Now, we've been working our way through Matthew, a great book. It's 28 chapters. We've come to chapter 26. And we remember this particular Gospel, why it was so difficult to study, is because it really was a revelation to the Jewish people of the Jewish Messiah and their King. And it started out with the person of the king. And it gave his genealogy and his virgin birth early on. And then it showed that wise men came to visit the king, which is a good thing to do. If there is a king, it's good to visit him with thanksgiving. A messenger was sent before the king, John the Baptist. We saw the baptism of the King as He identified with His people. That's what baptism is. It's identifying with something. And Christ identified with us. And we get spiritually baptized and then water baptized to let everyone know we're identifying with Him. We saw in the 4th chapter the temptation of the King against the devil. the adversary that knocked out every human being since the garden and first time found himself at the hands of someone who was superior to him. And he fled from Jesus. We saw the victory the king had. We saw the great precepts of the king. in the Sermon on the Mount, chapters 5, 6, and 7, and understanding that those are the precepts that will rule when He sets up His kingdom. His desire was to set up the kingdom back then. We're coming to the chapters where we're going to see them reject the king, he will come back and set up that kingdom, and those will be the rules of the Sermon on the Mount, the precepts of the King, the Beatitudes, the law, the relationship to God, the behavior of the people in the kingdom one toward another, all contained in that Sermon on the Mount. Is it okay that I review this? Amen. We saw the power of the king after he gave his precepts and how he went out in chapters 8 and 9 and performed 12 miracles in a row to show 12 is the number of government that he's governing his kingdom. And he will govern the kingdom with miracles when he comes back. And all the things that... disillusioned and deceived Charismatics and Pentecostals think are for today will occur when the King is here in His Kingdom. Right now, we're the church, so we have spiritual blessings in heavenly places, not physical and great wonders and miracle blessings in earthly places. But when He comes back, He'll do that. He showed that in those chapters. We saw also in the power of the King in chapter 10, His ability to empower disciples and turn them into apostles. And the power that was given to the apostles during the first century as He allowed them to continue the work that He began. They were the foundation. And after the apostolic age is over, we understand no more miracles. but he used them initially to do some great work in turning over the fallow ground to begin his church. Sadly, we saw the people begin to rebel against the king in chapters 11-13. First, his messenger was rejected, John the Baptist. We saw some of his works were denied by the religious leaders. We saw his precepts were refused and his person attacked again by the religious leaders. And we saw his response to the rebellion was to continue to teach, but in a different manner. And he taught the parables, chapter 13. And the parables are not given to those who don't know the king. They're given to those who do so that they can understand, and those who are without will not understand until they are willing to accept the king in their heart. And there's a great mystery parables discourse in the 13th chapter. And then we saw chapters 14-20, the resolve of the king. No matter what popular opinion is, he's going to finish his course. Thank goodness. That's an example. That's what we need. We need a leader that doesn't buckle to pressure. We need a leader that stands up and not only that, he marches forward. And we saw the resolve of the king and he went out He fed the 5,000. He calmed the sea. He denounced religious tradition. He healed multitudes to show this is the kingdom that I want to set up. He revealed Himself and His church and His cross to His disciples in the 16th chapter. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Blessed art Thou. I'll build My church in the future. because he could sense that they were not going to receive the kingdom. We saw him show in prophecy and in reality the transfiguration on the mount to say, this is what the kingdom will look like when I return. But they're rejecting it now. We saw him take care of a little child, take care of a lost sheep. to show the manner of forgiveness in the 18th chapter. We saw his teaching on marriage and discipleship and children in the 19th chapter. We heard the fact that he's hiring laborers to go out in his field and he promises them rewards. And the resolve of the king is incredible. And then we saw the tribulatory in chapter 21. And immediately, the Jewish leaders argue with him. And we saw that he turned right back, and he pointed at those religious leaders, and he gave them seven woes in the 23rd chapter, and he upbraided them. Not even so much for themselves, but for the effect they were having on the common men and the simple people out there that trusted that they knew God. And he said, you're like whited sepulchers. and you make these people the children of