobody knew what this meant. When He gives them the morsel and then tells them, what you're going to do, do quickly, He says that even the other disciples understood what he was doing. They thought that they were telling him to either go get stuff for the feast or go give something to the poor. But they had no clue that he was referring to Judas. So they're still left in suspense, knowing who is going to betray the Lord. Now, why would Jesus do this? Leave his disciples in this suspense, in this fear even. Could it be me? Could I be that wretched, that wicked individual to betray his Lord? Isn't Jesus' desire to encourage and to uplift, to strengthen his people? Yes, it is. But oftentimes, we need this kind of self-examination in order to grow in our faith. We need to look within ourselves, to look deep within the trenches and crevices of our hearts to see if there's any hidden sin, anything that hinders our walk with Christ, anything that might hinder our growth in sanctification. We can have confidence and assurance in our salvation, which is a beautiful and wonderful thing, a blessing of trusting in God, unlike, for example, in the Roman Catholic tradition where you don't have that assurance because you have to, your whole life, be doing good works, good works to earn your salvation in hopes that maybe at the end of your life, you will be accepted, that you will be justified. We believe that upon faith, we are justified. Our sins are completely forgiven, past, present, and future. That means that our salvation is secure in Christ. So we can have that assurance, that confidence, but we should not be presumptuous. And there is a huge difference between assurance and presumption. There are people who genuinely struggle with sin, true believers who genuinely struggle with sin. And they sin, but they confess it to the Lord. They are grieved by their sin, and they cry out like Paul, Oh, wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death? And because of Christ and His work for us, because of the promises, Paul then says, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. These believers struggle with sin. They are grieved because of their sin, because of their betrayal of Jesus by having sinned, or even just the inclination that they feel, the strong urges to sin. Yet because of the promises in Scripture that nothing will separate us from the love of God, that no one or nothing, including ourselves, will be able to snatch us away from the love of God or from the hands of Jesus, that there is now no condemnation. For all those who are in Christ Jesus, that if we confess our sin, He is faithful to forgive our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Because of these promises of Christ to us, there is confidence and there is assurance in spite of our sin. There is a desire to put away all sin, but because of the weakness of our flesh, we continue to sin. And again, these people should have a great assurance, though they are often grieved by sin. So we can have assurance in spite of our sin. Then there are those who profess faith in Christ, some genuine believers, others not. But they profess to believe in Christ, to be saved. They think they're saved. But they continue in unrepentant sin. There's a difference between struggling with sin and living in unrepentant sin. For believers, usually they are seasons of sin. They could be long seasons or short seasons, but they willfully and continually go on in unrepentant sin with the assurance that they are going to go to heaven because they believe in Christ. Others may simply be unbelievers who think they are true Christians and are going to heaven. But to both of these groups, there should be no assurance. If they are living contrary to what it means to be saved, what it means to be saved, not that we're perfect, not that we're at the moment of salvation, there's no more sin, but that you are striving after holiness because now you have the life of God in you. You have been raised to newness of life and therefore you walk in newness of life. But if you are walking contrary to that, if you are walking in darkness, you continue to do that, then you should have no assurance that you are going to go to heaven. Because those that are Christ's walk in units of life, though they struggle, and some may struggle tremendously with sin, but the difference is that there's some that, again, they struggle, they are grieved by their sin, as the disciples here are grieved and thinking that they might be the ones to sin against Christ. They grieve, they confess, they strive against their sins, strive to mortify their sin, and they trust in Christ's promises. while the others continue in unrepentant sin. Well, I received Christ five years ago, ten years ago, when I was 15, when I was whatever age. I received Christ. I'm okay if I continue in sin because after all, He forgave all my sins. And they continue in that lifestyle, unrepentant, without remorse, no grief. And the problem is that for believers, when you are lowered down to that level of living like an unbeliever, then you should have no assurance. And oftentimes, as even our confession says, God will remove that assurance from you to chase in you, to bring you back, to work repentance in you. And so there's great warning here for believers too, that