Please open your Bibles to Mark chapter 14. Tonight we will look at and study verse 12 to verse 21. Mark chapter 14 beginning in verse 12. Listen now to the word of the Lord. And on the first day of the unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover? And he sent two of his disciples and said to them, go into the city and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. follow him, and wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, the teacher says, where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples? And he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready there prepared for us." There prepared for us. And the disciples set out and went to the city and found it just as he had told them. And he prepared the Passover. And when it was evening, he came with the 12 and as they were reclined at the table and eating, Jesus said, truly I say to you, one of you will betray me. One who is eating with me. They began to be sorrowful and to say to him one after another, is it I? He said to them, it is one of the 12, one who is dipping bread into the dish with me. For the Son of Man goes as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been better for that man if he had not been born." This is God's Word. Father, we thank You for Your Word. We pray Your blessing on our teaching and our study of it tonight. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, we have now entered into the sequence of events now that's going to produce the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. It really starts on the Passover, the night before Good Friday. the event of the Last Supper. And there's three things I want to highlight from this passage. One thing is very obvious is the mastery of the Lord Jesus Christ, the sovereign mastery over everything that's happening. And that's a very important point because we never want to think that Jesus was a victim. It's kind of a sad, I think it's the right word, when you listen to well-meaning secularists giving their version of Jesus. Well, you know, he was trying to change society but, you know, they, because he was such a good guy that they took him down. Well, there's truth to that-ish. But the Bible declares that Jesus atoning death is a work that he performed in obedience to the Father, as they together, also with the Holy Spirit, were arranging the redemption of their people. And you think John's gospel, I suppose, above all the others, although it's true in all of them, John 17, as Jesus prepares after this meal, he says, the Son of Man has come to accomplish all that you gave him to do. So the Bible makes clear that the eternal second person of the deity of the Godhead, God the Son, became incarnate on a mission with an established work that he was going to do. And there's a lot of signs of that sovereign mastery in this passage. First is it's the Passover. Now you can figure out the symbolism between the atoning death of Jesus and the Passover that was literally taking place. This is the night of the Passover meal because the Passover was itself a sacrament designed to point to an event. It pointed backwards to the occasion in Egypt on the last of God's plagues upon the Egyptians. where the angel of death came and struck all the firstborn of Egypt, except those houses that were marked by the blood of the lamb." Isn't the divine authorship of scripture wonderful? That there's one author, there's one mind, there's one story, there's one truth going through all of this. And of course the angel of the Lord did pass, he passed over those homes so that their children alone, even the livestock, the firstborn of those which were slain, And they were being reminded by the Passover that they were redeemed not because they were better than the Egyptians. But they were redeemed by the blood. It was by the shedding of blood. And that's what they posted. The Christianity is a bloody religion. It's not a nice religion. It's not humanism. We are saved by the sacrificial death. And of course, it's not the blood of Jesus chemically. It is the death of Jesus, the judicial death bearing the curse of which the blood is the proof. Well, isn't it, isn't it funny? Just so happens that while they were celebrating that sacrament at the old covenant that pointed to the work that he, actually the Passover also pointed forward then because it's not the lamb that would do it, the writer of Hebrews says, In fact, the writer of Hebrews not only says it's the case, he tells us that they were aware of the case that the blood of bulls and goats was not sufficient to atone for sin. The Old Testament saints were aware of that. They knew that they were symbolic of a great atoning death that the Messiah would offer. They didn't quite have that clear, but the Old Testament did. And here he is presenting himself for that work. And what day of the calendar is it? It is the Passover. Now, you might say, well, you know, a skillful person could arrange it. Not easily. Let's just say that. I have learned from government service that most conspiracy theories are wrong because they overrate the competency of the government body they are describing, particularly if it's the United States government. I'm skeptical of all U.S. government conspiracy theories because I have been in the U.S. government. But that is true, generally speaking. But look at the Lord Jesus. And you do see this in the flow. You know, in John 7, six months earlier at the Feast of the Tabernacles, Jesus did not show himself because the time had not