hell, and you'll receive the greater damnation." In the 23rd chapter, He upbraids them. And then He left the temple, and the last two chapters, we saw the Olivet Discourse, as He explained to His disciples, and His disciples only, the fact that before He returns, there will be a time of great tribulation. seven years, and then He will come back at the Second Coming in clouds of glory, and He will set His feet on the Mount of Olives and march into Jerusalem and take the throne and set up His kingdom. And that's where we've been so far. And it's been a good study, and it's taken us quite a while. And I was looking at my notes and going, wow, I don't remember all this. And it's just so much that he has. Now we come to the 26th chapter. He's finished that great Olivet Discourse. He's talked all about the prophecy. And now, Matthew is going to record for us the final days of the Lord before He goes to the cross. and kind of a portrait is going to be painted in these final days. And he's going to break it down section by section, and in each section what you'll see is there are foes and there are friends. And that's all there really are. There is no middle ground. You're either a foe or you're a friend. And this not only happened in the last days of the Lord, this will happen in your last days. Every one of you is going to face last days. You don't know when they are. Thou knowest not when the day may bring forth. God knows when it's appointed for you to die. And every human being is going to be in their last days, and their last days are going to end on one side or the other. They're either a friend or they're a foe of the one that went to that cross. No middle ground, no third option, no purgatory. You're either friend or you're foe. And that's what he's painting here in the 26th chapter. So, He comes down off the Mount of Olives, verse 1, and it came to pass, when He finished all these sayings, He said to His disciples, you know, after two days is the feast of the Passover, And the Son of Man is betrayed to be crucified. Now within a context historically, it was a Tuesday, it was a terrible Tuesday that he had upbraided the Pharisees on the 23rd chapter. It was a terrible Tuesday that he departed the temple and he ascended the mount. It was Tuesday when He sat there on the Mount of Olives and looked over the city and wept. And it was Tuesday when the disciples asked the question, when's the second coming? When's the end of the world? And He gave all this information. And He's saying after two days, after today, and tomorrow is finished, will be the Passover. And the Passover is on a Thursday. And that's just according to the layout that was given in Exodus 12. On Sunday, they chose the Lamb, and then they finally took the Lamb. Let's see, was it the fourth day or fifth day? One, two, three, four. It's laid out there in Exodus. And on Thursday, the whole congregation was to take the Lamb and to slay the Lamb. And that would be the Passover. And here He is. the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world at the final Passover. This is the culmination of all Passovers. No longer the blood of bulls and goats and lambs, but the blood of God that flows in the veins of the Son of God, the eternal blood that can cleanse from all sin, and it will happen on that Thursday. And He lets him know. Now, we look at it carefully, and he's speaking to Jews, And we also can see the similitude and the type. After two days is the feast of the Passover. And a day is a thousand years. And he's saying, after two thousand years, that's when I'm coming back for the final gathering together for the great feast when I'll drink this wine with you again in the cup. And I won't drink it till I come back. And so this is another one of those little two-day teachings in prophecy that we find in Hosea 6, John 4, Luke 10. All these places where God pockets them in there just to let them know He has a timetable. He's going to keep to His timetable. It's 2,000 years. But historically, He's letting us know that it's going to be after Tuesday and Wednesday over, it'll be on Thursday. I'll be betrayed and I'll be crucified. Next then, we read, And then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas. Caiaphas was the son-in-law of Annas. They had ruled the high priesthood for about three and a half decades, the two of them. during the entire ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ from His birth all the way through to His crucifixion. They were religious people, so they didn't enjoy being in hovels or doing a home Bible study or small rooms. They enjoyed a nice palace. And what we're learning is the first foe of Jesus Christ is big religion. and nothing's changed. Big religion is still the foe of Jesus Christ. We see what these men are doing. They're, verse 4, consulting that they might take Jesus by subtlety and kill Him. But they said, as they were consulting, well, not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people. I mean after all there's a lot of those people that like him and they're simple and most simple people are confused and easily deceived and they're coming for the traditional feast and it's like Christmas it's like Easter and all their families are gathered together and this is not a