Luke 22, verse 1, Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Passover, was approaching. The chief priests and the scribes were seeking how they might put Him to death. For they were afraid of the people. And Satan entered into Judas, who was called Iscariot, belonging to the number of the twelve. And he went away and discussed with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them. They were glad. They agreed to give him money. So he consented and began seeking a good opportunity to betray him to them, apart from the crowd. Then came the first day of unleavened bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. And Jesus sent to Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare the Passover for us, so that we may eat it. They said to him, Where do you want us to prepare it? And he said to them, When you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him into the house that he enters, and you shall say to the owner of the house, The teacher says to you, Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with my disciples? And He will show you a large, furnished upper room. Prepare it there. And they left and found everything just as He had told them. And they prepared the Passover. Well Lord, as we Come to the hours approaching Your offering of Yourself. Let us do so, Lord, in humility and, Lord, with a sense of Your goodness, righteousness, Your beauty. In Christ's name, Amen. So last Lord's Day, we concluded our study of the Olivet Discourse where Jesus told His disciples that before that generation passed away, that magnificent temple in Jerusalem, the place where the Jews for hundreds of years had come to offer animal sacrifices and to worship God, would fall to the ground. Not one stone left upon another. The city of Jerusalem would be destroyed. by Gentile conquerors. And the disciples themselves, Jesus told them, would face severe persecution. Some would die a martyr's death. Jesus told them they would be hated by all for His namesake. And He warned those who believed in Him that when they saw the siege around Jerusalem, they must get out of the city. If they're outside the city, don't come in. Flee to the hills. He wanted them to understand that the kingdom of God was coming in judgment on Jerusalem and on the nation of Israel within the next 40 years. Now Luke turns to the week of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Passover. And so there were three feasts that we know God commanded, that required that all Jewish adult males had to attend in Jerusalem. And so the city was packed. Tens of thousands, probably hundreds of thousands, had come to Jerusalem for what was an eight-day feast. Passover, one of the three, ordained by God. And this feast, Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, commemorated God's miraculous deliverance of the sons of Jacob from slavery in Egypt. So verse 1, Luke writes, Now the feast of unleavened bread, which is called the Passover, was approaching. Now these are actually two different feasts, but they go together. And as ordained by God, Passover was a one-day observance on the fourteenth day of the first month. It was the twenty-four hour period from sundown on the fourteenth day of the month until sundown on the following day. And that year, Passover the fourteenth, came on Thursday. The Feast of Unleavened Bread was a seven-day feast, and it began the following day, the 15th, at sunset. So this is the first month. The 14th day was Passover. The 15th day began a seven-day feast called the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And remember, the Lord told them they must remove all leaven from their house during that week and not eat any bread made with leaven. But these terms Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread came to be used pretty much interchangeably. And Luke does that right here. So sometimes when one spoke of the Passover, he was referring to the entire eight-day feast. And this is why we get a little confused sometimes when we read of these terms. Because they did come to be used in a way a little different from the way God had ordained them. Now we do the same thing today. Thanksgiving is one day, right? But we might say we're off for Thanksgiving. We don't mean we're off one day. We mean we're off on Friday too, don't we, Ron? We're off Saturday. We're off Sunday. Maybe Monday. we use the term Thanksgiving referring to a period of several days. And here we see these two terms used interchangeably here in Luke 22. Now I'm going to explain what the difference is when necessary. But understand that's what's happening here. Passover is actually the 14th. It's one day. Feast of Unleavened Bread is seven days. And it begins on the 15th. Passover, again, commemorated Yahweh's deliverance of the sons of Jacob. Two million of them, we believe, from their Egyptian bondage. Across the Red Sea and all these things. And Moses' account of the Passover is recorded in Exodus 12. But the setup we find in Exodus 11. The Lord told Moses he was now going to bring the last of ten judgment plagues on Egypt, on Pharaoh. So Exodus 11, I'm going to read a little bit of it if you want to turn there. I'm also going to be reading from Exodus chapter 12. Exodus 11. Now the Lord said to Moses, One