yet come. So no doubt he is managing it in regular ways, but he is sovereignly organizing these things. In fact, the chapter began, if you remember, with the scribes and the Pharisees saying, we're not going to do it during the feast. It's too politically dangerous. Let's get through the Passover, get through all that stuff. And it didn't matter. It was his sovereign timetable. Isn't it wonderful that the same Savior who says to us, I give them eternal life and no one will snatch them out of my hand. that he is sovereignly able to ordain and establish all things. And then we have the arrangements here. Now, we're not told much. It could be that Jesus, you know, there's some slack time in the gospel account. Maybe he'd went over and sent a note to the guy. I wouldn't be shocked if that were the case, where he physically in a normal way made these arrangements. Although we have a lot of examples, you think of the triumphal entry where he sends the disciples to go to a certain place and to find a donkey and to say so-and-so and they let him do it. Whether he did it by normal means or I'm very suspicious, it was not by means that you and I have. But he arranges for this room to be prepared. Now the room is beneficial in a couple of ways. One is he can't be in public because they're trying to arrest him. There's a warrant out for him. And so even though they don't want, they don't want to do it now, but they do want to get their hands on him. And so there is a timetable safety thing, but we know from John's gospel that that was going to be a very significant meeting that Jesus was going to have. You have the events of John 13 with the foot washing that includes the, all the stuff I've been talking about from first John, where the new commandment I give you to love one another. He discourses on that. And then you have that valuable material in John 14, 15, and 16 about the coming of the Holy Spirit. And so he's really, this is an important time of instruction. Now, what I love about that, if you said to me, I know it's absurd, but if I was a sovereign being and the event that was about to take place was my torture and my, unjust execution, I would more likely be thinking about me than you. But it's a consistent feature in all the Gospels as Jesus is drawing near that while he's managing the events, he's going to accomplish the work he is called to do. At the same time, if you say what's going on in his thoughts, he's thinking of his disciples. I think my favorite example of this is in the case of blind Bartimaeus. We did this when he's going through Jericho. This is the day before the triumphal entry. So he's got the cross on his mind and the blind man cries out from the crowd, son of David have mercy on me. And he had that wonderful sentence and he stopped. And Jesus was not, Jesus is not too preoccupied with maintaining, upholding all things, managing the universe, sovereignly governing the decree of God. to listen to your prayer, to care about you. His eye is on the sparrow and he cares about me. We see that here, what he's making arrangements for has to do with the blessing of his church. How precious is the church to the Lord Jesus. And on the night of his arrest, he's going to be arrested later this night. What he's orchestrating are those things, yes, the accomplishment of the work in terms of his arrest, but also the ministry that will be so essential. Where would we be without John 14, 15, and 16? Those are really significant chapters. And the Lord made sovereign arrangement for them. And he also arranged, he knew in advance who was going to betray him. Now, you get a little variations between the gospel accounts. All the gospel accounts talk about Jesus identifying in advance during the meal, during the Passover meal. He tells them, you talk about that, you know, a coin dropping on the table. There's the Lord Jesus. Oh, by the way, one of you is going to betray me. And we're told that, you know, they were kind of stunned by that. Is it me? Am I the one to do it? But Jesus knew in advance that one of his disciples was going to betray him. In fact, he knew who it was. And by the way, the reason we have different versions is because you have real authentic eyewitness documents. And I do think when you get to someone who's writing afterwards, I think Mark probably was written first. You get some other details thrown in. John's gospel makes it very deliberate. Here what you have is, Is it I? They began to be sorrowful to say to him and one another, is it I? And he said to them, it is one of the 12, one who is dipping bread into the dish with me. Well, John specifies in his gospel a pretty direct, in fact, a explicitly direct communication between Jesus and Judas Iscariot. And he says, the one to whom I hand this bread is the one who will betray me. And then he says, what you're going to do, do it quickly. And so Jesus, so this conspiracy, well, here's a pretty good conspiracy. They actually managed to nab and unlawfully execute the Lord Jesus, yes, but he's sovereignly in control of it. He knows everything they're doing. You know, we live in a time where, I mean, we can be somewhat alarmed about things going on in America. If we were in China today, I think we'd be really alarmed. And if you imagine being a Christian in Jordan or Iran today, there's very few. They've mostly been sent into exile. But we have a lot of things to worry about. The Lord is one step ahead of every one of them. And that does not mean he keeps bad things from happening. But he uses