good time for a bad what they would perceive to be a bad event now it's a good event for us we want to get rid of this guy but let's do it after the convenient in a convenient time after the feast is over It's like if I have bad news to tell someone and I just found out they have cancer, I might not want to tell them on Christmas Day. I might want to wait until a couple days, let them enjoy the celebration, and then tell them afterwards. And that's the planning that's going through on their mind. Their conduct is one of conspiracy against Christ. That's what they do. Big religion is the big foe of the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll see the second foe is big government. We'll get that in the next chapter. But in this chapter, God is painting a portrait. The portrait hasn't changed. It's sad to hear teachers on the radio read this passage. I just heard one this week teach on this very passage. All the religious of those days were against Jesus. What do you think the big religious leaders are against today? Are they against Mohammed? Do you hear them speaking against Mohammed? How often have you heard one of them come forward and say something against Mohammed? How often do they pick on the Koran? What do they pick on? Jesus and the Bible. What's fair game? Jesus and, oh by the way, one Bible, the King James Bible. The very words of the Lord Jesus who wrote a book. Those are the two favorite targets, is Jesus and the Bible. And big religion conspires. Now the method they use, verse 4, is one of subtlety. They'll outwardly pick on the King James Bible, but they won't outwardly pick on Jesus. They'll do it subtly to take away His words and to take away His power, and I have no idea why this happened. It seems to have happened more since I put this mat here. We might want to take this thing out. You don't think so? Now we're going to try the rest of this here and see. Is there a short? I don't know. I know I'm short, but I don't know. I put new batteries in this morning. now put brand new batteries in so let's go the rest of this and see what happens because this has been cutting out a lot since I've been using the mat I'm just curious it could be somehow that gather static electricity I do not know we'll just let's just see back to where we are study subtlety that happened again there so I don't know anyways X chapter 13 Verse 10, Paul dealing with someone that was a sorcerer, someone who was a false prophet. Someone who had held sway over the people. Even had the ear of the governmental leaders in the town where he lived. Someone who was, verse 8, Elimus the sorcerer, for so was his name by interpretation, withstood them. That's Paul and Barnabas trying to teach the Bible. Seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith. The subtle works is to turn people away from the faith once delivered to the saints. Faith cometh by hearing, so if there is one the faith, there is one the Word. And what they try and do is turn you away from the word. Again, the favorite topic. You almost never hear anyone correcting an NIV, a new translation, but they're always finding unfortunate problems with the King James Bible. Every one of those teachers within the first five minutes will correct a King James Bible. Listen! I do, again, because I don't carry cell phones. My radio is on while I'm working out in the garden, and I'm hearing all the popular teachers, and they're all turning people away from the King James Bible. I'm not saying they're not saved. I'm saying they've given place to another spirit, the same one that was in Elymas. Elymas wasn't saved. A lot of these guys are saved with another spirit, and it's that spirit by subtlety turning away from the Word of God. Verse 9, Saul, who's also called Paul, was filled with the Holy Ghost. You can only get that from the King James Bible in English. Helping you. You know why? Because the Holy Ghost is only found in the King James Bible. I'm trying to help you folks. Please listen out there. It matters which book you read. And you know what he said? O full of all subtlety and mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? Yeah, it happened again. So, subtlety is the method they use. The spirit behind it, we understand. Paul, later on, having observed this after he was here in Antioch, after he was here in his missionary journeys at Solomus, after he made many missionary journeys, wrote in the book of 2 Corinthians later on in his ministry, and chapter 11, And Paul, we want three, but verse 1 to 3, he's saying, "...would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear with me..." I mean, it's foolish I should even have to talk about this, "...but I'm jealous over you, with godly jealousy, I've espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ without spot, without wrinkle, and your faith will be spotted by subtlety. Your faith will be spotted through deception. Your faith will be spotted or have empty places in it through the deception and subtlety of other Bibles that will leave doctrines out and teachings out. Verse 3, I fear lest by any means has the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety. Your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ. You know the simplicity? There's only one Bible. Why would he have more than one Bible? Go back, same epistle, 2 Corinthians. Go to chapter 2. Corrupting. He's talking about corrupting. 