more plague I will bring on Pharaoh and on Egypt, and after that he will let you go from there. So he's already brought nine plagues. The frogs and the flies and river turning to blood. A number of those plagues, nine of them. The Lord's going to bring one more, he tells Moses, and then Pharaoh will let you go. When he lets you go, he will surely drive you out from here completely. He's not only going to let you go, he's going to drive you out of here. Speak now in the hearing of the people, that each man ask from his neighbor and each woman from her neighbor for articles of silver and articles of gold. The Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Furthermore, the man Moses himself was greatly esteemed in the land of Egypt, both in the sight of Pharaoh's servants and in the sight of the people. ... Now remember, Moses grew up in the house of Pharaoh. Verse 4, Moses speaking to Pharaoh here, tells him, Thus says the LORD, At midnight I am going to go out into the midst of Egypt, and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of the Pharaoh who sits on the throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the millstones, all the firstborn of the cattle as well. Moreover, there shall be a great cry in all the land of Egypt, such as there has not been before, and such as shall never be again. But against any of the sons of Israel, a dog won't even bark, whether man or beast, that you may understand how the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. All these, your servants, will come down to me and will bow themselves before me, saying, Go out, you and all the people who follow you, and after that I will go out. And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger. Now what we must remember is the whole calendar of the Jewish nation was established on the occasion of the Passover. On the occasion of the Lord's deliverance of the sons of Jacob from their Egyptian oppressors. In fact, the nation of Israel, as a nation, was about to be born. Now Exodus 12, verse 1, Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, still in the land of Egypt, This month shall be the beginning of months for you. Here's the calendar. It is to be the first month of the year to you. Now this is around April for us. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves according to their father's households. A lamb for each household. Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them. According to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb. Your lamb shall be an unblemished male... Foreshadowing of Christ. ...a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the month. So you take it on the tenth, keep it until the fourteenth. And then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that same night. roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Don't eat it raw or boiled with water, but rather roasted with fire, both its head and its legs, along with its entrails. And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning you shall burn with fire. Now you shall eat it in this manner... Yes, the Lord prescribes the manner in which it was to be eaten. ...with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, your staff in your hand, and you shall eat it in haste... Why? Because this was going to commemorate their sudden departure from Egypt. It is the Lord's Passover. For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments. I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live. When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. The Passover was a seminal event in the entire history of the nation of Israel. A couple more passages. Numbers 28, verse 18. Now this is referring to the Feast of Unleavened Bread that begins on the 15th. Numbers 28, 18. On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work. You shall present an offering by fire, a burnt offering to the Lord, two bulls, one ram, seven male lambs, one year old, having them without defect. Verse 22, And one male goat for a sin offering to make atonement for You shall present these besides the burnt offering of that morning, which is for a continual burnt offering. It's a worship offering. Verse 24, After this manner you shall present daily for seven days the food of the offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord. It shall be presented with its drink offering in addition to the continual burnt offering. On the seventh day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work. And when Moses gave his final instructions to the sons of Jacob on the east side of the Jordan River, here's what he told them. Deuteronomy 16, 1. Deuteronomy 16, 1. We're almost at the end of our readings. Now here, the month of Nisan, as it was called in the times of the New Testament, was called Abib. Same month. Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God. For in the month of Abib, the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night. Now that's why they're celebrating this, to remember what He did for them. We celebrate the Lord's Supper, which the Lord would later institute that week, to remember what He did for us. Verse 2, You shall sacrifice the Passover to the LORD your God from the flock and herd in the place where the LORD chooses to establish His name. That's why everybody had to come to Jerusalem. at the temple, they would worship and offer their offerings, and in Jerusalem they would celebrate the Passover. You shall not eat leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction. For you came out of the land of Egypt in haste, so that you may remember all the days of your life, the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. This is why we celebrate the Lord's Supper. So that we may remember Christ on the cross dying for us. To deliver us. You are not allowed, verse 5, to sacrifice the Passover in any of your towns which the Lord your God has given you, but at the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish His name. You shall sacrifice the Passover in the evening at sunset at the time you came out of Egypt. And finally, Numbers 9.13, the man who neglects to observe the Passover, that person shall be cut off from his people. For he didn't present the offering of the Lord at its appointed time. That man will bear his sin. So this is the Passover. This is why everybody's in town that week. For all the sons of Jacob, as we have just read, participation in these feasts was mandatory. And now the celebration of these feasts commemorating God's miraculous deliverance of their forefathers nearly 1,500 years earlier was at hand. This was going to be a joyous celebration throughout the city. The Son of God Himself in human flesh was there. And what were the Jewish religious leaders doing? Verse 2, the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how they might put him to death. They weren't going to look to hire an assassin, by the way. They weren't secretly plotting an assassination. They were looking to carry out a judicial execution. They intended to arrest him quietly so the crowds wouldn't know. The crowds had just been celebrating Jesus' entry into the city. But they wanted to bring him before the Sanhedrin, condemn him to death on a trumped-up charge. This wasn't the first time we see the Jewish religious leaders plotting to kill Jesus. Their desire to kill Jesus had been one of longstanding. Matthew 12, 14. This was in Galilee. in reaction to Jesus healing a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath, the Pharisees, what did they do? Did they celebrate? They went out and conspired against Jesus as to how they might destroy Him. John 5, 18, during an earlier visit to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews, after Jesus had again healed a lame man on the Sabbath, John 5, 18, For this reason, therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the Sabbath, but he was also calling God his own father, making himself equal with God. They were seeking all the more to kill him. John 7, 1, After these things he was walking in Galilee, for he was unwilling to walk in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Not because he was afraid, but because the appointed time had not come. And then John 11, just maybe a week or so before the events of which we're reading this morning, when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard that Jesus had raised Lazarus, from death back to life. What did they do? Again, no celebration. They convened a council, John 11, 53. So from that day on, they planned together to kill Him. So while their desire, the desire of the Jewish religious leaders to kill Jesus was not a new development, it was now reaching its climax. It was coming to a crescendo. Just days earlier, Luke 19, Verse 45, Jesus had entered the temple, began to drive out those who were selling. They turned the temple into a stockyard, a money-changing place. Jesus said to them, My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a robber's den. And He threw them out of there. And He was teaching daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the leading men among the people were trying to destroy Him. Now this is just maybe a week earlier. So their settled intention was to kill Jesus, arrest Him and have Him killed, turn Him over to the Romans. But there were complications. And foremost among them was they feared the people. They were afraid of the people. Just days earlier, Jesus had arrived in Jerusalem in what appeared to be a messianic triumph. People were hailing Him as the Messiah sent from God, as the King of Israel. There were crowds, pilgrims who had come from Galilee and from Judea for the feast. And they're hailing Him as the Messiah. And if thousands of people thought Jesus was the Messiah, there might well be danger in opposing Him. Matthew 26, 3, Then the chief priests and the elders of the people were gathered together in the court of the high priest named Caiaphas, and they plotted together to seize Jesus by stealth and kill Him. But they didn't want to do it during Passover or during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. They were saying not during the festival, otherwise a riot might occur among the people. Now we know, sitting here 2,000 years later, the mood of the people changed. But while the Jewish authorities planned that the arrest, trial, and murder of Jesus must not take place during the festival, the divine decree was that it would indeed happen at that very time. God was in control. Matthew in particular shows