we should not take sin lightly. We should not play around with sin. We should use the means of grace that God has provided for us to go to church faithfully, not just to go sitting in a pew and a chair in a church. That's not going to do anything. It's going to church so that we may be fed by God's word, that we may hear the law and God uses that to bring repentance in us. that we may partake of the sacraments, that we may receive grace, that we may grow. And so there's a difference between having assurance and confidence in your salvation and being presumptuous. And we shouldn't take that lightly. We shouldn't take sin lightly. Our second London Confession says that believers are enabled to cast his soul upon the truth thus believed, and also acteth differently upon that which each particular passage thereof contains, yielding obedience to the commands, trembling at the threatenings, and embracing the promises of God for this life, And that which is to come. So there are promises and there are beautiful and wonderful promises in the scripture for us to grab a hold of and have assurance in. But there are also warnings. And true believers will hear those warnings. And even if they ignore them at first because of the hardness of heart, maybe they've been in sin and they're dull in hearing. But eventually, God will make those scriptures heard. They will hear those scriptures. And God will use the law, those warnings, to bring them back. But we cannot say, well, yeah, I'm just one of those and I'll just wait until God brings me back. What if He doesn't? What if when you stand before God, it turns out not that you lost your salvation, but that maybe you never were. Because that continuous character of not wanting to fellowship, not wanting to take God's Word seriously, only proves that you are not a believer. And what we see here, the disciples, all of them, seen from the outside, if you had no knowledge of what was going on, You would think all of them are godly, righteous individuals. Maybe you might even think that Judas was more righteous, because he was always quick to be very zealous. Remember when Mary was anointing Jesus' feet with the expensive fragrance oil? What did he say? Why was this perfume not sold? And we could have gotten so much money for it and given it to the poor. And then John interjects and comments on that. And he says, he didn't say this because he really cared for the poor. He wasn't concerned for the poor, but because he was in charge of the money box, he used to pilfer it. He used to take money for himself. He saw an opportunity to gain something. And so, externally, we would think, man, these people are all righteous, but the heart of Judas was desperately wicked. It was not a heart that loved the Lord. But we see the disciples, tenderhearted, at hearing this announcement that one of them was gonna betray him, are immediately grieved by it. And they wanna know who it is that will betray him. And so God allows these things for us to examine ourselves. And scripture in several places encourages us to examine ourselves. And that may be scary, a scary thing to do, especially if you know your heart very well. It may be a scary thing to search your heart or even to ask God to search your heart because we know what's in our heart. But this is an exercise never to be for our condemnation. But for our growth, if we are true believers, it is for our growth. And this is exactly why the Lord allows this and why He allowed this for His disciples. That they would examine and so that they would be watchful and careful. That they wouldn't play around with sin. So for a brief moment, the Lord does leave them in suspense, in fear, in shock, wondering, is it me, Lord? Please do not let it be me. This is a tender heart of a true believer. Not that it is completely free from sin and corruption, but because the believer knows his own sin, there is a healthy fear that if left to his own sinful heart, he is capable of the most heinous sin, like betraying the Lord. One of the hymns that we sang this morning was, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. There is a line that says, let that grace, or I think it's the last one, the last stanza. Let that grace now, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee. prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above. And it is very important to know the weakness of your own heart. Know that apart from God, from his grace, we all would just leave, we would depart. It is only by the grace of God that any of us are here. It is by the grace of God that any of us were able to hear, understand, and obey God's command to believe and to follow Jesus Christ. And so we need to have that tender heart. So at the time, the disciples did not know who it would be except one, Judas Iscariot. And this character, this false disciple, has a different heart in response to Jesus' announcement. And this brings us to our second point, the hypocritical heart of the betrayer. Excuse me. Okay, so we've seen that nobody knows Except for at this point, except for Jesus and Judas, he knows what he's about to do. And then, but John having already experienced this as he's writing the gospel, he knows and he lets his audience know. So we see this as early as verse two in this chapter. During the supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray him. Verse 11, and this is John's own comment on Jesus' previous statement that not all those who were there are clean. He says, for he knew the one who was betraying him. For this reason, he said, not all of you are clean. And John, after the fact, he knows, his audience knows, Jesus knows, and Judas is the one from all the disciples that knows what he is about to do. The devil had already put it into his heart to betray him. Judas' mind was already made up. His heart had already decided to betray Jesus as he participates in this meal. And to top it off, when Jesus is asked, who would betray him? And he says, that is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him. So then he dipped his morsel and he gave it to him, to the son of Judah. And he, even after this, what does Judah say? We read this in the other gospels. Even he says, Lord, is it I? So even he is asking, knowing what he's gonna do, he's asking, is it me, Lord? But what is the significance of this, of announcing this? Why couldn't Christ announce it before at some other time that Judas would betray him? Why here at this supper, at this meal? Well, there is an importance to meals. There is a great importance and intimacy, fellowship, and communion that meals had back then. Important business transactions were done over meals. Important life decisions were made over meals. Covenants were made over a meal. Deep fellowship and communion was experienced during meals with loved ones and friends. And to some degree, we still have this view of meals. People will often, when they have important things to do in business, they'll go out and have a meal, or if somebody wants to be romantically involved with somebody, they'll invite them to a meal, right? So we understand that there is something that unites people, there's a fellowship that happens during meals. But this was not just any meal. It was a greatly important meal. It was the meal of the Jews. The reason why the Jews were there. Because around 1500 years before this, God had mightily delivered the Israelites from Egypt. He had established the Passover meal as a memorial meal to commemorate God's deliverance of His people. So this meal again commemorated God leading the Israelites out and then covenanting with them and becoming their God and they becoming His people. It was a meal that commemorated the covenantal bond, the unity, the union between God and Israel. And with this great significance to the meal, Judas goes into it with this malevolent, this wicked deed already approved in his heart. So as they sat there, as they conversed with one another, as they ate together, laughed and communed with Jesus and one another, Judas' heart was already decided against Jesus. And no one even suspected that something was off with Judas. And this is why we see a hypocritical heart in Judas. He played the role of a zealous and faithful disciple so well. And this, again, is the essence of what it means to be a hypocrite. The word hypocrite comes from the Greek language and culture. It means actor or stage player. In ancient Greek plays, the actors or stage players would wear masks to indicate the role or the character that they were playing. They were pretending to be someone else, that they were not. Thus a hypocrite. So Judas is here at this very intimate and close meal between Jesus and his disciples, and he is playing the role of a faithful disciple. And everybody's buying it. Nobody sees anything off with Judas. At this point, only Jesus knows about him. And we see this clearly in that even when Jesus tells them again that it was him who I'm going to give the morsel to, nobody even suspects once he gives it to him. So again, Judas is playing the role of a faithful disciple. He's being a hypocrite because he has decided against Jesus. He is going to betray him. But again, the depth of his hypocrisy, the depth of this is that he was betraying somebody that he had been with for three years. Jesus Christ had chosen him. He had experienced what most of the crowds and the Pharisees didn't get to see. The Pharisees are guilty because they saw so much of his works, they heard so much of his teaching, and yet they rejected him. But Judas heard that, saw that, and more. He spent intimate nights with other disciples, listening to those private teachings of Jesus. He got to know His character. He got to know Him so well. And we believe that Jesus is God in the flesh. So He would have seen this man who truly loved God, who loved his neighbor, who had a zeal for God, for the Word of God. They would have seen God in Him. But yet Judas, after all those years of being with Him, of walking with Him, is now betraying Him. And why? You know, it's not like Judas one night, or one morning, or let's say that morning. It's not like Judas that morning woke up and said, you know, okay, I'm in charge of the money box. I gotta buy stuff for the meal today. You know what? I think I'm gonna betray Jesus too. No, it didn't just come up all of a sudden. Judas, that example that we saw of him pretending to be a zealous or somebody who cares for the poor, even back then, he was only serving himself. He did not put the needs of others ahead of him. He served himself. He just wanted to enlarge his own money box. He