2 Corinthians 2. Verse 17, Paul tells them, we are not as many, not few, many, which corrupt the Word of God. But we of sincerity and as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ, in the simplicity of Christ. It's not easy to teach multiple Bibles. It's much easier when everyone's on the same page, reading the same thing. And by the way, I told you guys back in the 90s at our home Bible study, when I finally, when God finally showed me the King James Bible is the Word of God and everyone had different Bibles, I said, right now, the devil's pushing all these things. But let me tell you something, when he gets his church together, he's not going to allow multiple Bibles. He's going to have only one. He's going to have one supreme Bible that he wrote, and that's what's going to be used. He's not dumb, but he's just batting you around like the balls in a pinball game until he gets ready to gather you all together in the Bible he wants. Now we won't be here, we'll be gone, but that's what's coming. He's not gonna try and teach people off multiple pages. He'll have one songbook and one Bible, and that's what you'll use with his words in them, just preparing you for it. Subtlety, that's their method. The objective of the subtlety back in Matthew 26 is to kill Jesus. To destroy Him. To slay Him. To put Him to death. Go to John 5. Okay, I can't put Jesus to death. Historically, they wanted to. Historically, you're going to see they planned to. What Matthew is doing carefully in this chapter is he's going to cross for us the determination of the council and their plans, not on the feast day, and the determinate counsel of God the Father, who said it's going to be on the Passover in verse 2. And Jesus just said that. And he's going to show us that Jesus and God the Father are in charge no matter what they want to do. Nonetheless, though, John 5. This is the third miracle recorded in John. It's early on in the ministry of Jesus Christ. Jesus heals this man at the pool of Bethesda who had been infirmed for 38 years. And Jesus said, "'Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.' And the man was made whole." And this was done on the Sabbath day. And what happens is in verse 16, And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay Him. And the foe of Jesus Christ is religion. And big religion. And organized religion. And those of us in this room, and there's probably a whole bunch of us growing up in western New York that grew up Catholic. We grew up in the biggest, quote-unquote, Christian religion on planet earth. And yet as men, we knew something's wrong with that thing. There's just something wrong with it. It's so big. It's so unwieldy. It doesn't feel right. It doesn't fit right. There's something wrong with it. Now, we didn't know because we didn't have a Bible, but we just had a sense. It was rubbing against our conscience. and rubbing against an inner voice inside of us. And God's just making it plain and clear, the enemy of my son is big religion, was big religion, continues to be big religion, in the tribulation will be a worldwide big religion, and that's the foe of Christ. And in your last days, are you clinging to big religion? Your last days, not my son's, yours. Because if you are, you're clinging to something that's the enemy and the foe of my son. Now, getting back to where we are in Matthew. Matthew begins to put side by side, one after another, one after another. Yes, he's got foes, but he has friends. And the foes are in the big, huge, sanctioned gatherings in large estate, ornate buildings. But the friends, verse 6, Jesus came to Bethany and he was in the house of Simon the leper. Someone he healed from leprosy. And the friends are found in home gatherings. Little homes. Home Bible studies. How many people have been to a home Bible study? At least once in your life. Almost every hand in here. I mean, I've led a number. I've been to many. Little home gatherings. You know how the church began? In homes. Paul said, I went from house to house. They didn't have big buildings. They didn't have money. They didn't have tax-exempt status. They weren't sanctioned by any government. They were persecuted by the governments. And they were in little homes. And it's in homes is where you'll find the friends. Jesus is looking to make friends in homes. You know what's in homes? Families. You know what God first gave to mankind? The gift of the family. The father and the mother will come together and the two will begin one. And they'll have children and they'll teach the children. And it's in the home, in thy house, post these words. Teach them to thy son when they sit down at the meal, at the dinner table. It's in the homes and here they are. And what goes on there? Verse 7, and there came to Him a woman. having an alabaster box, a very precious ointment, and poured it on his head as he sat at meat. And you know what goes on there? The conduct in that place is one of love for Christ. The conduct in those settings isn't subtlety and conspiracy, it's giving and serving. The object isn't to kill Him. The object is to have close fellowship and communion