us Jesus was in complete control of the events that week that culminated in His death and resurrection. In the Gospels, we don't see just an account of what some evil people did to a prophet from Galilee. We see what the Son of God incarnate willingly did for those He came to redeem. In the crucifixion of Jesus, we see the hand of God at work. God had determined. God had decreed that the sacrifice of the Lamb of God to redeem His people from bondage to sin and the penalty of their sin would occur at Passover. It was God who fixed the time. And we see this in Jesus' words. Matthew 26, 1, at the conclusion of the Olivet Discourse. Matthew says, when Jesus finished these words, He said to His disciples... Now here's Matthew 26 too. ...You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man is to be handed over for crucifixion. Notice Jesus was saying this at the same time the Jewish religious leaders were saying, can't do this during the festival. Jesus was in control. Here we can see this clearly. Every detail of His redemptive work had been set forth in the eternal decree of God. And the precise moment in time had been set for every step. And this wasn't the first time that Jesus told His disciples He was going to Jerusalem to be killed. Matthew 16, 21, from that time Jesus began to show His disciples He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed. Raised up the third day. Matthew 17, 22, they were gathering together in Galilee. And Jesus said to them, The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And He will be raised on the third day. Matthew writes, they were deeply grieved. And then Matthew 20, verse 17, Jesus told the disciples it was now the time to go up to Jerusalem for His execution. And that He would be raised on the third day. And so they made this 70-mile journey from Galilee to Jerusalem. As believers, I trust we understand. Jesus was not just saying He would be killed in Jerusalem. He was saying He was coming to Jerusalem with the express intention of being killed there. Not as a kind of masochist, but as an offering for our sins. Let us understand, brethren, He knowingly and willfully came forward to His death at the exact time ordained by God. As for the disciple, We've been able to see by now everything they said and asked. They had not understood what was happening, what was about to occur. But later, later, after the Spirit had fallen upon them, this truth that Jesus had willingly come was of great importance, both in strengthening their faith and in their preaching. So while Jesus was telling His disciples that He would be handed over for crucifixion in two days, the chief priests and the elders gathered in the palace of the high priest Caiaphas, plotting to seize him by stealth and to kill him. And the Jewish religious leaders had two allies. One who was one of the twelve, Judas Iscariot. But the other one was one who inhabits not the natural world, but the spiritual realm. Verse 3, Satan entered into Judas, called Iscariot. Iscariotes actually. Belonging to the number of the twelve. So the first thing we see here in verse 3 is the role of the evil one, the deceiver. The one Jesus called the ruler of this world. Satan entered into Judas. Name here, Judas Iscarioth, Iscariotes. And it's translated by some man of Carioth, a town in Judea, as we read in Joshua 15. And this may distinguish Judas from the other 11 disciples, all of whom were Galileans. This may very well be an indication Judas was a Judean. Judas was one of the twelve. He was chosen by Jesus. He traveled with Jesus. He was taught by Jesus over three years. He had witnessed the power of God working through Jesus and in Jesus in miraculous ways on many, many occasions. He had seen Jesus restore sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf. He'd seen a lame man get up and walk at Jesus' command. Judas had been on a boat that was being tossed by the waves in a violent hurricane on the Sea of Galilee when Jesus stood up and told the wind and the sea to be still. And the wind and the sea obeyed him. And Judas witnessed this. He'd been among those sent by Jesus and given power to cast out demons, given power to heal the sick and the lame. This was Judas. How could he turn on one who he should, by all accounts, have known was God? He had, as the writer of Hebrews put it, he had been enlightened by Jesus. He had tasted of the heavenly gift. He had been made a partaker of the Holy Spirit. He had tasted of the good word of God himself and of the powers of the age to come. And now it was evident he had fallen away. He was never truly born again. In his gospel, John told us Judas was an unscrupulous man. That he was a lover of money. That he had charged the money box of the disciples and that he stole from it. Though he had the benefit of three years with the Lord of glory, Judas was still a slave of Satan. And now Satan had entered into Judas. Satan had taken possession of him. One writer says Satan had taken control of his mind, heart, and will. Calvin says, Judas had lost all light of reason. He had lost all fear of the judgment of God. He was motivated by nothing but sinful impulses and sinful desires. That's clearly true. Was it simply greed? A few pieces of silver? Was he disappointed that