wanted some benefit, some earthly benefit. And so he gets to the point where he sees that Jesus is not going to give him that benefit that he wants to overthrow Rome. And so he says, well, where else can I get some benefit? And so that's where the betrayal comes in. But all along, it happened little by little. Again, it wasn't an overnight thing. It was Him entertaining and indulging His lusts for wanting things, for earthly possessions, for money, for gain, for profit. Indulging those things. And that is why we as believers need to be very careful not to indulge the passions of the flesh, not to indulge our sins. We are going to sin, sadly. And sometimes we do indulge us in, but we need to not do that. We need to be careful to be watchful. Because if we do, it will snowball from something small to something great. I remember when I was in seminary, one of our pastoral theology courses, pastoral counseling courses, there was an example given. of a couple, it was two couples, but it was a case of adultery, right? And the way that they're explaining it as the pastor's counseling and as he's hearing the stories and all the information, it's traced back all the way to the man looking at the woman in church and for a moment just desiring her. and then entertaining that thought. Little by little, he's entertaining it, and then that desire turns into just friendly conversation. Friendly conversation turns into friendly flirting, flirtation. And then eventually, they're committing adultery. But it doesn't just happen overnight. And so we need to guard our hearts as believers, to not entertain any sin. And I'm sure many of us are guilty of that, and we're thankful that we have a Savior who rescues us from that, who forgives us, but let us not take that for granted. But Judas here, this is the culmination of his sin, of putting himself first, of indulging in sin, and now here he is denying his Lord, betraying Him. And therefore, his guilt will be greater than the Pharisees and others that had less information, less knowledge, less truth. His guilt will be greater. And again, this is a warning to us all. And one thing that we must not miss here, John tells us that Satan entered into Judas. And I just want to deal briefly with this. It's not as though Judas was demon-possessed in the sense that he lost control of his actions, of his body. It wasn't like he was being controlled by Satan to do what he was doing. We hear that sometimes, the devil made me do it. It's not my fault, the devil made me do it. The devil can—we oftentimes underestimate the power of Satan. He is very powerful, very influential. But again, if there's nothing for him to work with, he can't really tempt you. The way that he had to tempt Adam, for example, he couldn't tempt Adam with something so heinous like blaspheming God or rape, let's say raping his wife, some sexual immoral act, because he was good. The way that he tempted him was with something good, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Same thing with Jesus. The devil wouldn't use, he wouldn't have a prostitute appear there in the desert and tempt Jesus. That would not have tempted him. But he was hungry, right? And when you're hungry, eating is a good thing. So he said, hey, turn these stones into bread and eat. Jesus was going to inherit the kingdoms of the world. So he says, hey, I will give you all the kingdoms of the world. That's a good thing. That's what he was gonna earn as a reward. Or cast yourself from the temple that the Lord will protect you. Trusting in God, isn't that a good thing? But in doing those things, Christ would have either tempted God or deviated from his plan, which would have been sinful. So if we're indulging sin, then we're giving the devil material to play with. We're giving him power to influence us. And so that's another reason why we need to guard our hearts. But again, Judas was responsible for his actions. Yes, the devil entered into him, the devil influenced him greatly, but his wickedness, his sin, his decisions were all his. And so we need to keep that in mind. The scriptures warn us greatly of the devil, that he is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. So we need to be watchful. We need to be on the alert. Though we are responsible, again, he is a very influential and real force. So we need to guard ourselves against that. So again, In the announcement of this betrayal, we see the tender heart of the disciples. They're grieved because of the announcement that one of them is going to betray Jesus. But on the other hand, we see the hypocritical heart of Judas. Hearing all of this, he still questions, Lord, is it I? He doesn't say, okay, you caught me, it's me. He still pretends to be a disciple until the Lord says, go out and do what you're going to do. But now, we also see in all of this, the comforting heart of Jesus. And this brings us to our third and final point, the comforting heart of Jesus. So the disciples are grieved that one of them will sin greatly by betraying their Lord. Yet even while being left in the dark with this foreboding fear, John leans back on Jesus' bosom, and there, secure in the comforting bosom of Jesus, he asks, Lord, is it I? And it is there at the bosom of Jesus, the heart, the loving heart of Jesus, that we find comfort. When we