with Him. And again, God just makes it real plain and clear. You're on one side or the other. You're either a friend or you're a foe. You're either gathering with the friends or you're gathering with the foes. Or we're just neutral. We're just agnostic atheists. You're with the foes. You're not in the home Bible studies. You're not serving my son. You're not worshiping my son. You're not acknowledging that he's the head and pouring the prescient ointment on the head. Not on the body. On the head. The ointment went on the head of the priest in the Old Testament. It didn't go on the flesh. It went on the hair, and it went on the beard, which represents the soul. Hair represents the soul. And we did the study on the tabernacle years ago. And gotta do it again sometime if I get a free moment. We're going through so many books of the Bible. We may have to have a special gathering just so I can draw it for you. Because the pictures in the tabernacle show exactly how God does the new birth inside of a body. And there are quite impressive teachings in there. But it's the hair is the soul. And God is trying to pour the ointment of the Holy Spirit on not just the soul of His Son, whom He, this is My Son, He loveth His Son, and giveth all manner of the Spirit to His Son, but He wants to pour it on the souls of them that are the friends of His Son. And it's a conduct of love and giving and serving. And the parallel passage, again, is found in John. Go to John 13. Make sure I got this right. My mistake, John chapter 12. I was late in the night when I did this. 12 verses 1 through 8. Correct your notes. I need a proofreader sometimes. Anyways. Chapter 12. Then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany. One other thing you're going to learn is Matthew is not talking chronologically. He's talking thematically. And what John is filling in here is going to show you something very interesting that we'll cover in a minute. But Matthew's looking at the themes. When you overlay and you cross over the chronology of John, you're going to see how God directed this thing and how Jesus was able to move Judas about like a pawn. But right now, let's just look at the home gathering and the love for Christ. And he comes to Bethany, where Lazarus, which had been dead, whom he had raised from the dead, that was back in the prior chapter, chapter 11, and there they made him a supper and Martha served when Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him by the way if Christ has raised you from the dead spiritually you want to sit at the table and have communion with him You don't want to be raised from the dead and get new life in Christ and then go sit at the table with his foes. Oh, maybe not his foes. How about the science teachers at the university? How about some of the political debates going on? No, how about you get raised from the dead and you sit with Christ? The problem with the children of God is they don't spend enough time with their Lord. They don't spend enough time at the communion table with Him. And I don't mean eating wafers. Communion is the common union of the Word, the communication that He has with you. And Lazarus got it right away, and he's spending time with Jesus. Verse 3, and then Mary took the pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet. And she started there at the end. I think she probably ended there. She anointed the head first and then the feet. And wiped his feet with her hair, her soul. And the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. And then one of the disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, the one which should betray him, says, why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence and given to the poor? And now we begin to understand how expensive this was. This alabaster box was a fine marble that was mined in Egypt and imported and very costly. And the ointment inside of it, and when you put it all together, you've got 300 pence. And a pence is a day's wage. That's 300 days of earning. So I don't know what's... That's almost a year's worth of your income. Yeah, that's about 300 days. Oh, you're probably working a year because you get the weekends off and stuff. So, yeah. And that's like a year's income. This is really an expensive act of giving to the Lord. It'd be like giving Him a brand new car. What is this? The price is right? I mean, a new car, Jesus. And she gives this, and Judas is upset. Now, you're talking $30,000, $40,000 here. Why didn't we give this to the poor? And verse 6, God opens the heart up in an X-ray. This He said not because He cared for the poor, but because He was a thief. He had the bag. And He bare what was put therein. He's the middleman. He's the treasurer. He gets that money and, you know, he determines where it's spent. He's been given the trust of the Lord. Jesus trusted him with that bag. Not that Jesus isn't watching him. Not that Jesus isn't reckoning. Not that Jesus isn't one day going to say, what did you do with those six talents or the five pence that I gave you? What did you do with them? He's going to allow him to have it. And you know what he's doing in the meantime. He's wetting his beak a little bit. He's skimming off the top. That's what treasurers like to do. We hear about this