even the bad things to do good things. And we know that for those who love God, all things work for good according to his purpose. And so when we're going through trials, it is God who is working in the trials and we know he has committed himself to our salvation. I've got a physical next week. I took blood yesterday. It is possible that I could learn next week. I have some dreadful disease. I hope not. I always pray about it as a warning of, you know my belief about James 4.2, you have not because you ask not, I'm asking. But if that was to happen, as a Christian, I would be able to know that God is going to use this for good. And he's fully aware of what Judas is going to do, but the work of the evil one, those things being done to hurt him are going to help him to accomplish his purpose. So they will for us, because as it's so clearly displayed here, we serve and trust a sovereign redeemer. And he has all things in his hands. And he just exhibits a mastery of the circumstances. In the chaos of our lives, it doesn't look that way. But that's why Paul says, we live by faith, not by sight. It doesn't look that way, but by faith, we know that it's true. That the same God who was in this passage is the God who stood up in the boat and said, peace be still, and the winds and the waves obeyed. I always love that line in Katerina von Schlegel's Be Still My Soul, that we shouldn't, he who, how does it go? I'm thinking about. The waves and winds still know Him who stilled them long ago. The trials, the powers of this world still recognize and heed His voice. Now, second of all, what a study we have in Judas Iscariot, a dreadful study in the doctrine of sin. Here's Judas. Now we've had a lot of bad things said about Judas. He's a professing believer. He's a member of their little church. One thing, the other disciples don't suspect him up until this time. So it's not like Judas stuck out like a sore thumb. If he did, they didn't have eyes to see it. There will be, we are told, but not necessarily in every small group, that there will be false conference in the church. The Apostle John and 1 John warns against apostasy for a reason. And here is Judas, and he is secretly plotting with the chief priest, and he's already made the arrangements, and we'll see it come to fruition that he's going to betray Jesus. There's really two main ideas about it. One is he's more in sympathy with the zealots. He's got a political thing he wants to get going. Although the gospel writers take a lower road with him, that he's greedy. But he is a reprobate. This man is a reprobate. Now look at this situation. He hasn't yet committed the sin for which he's going to be famous. He has in his heart, he's made the arrangement, but before he commits the sin, Jesus, the son of God, looks at him, tells him he knows he's going to do it, and then he actually says it would be better for that man, woe to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed, it would have been better for that man if he'd not been born. Then you go, well, that would persuade me, not if you weren't regenerate. What a picture of total depravity and the need for the sovereign work of God to change the heart. I mean, in a nap, if the unregenerate were able to repent and believe, is there a scenario that would be more potent than this one? In front of the other disciples, after he's washed their feet, they've had the Passover meal, Jesus is there, and yet he is not able to repent. He's not able to believe these words of Jesus, which were not designed to save him, but they certainly ought to have had the effect. This is why we need to be praying and all of our evangelism as we're raising our children. Nothing's gonna work unless they're born again. Nothing's gonna work unless God would sovereignly, you go, well, he's predestined that. Yeah, but we don't know who he's predestined. And he used, and part of his predestination, part of that involves the means of which we are the means by praying for them and witnessing to them, but we are absolutely dependent upon the sovereign work of God. You think of Matthew 16, where Peter gives a great confession. You are the Christ, the son of God. And Jesus says, flesh and blood did not reveal this to you. There's no natural persuasion. It was my father who was in heaven has opened your eyes and heart to this. And here is a dreadful portrait of the spiritual condition of the reprobate of those who are blind and whose hearts are hard as stone. Now, people like this are converted. In fact, we are this way. The manifestation may be different. the Judas's are converted, but you have the thing in Hebrews chapter six verses four to six, where he discusses a true reprobate, where Hebrews four to six says, once you've been enlightened, it doesn't mean born again, but if you've made profession of faith and you've been there, I put it this way, Judas had a personal secondhand knowledge of the grace of God in Christ and he knew but not believingly, but he knew that he was the Son of God and the Savior, yet he hardened his own heart. And the writer of Hebrews says, crucifying all over again the Savior, Peter says, who bought him. that person can not be brought to repentance is what Hebrews 4, 6, 6 says. I like the way the writer of Hebrews puts it, he doesn't say that God can't do it, he says we can't do it. But we certainly have a picture here of the hardened reprobate who when you have, and we want to warn people about this, as a pastor I've had occasions where someone was in the act of this