Jesus wasn't the kind of Messiah they were all looking for? A military man. Scripture doesn't tell us. Never tells us this. But Satan entered into Judas. Now does this mean Judas was not responsible for his betrayal of our Lord? Hardly. Whatever his motive, Judas did what he chose to do. Richard Lenski, Satan did not enter into Judas by compulsion, but as a welcome master received by a willing slave. And now the evil plot began to unfold. But Satan didn't realize his wicked scheme would ultimately bring about his own destruction. Hallelujah. So Judas went away, discussed with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them. Notice he doesn't go to the Romans. He goes to the Jewish religious leaders, to the priests, Caiaphas, his father-in-law Annas, and to the temple officials. Now these chief priests were not descendants of Aaron. They were politicians. They were political men. They were appointed by the Roman governor. And they, as well as the scribes and the Pharisees, despised Jesus. They saw Him as a threat to their positions of power and influence. They had it pretty good, they thought. And they wanted Him dead. Just imagine this. They wanted Jesus dead. And Judas and the rest of the twelve were all aware of this. So Matthew tells us, 26, 15, that Judas said to them, What are you willing to give me to betray him to you? And they weighed out what? Thirty pieces of silver. Gave them to him. This was the price generated at Exodus 21, 32, when an ox would gore a male or female slave. The compensation was to be thirty shekels of silver. And then the ox would be stoned. They're glad to give him this 30 pieces of silver. And he consented. He says, okay, we've got a deal. And then, verse 5, he began seeking a good opportunity to betray him to them, apart from the crowd. Now they're still trying to do this without the crowd knowing. They're trying to do this after the Feast of Unleavened Bread. One thing's clear, they had finally begun, after all these couple of years trying to kill him, they'd finally begun to advance with their conspiracy. But they still feared the people. And as it was Passover, there were likely hundreds of thousands of people in Jerusalem. So, Judas now returns to Jesus with the blood money in his bag. Now, it was just a matter of finding the right moment to consummate the betrayal. You know, soon he was going to sit down with Jesus to eat the Passover with this money. Well verse 7, Luke shifts his attention to Jesus and His disciples. Now here again we see Luke using these terms Passover and unleavened bread interchangeably. Then came the first day of unleavened bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Well that's day one of the eight. Passover lamb would be sacrificed on Passover. But be that as it may, it was now Thursday, the fourteenth of the month, Nisan, what had been called Abib. It was the first day of the eight-day feast, the day when the Passover lamb must be sacrificed at twilight. You got to make preparations for this. There's thousands and thousands of people in town. Where are we going to find a place to celebrate the Passover? They had to obtain some unleavened bread, bitter herbs, some wine. They had to find a room and that room had to have its furniture precisely arranged. Remember how they've got to sit with their loins girded in them. And then the lamb had to be roasted and prepared for eating. And it's the day. It's that very day. So Matthew tells us the disciples asked Jesus, where do you want us to prepare the Passover? And Jesus, verse 8 of Luke here in chapter 22, sent Peter and John saying, Go and prepare the Passover for us, so that we may eat it. They said to him, Where do you want us to prepare it? He said to them... Now he doesn't tell them where. He says, when you get into the city, you're going to meet a man who's carrying a pitcher of water. Now what's interesting about that is, everywhere I read, women carried water in pitchers. In those days, men carried water in a flask. But now you're going to see this man carrying a pitcher of water. And they were to follow him. Follow him wherever he goes. He's going to go into a house. You go into that house. And say to the owner of the house, The teacher says to you, Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with my disciples? And that man will show you a large, furnished upper room. Prepare it there. And so Peter and John left and found everything just as he had told them. And they prepared the Passover. All of these things we've talked about. Now the question's been asked for 2,000 years. Did Jesus know this man carrying the pitcher of water? Had he met with him before and made this arrangement? Was this all a supernatural work of God? We are not told. We don't know. And we're not told this man's name. Now why would Jesus conceal the location where they were to eat the Passover and the name of the owner of the house? This may very well have been to prevent Judas from knowing where he was going to be until the proper time for his betrayal. In God's decree, remember what was going to happen before Jesus was betrayed. Before his arrest, Jesus must first observe this Passover with his disciples. He must institute the Lord's Supper, which we will celebrate today. And he still had