all the time. What do you think the treasury of the United States government does? You think they take every tax dollar you give and put it in the places it should go? Or do you think they skim a little off the top? Or do they skim half of it off the top? Or do they skim most of it off the top? I remember the great bill back in 2009 to rebuild the bridges and the highways in America. Was it $900 billion was that bill? And what did they say? When it was all said, $75 billion went into the roads and the highways. Where'd the other $825 billion go? Where'd it go? That's what thieves do. Another thing you learn about big government, big religion, they're thieves. They're like their father. They're the opponents of Jesus. Jesus is for truth. Jesus is for sacrifice. Jesus is for giving. They're the opposite. They're for lies. They're for theft. They're for self. They're not for others. They're not for God. And it's painted for us right here plain. I always marveled at election time how people don't get that. It's been put here for your reading. Any Christian knows right away. Some, well, you know, I'm concerned about the poor. I want to take care of welfare. the guy holding the bag, you better be worried about him. He's a lost man, is he? That most of the men in your government, they lost men? Then what spirit are they full of? You think that welfare money goes to welfare recipients first? You think Medicare goes to doctors first? I mean, OK, they got socialized health care in England, right? So of every dollar spent in England in the socialized health care system, $0.52 goes to the bureaucracy. $0.48 goes to the hospitals, the doctors, the nurses, and the patients. It's not a bad scam. Why do you think Obama wants Obamacare here? He's looking at a huge industry, lots of money. We want to do like they're doing in England. We can put more than half of that in our pocket. Same spirit, the enemies of truth, the enemies of righteousness. Now, what does Jesus do? Verse 7, let her alone. Against the day of my burying have she kept this. For the poor always ye have with you, but me ye have not always." And Jesus tries to tell us a truth here that we learned when we studied last week. This isn't a social gospel about fixing poverty. This isn't, oh poverty's the problem. This isn't a social gospel about educating people who are ignorant. Ignorance and illiteracy is not the problem. How do I know that? Because the brightest creature that ever lived, the devil, the richest creature that ever lived, the devil, It's about people who aren't good looking. They need surgeries to fix up rhinoplasty. They've got to look better so they'll feel better about themselves. The most beautiful creature ever created, the devil, went against God. So fixing those problems isn't going to fix the problem, is it? So the Bible is real simple about these things. The issue is the heart. And the issue is hearts need to be reborn. And the only way they can be reborn is gathering around the table with Jesus and hearing the words of the Savior and receiving His gift as the Passover lamb. Back to where we are in Matthew 26. Friends or foes? Again, verse 8, now watch what happens here. When the alabaster box is used and the ointment is used, verse 8, when His disciples saw they had indignation, saying, to what purpose is this waste? But who led them? It was Judas who was the first one to speak. And here's the only thing that God's trying to teach us in the passage. Hey, watch it, simple child of God. Don't follow after the teaching of a Judas. Don't follow after the teaching of someone who's received another spirit. We're easily deceived. We need to stay close to the Lord, or we just get together and say things that sound plausible and semi-biblical. I've got to take care of the poor. No, we need to... He didn't come to take care of the poor. He came to call sinners to repentance. And that's what we need to do. And Jesus said, you're always going to have the poor. You think the world's going to get fixed while I'm gone? You've got the poor right here now and I'm here. Now, you won't have the poor when I return. But the more important thing is I'm more important than the poor. You're better off giving your gift to my work and my Gospel than you are to poor people. You're better off putting your money into someone that's putting in admissions than someone who's building homeless shelters and someone who's building soup kitchens. Do you understand that, Christian? That's what Jesus is saying. And this social gospel has confused so many of God's people. They're throwing money in every which direction instead of putting it into people that are giving out the gospel. And over in Africa, we got them doing home Bible studies. My son goes into houses and does home Bible studies. They don't have the money. That missionary that's going to be visiting us next week, he does Bible studies in a garage right now. That's all he has. He's done home Bible studies. They're hoping maybe one day they can find a building to rent. They don't need a building to sit around the table with Jesus and his word. And they're getting together. And that's where the friends are. Jesus verse 10 says in Matthew 26. Why are you troubling the woman? Why trouble you the woman? She hath wrought a good work upon me. You'll have the poor always with you, but Me you have not always. 