type of apostasy. And I've had to say, do you realize the pit of doom on the precipice of which you're standing? Because if you, knowing the truth, renounce Jesus, you run the risk of being in this kind of state. We're told later on that, actually in Matthew's gospel, that the next day, it's actually before Jesus is crucified. He realizes the truth of the situation, but not in a believing way, in a condemning way, and he hangs himself. And so here we have this dreadful state of the apostate. It does show, of course, the relationship between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. Clearly, this is by God's sovereignty. In fact, elsewhere we're told by God's appointment. It's actually prerecorded. It's what he's going to do is in fulfillment of scripture. So Judas is playing a part given him sovereignly by God. And of course, if we go, well, that's not fair for God to give him that part. You remember Paul's answer to that? Who are you, oh man, to talk back to God? And Paul uses the an illustration I wouldn't have the guts to give if I said, well, let's compare it to a potter and a potter's wheel and the pot. he can make of one, he can make one pot for this purpose, he can make another. I wouldn't be bold enough to use that, but that's what Paul quoting Jeremiah actually does use. God is, he is God. Who does he think he is? God or something? Yes, he thinks he's God or something. And he, may he, like Pharaoh, I raise you up for this purpose that my power be displayed in you. And yet, despite that eternal sovereignty, he was completely volitional in all that he did. And we do not teach predestination or the sovereignty of God in such a way that we are puppets. The Bible plainly teaches divine sovereignty, divine predestination. Peter in Acts 2, he says, you did according to the predestination of God. He predestined it, you did it. They actually did it. The Bible teaches human volition. I don't like to use the expression free will, because that's a loaded statement and concept that is largely erroneous. But we have will, we have volition, we make genuine decisions. And so it's true in salvation and in reprobation. But here on the reprobate side, he's not a puppet. People say, well, your divine predestination view makes us into puppets. Is that the picture we get here? Now, if you ask me, why doesn't it make us puppets? How is it that God is 100% sovereign and we're 100% responsible? My answer is where God makes an end of teaching, let us make an end of learning. I cannot give you the answer to that question, but the Bible declares both. Choose now whom you will serve this day, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. That statement does not overthrow Calvinism. Because we believe in human volition. We believe that people make choices. We believe that they're at and not puppets. I remember St. Clair Ferguson attributed our problems to American football in my Doctrine of God class with Ferguson. And he said, that's because if the ball's on the 20, it's 80 yards one way and 20 the other. And he goes, get the football metaphor out of your minds, which is particularly hard this week. Although, I mean, for all you Clemson fans, I mean, it's like nine weeks of no drama, right? The rest of us slaps, we have actual drama in our lives. But no, no, God is 100% sovereign and we are 100% volitional. And we, while we know that God is sovereign, we treat that volitional part extremely seriously. We appeal to people, we pray for people, we intervene for people, we witness to people, we help people because it's true. They're making actual decisions. Judas is not a puppet. By the way, neither is the Lord Jesus. If there's anyone whose life is not only predestined, but largely prerecorded, it was the Lord Jesus. I don't think anyone would say that he was a puppet. Well, let us be forewarned here about sin. Let me put it this way. At one point, Judas would not repent. But he got to the point, he crossed the line at some point where he could not repent. And that, if you are rejecting the gospel, if you're wanting to continue a life of sin, be very careful. Because the presumption that I have time is just that it's a presumption. because there is a hardening of heart. There is, and it's a judicial hardening. At one point, he would not repent. Now he's at the point where even when Jesus Christ says to him the very night, woe to the man who does what you're going to do. Here is the son of God telling you it'd be better than you didn't warn. He could not not do it. Such as the, not you, Dennis, I'm talking about pointing right down here, not at you. He's like, sorry about that. I try to hit open spaces, but I, he could not not do it. Such as the power of sin, such as the dreadfulness of the hardness of heart. I'll tell you when you, when you, of course, we always want to pray for people, but when you see someone who's really hardening their heart against God, really pray. And again, pastly, I've had a couple occasions where I've said to someone, you are hardening your heart against God. And the consequences of doing that are greater than I can explain to you. And usually when they go on to do it, it is in fact a woeful thing. Those who persist in sin, this is why Paul says, I tell you now is the day of salvation. Now is the favorable time to hear the gospel and to harden your heart does not make it easier to believe in the future. It actually makes it harder to believe in the future, and it risks coming to a state where you no longer are able to repent. Well, let