much to say to his disciples when we look at John chapter 13, 14, 15, and 16. And then his prayer to the Father, glorify me with the glory that I had with you before the world was. His prayer for His disciples and for all who would believe in, through their word, that we may all be one with Him. So when the time came to take the ten to the upper room of this house, it was not until then, when they arrived there, that Judas would know the place. Again, let us understand, Christ was not unexpectedly dragged to his death by force. He willingly went to it because of his love for you and for me. He offered himself to his Father as the sacrifice for the sins of his people, willingly, just as God had decreed from the beginning. And so as the chief priests were plotting now to accomplish their plan, Jesus was at the same time carrying out His divine plan. He'd come into this world on a mission, and now the mission had brought Him to Jerusalem that that which was foreshadowed by the deliverance of the sons of Jacob from Egypt would be fulfilled. That He might fulfill God's eternal plan and purpose. the salvation of all those chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. In His divine providence, God was about to turn the treachery of Judas and the Jewish religious leaders, which He foresaw in eternity past, before the foundation of the world, so as to accomplish His own purpose, the salvation of wretches like us. Here's Peter. The Spirit had fallen 50-some days later. Acts 2.22. Men of Israel, listen to these words. Jesus, the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs, which God performed through him in your midst, just as you yourselves know. This man delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put them to death. Acts 4, 27, for truly in this city they were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your purpose predestined to occur. And don't think for a second that excuses the sin of anyone involved. The Son of Man had come to die to redeem His people from bondage to sin, to suffer the wrath of God for His people's sins, to remove the guilt and the stain of sin from His people. And this was all according to the decree of God. Yet the one who betrayed Him and brought it about was fully responsible for his own sin in doing so. So here we see the sovereignty of God. And at the same time, the responsibility of every man for his own sin. Don't blame God for your sin. You did what you wanted to do. And what do we see here in Judas? We see that Judas was not a changed man. I hope you all hear this. One born again is a new creation in Christ. Not just one of the twelve. It doesn't make you born again. It doesn't make you a changed man. Judas was the same man he was before Christ called him. And so he fell. He betrayed our Lord. couldn't help but have this question hover over this passage. Do we ever betray our Lord? When we deny Him, we betray Him. When we hide Him from others, we betray Him. When we fail to openly confess Him before men, we betray Him. Let's not be so easy on ourselves. Three things were taught here. One, let us never fail to confess Him before men. Let us never betray Him by failing to declare His love, His ways, His purposes. Even in a world that is hostile to Him, hates Him, mocks us because of our love for and our devotion for Him. Do people know you love Jesus? Do people know your devotion to Him? Let us never betray Him by failing to present Him and the eternal blessings that come to all those who believe in Him, to others. And let us never betray Him by living according to the ways of the one who ruled in Judah's heart that week. Second, the fall of Judas shows us one's mere presence in a church building among the people of God is not an assurance that one is in Christ. The question for every man is this, have I left my old self behind? Am I now walking with Christ or am I still a citizen of the world? Is my focus on Christ and the gospel or is it on the things of this world? Which is it? Am I about his kingdom? Am I about the world? Am I growing each day in conformity to His image? That's His command for us. Am I more like Christ today than I was six months ago? Am I gentler, more peaceful, more loving, more kind? Not just do I know more about Him than I did six months ago, but am I more like Him? Judas wasn't. He didn't change. And third, in Judah's fall, we see the absolute necessity of perseverance in the faith and of daily growing in Christ. Have no doubt, if you're not growing, becoming more like Christ each day, you're falling back. There isn't neutral. The example that the true child of God must follow each day is that of Paul. And I could have selected many, many passages, but Philippians 3.13 does it as well as anywhere. Brethren, writes Paul, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. So like Paul, let us press on. Let us be faithful to Him in all we think, say, and do. Let us walk in the newness of life that only He could provide. And let us do all things always to the glory of the One who, because of His great love for us, came to save us. Well, let's take a moment and reflect on the words our Lord has spoken into our minds and hearts this morning. And then let each one of us examine himself. And then let us come to his table.