are doubting, we can find comfort in the loving heart of Jesus for us. When we are tempted to sin or when we fall into sin, we find comfort in the loving heart of Jesus. In this narrative, we see the love and sovereignty of Jesus in which we can take comfort in. He knew that Judas would betray him. He knew that his own people the Jews, His covenant people would reject Him. He knew that the spiritual forces of darkness were set against Him to attempt to thwart His ministry and ultimately thwart God's plan. And here the devil seems to think that He is about to be victorious. They're gonna, He's just influenced one of His disciples, His close disciples. We're gonna arrest Him. We're gonna put Him to death. But this is the plan of God. This was the plan of God all along. They were not thwarting His plan. They were fulfilling His plan. Because it is through His death, through His suffering, through this betrayal that Jesus accomplishes the perfect and eternal salvation for all of His people. And so He knows this. He knows it's going into the dinner, into the supper. He knew who would betray Him. And He knows us. He knows all of our sin. He knows all our temptations. He knows all our weaknesses. But the difference with us and Judas is that Christ has a redemptive love for us. The difference is that Christ has gone to the cross for us, for His people. He has satisfied the demands of the law. All our sins have been dealt with on the cross. Not so for Judas. And one thing that we do need to remember too, and we briefly talked about this, is the depth of this betrayal. That not only are the disciples grieved, but Jesus is grieved as well because Even though he had chosen Judas and he knew that Judas would betray him, he is nevertheless grieved. He is hurt. There is pain there. Because this person that he walked with for three years, conversed with, had many meals with, and at times laughed with, this man, this person, this individual was about to betray him. So even though he knew it was nevertheless painful to Jesus and he grieved, but yet he went along because this was what God had planned from the very beginning. That he would be betrayed, he would go to the cross and in that way earn salvation for his people. And so here, in this, we see the love of Christ. We see that He loves His people. He loves them to the end. He is sovereign. He knows all things. He's in control of all things. And in this, in this loving heart and knowledge of Christ, we can take comfort in, just as John did, just as the other disciples, even though they grieved and maybe even feared, but yet they took comfort in Christ. And we should too. Whenever we are tempted, whenever we fall into sin, We are to seek comfort in Christ, in His love for us, and what He has done for us. So in conclusion, the first thing is something I've already mentioned, don't play around with sin. Again, we can have assurance. Believers cannot fall from their salvation. But so many have said, well, yeah, I'm saved and continue in sin, thinking that they are saved and that one day they're going to stand before the Lord and hear those terrifying words, those dreadful words, depart from me. I never knew you. So don't play around with sin. Sin will harden your heart, so repent. Repent of your sin. Go to the Lord and repent of your sin. Just as Jesus knew that Jews would betray Him, He knows all of your sins, even the ones you haven't yet committed. One thing that we can do as believers is do as the psalmist did. Pray, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts, and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way. It may be scary to ask God, Lord, search my heart. because of fear that he might find something there that we don't like. But look at what he says. He says, and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way. The purpose of having our sins brought to our attention by the Holy Spirit when we are convicted of sin is, again, not to condemn us, but to sanctify us, to continue to work that salvation in us that is secured by Jesus Christ. So it is a good thing. It may be scary, but it is a good thing that the Lord reveals our sins. Because that is the way that we can then confess and repent of them and grow in our sanctification. And unlike with Judas, Jesus, knowing our hearts, gives us comfort because He loves us and gave Himself up for us. So He knew all of our sin. He knows all of our sin and He knew all of our sin even before He went to the cross. And it is because of those sins that He knew that we would commit that He went to the cross. So He knows them all already. It's for our benefit that we go to Him and confess our sins. He's provided forgiveness of all of our sins, knowing that we were sinners, While we were helpless, while we were weak, while we were His enemies, Christ died for us. Christ died for the ungodly. That is who we were. But thanks be to God that He has saved us, that He has delivered us and provided salvation for us. So if you have not believed and trusted in the Lord Jesus, you will have your share with Judas in the lake of fire. You will be judged for your sin, but if you trust Him, if you believe in Him, repenting of your sins, you will know this wonderful love of Christ. A love that saves, a love that cleanses and heals, and one that is everlasting.