me briefly, lastly, show that Jesus' respect for the Word of God. Here we have a little statement here in verse 21. For the Son of Man goes as it is written of Him. but woe to that man, so on and so forth. You're gonna hear that expression a lot in the passion account of the Lord Jesus. There's an awful lot as it is written. And it seems to Jesus as he is willingly offering himself, though he is utterly blameless, not only to receive judicial wrongdoing and a painful murder, but the actual wrath, the infinite wrath of God upon his holy divine soul on our behalf, that he was willing to do so on the simple basis of the word of God. And we try to rig a lot of things. We think that we're gonna try to rig a lot of words. I know the Bible says I can't marry a non-Christian, but it didn't say I can't date them. Well, how do you think you end up married, y'all? Or, that's just an easy example, but there's lots of other examples in how we behave in marriage, how we act together in the church. Jesus was not, he did not approach the word of God saying, you know, it's kind of a rough guide. It's subject to interpretation. You know, you can read out of it pretty much, people read all kinds of things. Anything can be read out of the Bible. It's not an argument Jesus makes. Now here he's referring to an event in the life of King David. Namely, during the rebellion of his son Absalom, Ahithophel, who was his closest advisor, turned against him and was the chief conspirator, by the way, he also hung himself. You get an awful lot of those parallels in the Old Testament. That's not by chance. And David makes the comment, and Jesus quotes it in other versions, the one who shared my bread has turned his back on me. Jesus understood that as a prophecy of what must happen to him, and he expected it to happen. He even orchestrated it happening. And if there's one, I said two things. One thing is on Jesus' heart. Jesus has the well-being, he's got a burden of love for his people in these final events, in the final hours of his life prior to his crucifixion. The other thing that fills his heart is an attention to details of the word of God. a care to see that he fulfilled, not because he was afraid of getting smacked if he messed up, because it's the word of God, it is true. It was how he lived before the father. He lived, living under the, you said, what happened to him? Yes, well, it worked out all right in the end. But Jesus, he considered living according to the word to be the way of life. I think of Psalm 19, the word of the Lord is pure, radiant, pure, giving light to the eyes, making wise the simple. This is Jesus' idea. Jesus clearly understood that the word of God was true, was the way of eternal life, was the way to fulfill the purpose of God in his own life, and he was willing to entrust himself even to death on the cross. Now it wasn't only because he read it in the Bible. He is the eternal son of God who was present for the pre-eternal covenant with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And yet the way that he describes it is to fulfill the word of God. And Jesus, are we willing to, as it may seem to us, are we willing to go down over the word? Are we willing to fail? Are we willing to be made losers because we are yoked to the word of God? We don't think it's legalism. It's one of my pet peeves. Someone says, it doesn't happen often, but it happens occasionally, Pastor Phillips, you're a legalist. And this hurts my feelings. And I say, how can you call me a legalist when I always teach salvation by grace alone through faith alone? They say, oh, because you say we have to obey the Bible. Oh, the law of the Lord is good. Reviving the soul is the answer. That's not legalism. It can be done in a legalistic way, but it's not legalism. And if we wanna follow his example, if we wanna go along the path that he blazed for us, then we will be willing to be fools for Christ. Fools in the world. If only we would uphold the word of God. Wisdom is to become not wise in our own eyes. Growth and wisdom as a Christian is to go, you know the Bible's right. Now, there are times when the interpretation is not clear. Let me say that may occur once or twice in your life. 98% of the time, you know perfectly well what the Bible's telling you to do, and so do I. It's not that complicated. And Jesus shows us is the way of blessing the way of honoring God and the way by which God's glorious purposes, which are purposes of grace, are through His Word. But what a tragedy it is in a generation where the Bible-believing churches are trying to accommodate the world. Here's why we don't accommodate the doctrines of the world, even though they might not think we're trendy. I actually think we are pretty cool, hip people. But the price tag of embracing the world's doctrines, it's not actually an effective thing to do. We will have life through obedience to the word, Yes, even though it requires us to carry a cross, even though in the world we bear his scorn and his shame, and we die in that obedience, but we live in that obedience to God's word, the respect that Jesus had. Well, now is the day of salvation through the word of God, trusting in him. Father, I thank you for this brief study in Mark chapter 14, what a savior Jesus is. And we trust Him. And we look to Him with glory in our hearts, Father, that He did this for us. He died for me. Oh, might I live for Him. And Lord, doing that will be attentive care to your life-giving word. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.