4. In that she hath poured the ointment on My body, she did it for My burial. Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this that this woman hath done be told for a memorial of her." And you're reading it right there. And it's in three of the Gospels. And you know where it's gone? Out to the whole world. And there's not a Christian that's read the New Testament that doesn't know about what she did. Well, that's just for her. No. For any of my friends that gather together with me and give on me and help people come out of the poverty of spiritual destitution, not financial destitution, and become born again, they'll be known. They'll be known in the millennium, and they'll be known for all of eternity. Those things will be written in the Lamb's Book of Life, which is eternal. Those rewards will shine forever. They fadeth not away. And so we're seeing final days, friend or foe? Verse 14, Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, What will you give me? And I'll deliver them unto you. And they come and entered with him for thirty pieces of silver. That was the... Let me find it. It's in the book of Exodus. I think it's 21. Exodus 21. Verse 32. This is what Judas thought of Jesus. This is what the chief priests thought of him. This is talking about if an ox, 28, gore a man or a woman that they die, then the ox is stoned. But verse 32, if an ox pushes a man-servant or a maidservant, you've got a... a maidservant, manservant, almost like you think of a slave, but the lowest rung on the totem pole of society than the owners to give the master 30 shekels of silver. And in other words, that's just the most worthless person in society is worth 30 shekels of silver. And that's what religion thinks of Jesus. He's the most worthless person on the earth. less important than our stained glass windows, not as important as our saints, not as important as Mary, not as important as we are because we're running this place. A bow down and kiss this ring. And we see this battle back and forth. Now, when you put all the time periods together, what you're seeing is John showed us that this happened six days before, not two days before. So it was that Saturday when that thing occurred in Bethany, the anointing occurred. And it was at that particular time there that after that money was spent, that Judas, thinking he just got cut short some of the vig that he should have had from that deal, ran to make a deal with the chief priests. And on that Saturday, the day before Jesus entered at the triumphal entry, they had determined that, let's covenant, Verse 16, and you seek opportunity, Judas, to betray Him. You've got to find when the right time is to turn Him over to us. And that was on the Saturday. On the Tuesday when they gathered together as the feast was building up and Jesus has now come in, and some people are going hosanna to the King of the Jews, they're thinking, you know what? We better not do it this week. We better, warn Judas, find the opportunity to do it some other time. Well, we can do a little more. Let's see if we can get there. So here's what happens on the Wednesday, verse 17 of Matthew 26. And we're going to see how the religious rulers determined it's not going to happen this week. But God had determined it's not only going to happen that week, it's going to happen on that particular day because my Son is the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world, and no one's going to keep Him from His divine appointment. I don't care. how much you guys get together and consult by subtlety. My son is going to pay for the sin of the world on that day. He's got an appointment of all of history right on that day. And so what happens on the Wednesday, verse 17, on the first day of the Feast of the Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and they said to Him, Where wilt thou that we prepare to eat to the Passover? And he said, Go to the city to such a man, and say to him, The master saith, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at thy house with my disciples. And again, we see the friends in a home gathering. And in the prior verses, we saw Judas and the foes in big religion. And again, it shakes down to two things, friend or foe. Big religion, holding hand with the people of the world, or gathering together in simplicity in communion with Christ in small gatherings. Verse 19, the disciples did as Jesus appointed them. They made ready the Passover. When the even was come, he sat down with the twelve. As they did eat, he said verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. And now Jesus is beginning to force Judas to make his move. And they were exceeding sorrowful and began every one of them to say to him, Lord, is it I? I remember as a young Christian reading that and going, why would they say that? They're the disciples of the Lord. You know, it's so cute when you're a young child in the Lord. I mean, you're just a little bit new man and you're a whole bunch old man. and you quickly meld that new man to the old man, and you quickly take all the good things you do in your life, and you see it as part of that new man, and you think, I would never say to me, Lord, is it I? I would never betray you, says a new baby Christian. Now, as an older Christian, I think I'd be one of the first ones if Jesus walked in this room right now and just said around this room, one of you has betrayed me this past week. First thing I think is, is it I? What does he know? He knows what I did. And the closer you get to the Lord, the more you realize how short we come of the glory of God. Now, thank goodness we're given that new birth, but we begin to grow and we begin to understand better. And the disciples say, is it I? Not the childish believers. Is it her? Is it him? Wouldn't be me. I'm with you, Lord, all the way. I love you, Lord. I tell you all day long, I love you, I love you, I love you. Okay, right. Is it I? Say the disciples. And then he answered and said, well, he that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. And the Son of Man goeth as it is written of Him, but woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed." It would have been good for that man if he had not been born. One of the things we learn is that to betray Jesus Christ is a woe. That's a curse from Almighty God. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, the Apostle Paul wrote. The love of Jesus Christ is found in our heart when we open our heart to Him. And if we do not open our heart to Him like Judas didn't, and we're betraying Him in our heart and in our soul, which is the most precious thing we have. God is a God of the heart. I'm not willing that any soul should perish. All souls are mine. And if we won't do that, we end up with the woe. Another thing we learn about it is there are some people that teach that Judas was a devil. No, he was a man. He was a man, his father was Simon, Judas son of Simon. He's from the land of Kerioth, Judas Iscariot. He was a guy, that was his birthplace over there in Kerioth. He was a regular man, but he gave place to the devil. And God's trying to show you, you can either open your heart to give place to the devil, or sadly you can go, that's sad if you do that, or gladly you open your heart to the Lord, and you let him in your heart. Then Judas, which betrayed him, said, Master, is it I? Look at verse 22. What did they say? Lord, is it I? Look at verse 25. Master. Jesus is the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Savior sent from heaven. Jesus may be a master in a teaching sense, but the closer you draw to him through his word, you will call him Lord. The more you are in one of those corrupt versions, the more you'll refer to Him as Master. And you'll hear those teachers very often refer to Jesus Christ as your Master, the Master. That's another spirit. The Holy Ghost will direct you to bow the knee to Him as Lord and refer to Him as Lord 99% of the time. and maybe 1% of the time is Savior, because that was an event from a long time ago. Right now, He is the Lord, ideally, of your life and the Lord of your walk. And that's that bond all through the Bible. God goes from this deity term, God, that most people don't know. There was some movie on yesterday. I don't remember what it was. And the guy was saying, God's got a sense of humor. And I looked and I go, neither one of those guys knows God. The script writers don't know God. The producers don't know God. The rest of the actors don't know God, but they know the term. And God's just a fable to them. But when you get born again, you refer to him as the Lord. My Lord did this. My Lord, thank you, Lord. Praise the Lord. That's the kind of things that you say. And disciples refer to him as the Lord, and the betrayer refer to him as the master. and we're running out of time, and I spent a lot of time on the Last Supper next week. But what we're seeing is they had determined, we're not going to have it on this week. We've made that determination on Saturday. On Tuesday, Jesus says, no, it's going to be Thursday. And on Wednesday night, He begins to flush Judas out, and He tells him, what thou doest, do quickly. And Judas, in his confusion, thinks, I better move now. Perhaps he's going to leave town. Because I don't believe these things he said about laying his life down. I don't believe that about him. He's going to skip town. I better go right now and grab the guards and grab the temple police and take him this very night. And that's what they did. And he ended up going the very day that his father said. And so we see the control that God the Father and God the Son has. And more importantly, in your last days, God the Father and God the Son have the control to determine whether you've been a friend or a foe. And those are the only two choices you have. And God wants you to make the choice before your last days. Behold, now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. Any thoughts, comments, and questions of the little passage we looked at today? Then let's pray. Father, we thank you in these final days that our Lord set forth his head as a flint and went to Jerusalem so that he would lay down his life. No man taketh of me, he says. I lay it down willingly, and I lay it down, Father, on the day you set, so that I may set the captives free. And help, Lord, us to take some of the unwitting foes and make them friends of our Savior. This we pray in Jesus' name, amen.