Handling Judas (Part C)

The God of the Universe will do right. But once you learn about Him, now it's on you. Your sins have to be dealt with.

Well, verse 20, He answered and said to them, It is one of the twelve who dips with Me in the dish. I would have started a fast right then. That's it. I'm done. I'm not eating anything else.

A very simple formula. And maybe they did that, except Judas. And now here's Pastor Rick with the conclusion of his message called, Handling Judas, in Mark chapter 14. And he didn't like that. We talked about that last session. Clumsy humanistic people have tried to save the reputation of Judas.

It is a vain thing to do. They say, some of them, that Judas betrayed Jesus in order to force Jesus into revealing His power and establishing His messianic kingdom in Israel. Others say that he was nothing but a servant who obediently fulfilled God's prophecies. These are attempts to take Judas off the hook. We'll get to in a moment what God says about Judas. He was not a robot. He was a willing pawn of darkness.

He was a responsible human being who made his own choices. Just like when a pastor stands up and greets from Isaiah, Your sins have separated you. God is not deaf or blind. He sees what's going on. He is available.

He is a participant. But you don't want to come to Him. It's your choice. Don't go, you know, blaming God when you find yourselves in hell because you chose to not believe in Him.

You got what you wanted. And so this is the case with Judas. None who betray Jesus do it nobly, regardless of whatever human credentials they may hold or who they think they are impressing. There is no such thing as a helpless victim of merciless predestination. In other words, God didn't say, listen, you're going to hell and there's nothing you can do about it. He did not say, you know, when Judas is born, I'm going to make him a devil. That's why Christ is giving him these chances and calling him a friend up to the end. And it is a misguided theology that suggests that he was powerless in all of this. Judas was lost for the same reason.

Millions are lost today and countless multitudes, countless to us, have been lost over the centuries. Unbelief. Refusing to receive Christ. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Well, faith in what?

In Jesus Christ. Now back to John chapter 6, where they didn't care for that sermon. But there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe and who would betray Him.

There's two different groups there. There's that one that said, this is a hard saying, we no longer want you. Then there's Judas. He continues in John 6 and verse 66, from that time many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more. They were disciples and now they're not. It was their choice. Then Jesus said to the twelve, do you also want to go away? He did not say, please stay. He gave them the choice and he was going to honor their choice. If they said, yeah, we're done. He would have just went on about his ministry. He would not have given them a call the next day and said, we haven't seen you in church.

Are you planning to come back? We need to, you know, anyway. He just honored their decision. He treated them like adults. Given them a choice, thereby destroying the silly notion of this unalterable predestination, as I mentioned. Men may guess, but God declares. Men can say, well, you know, Judas, he was, you know, he really was.

No, he was a devil and he chose to be and he wasn't born that way. John chapter 13. Here's what God says. Now, after the piece of bread, Satan entered him. Matthew, John 17, 12. Those whom you gave me, I have kept and none of them is lost except the son of hell. That's the son of perdition.

Why is that? Because he did what the devil wanted, not God. Matthew 25. And he wasn't in the flesh.

This was his will. When we sin as Christians, it's the flesh. It is that sinful nature getting the upper hand. But when a person willfully rejects God, it is not their flesh. It is them.

It is who they are. They'll have will not have this man rule over us. Matthew 25, verse 46. And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. There's a consequence for your decision concerning the Christ. Because Christ knew that Judas and others would reject him. In no way means that he caused it. He simply knew what they were going to do. And he's not going to force them into heaven. No one in heaven will have lash marks on them from being driven in. He is a shepherd. He leads in. He's not a cattle driver. However, God still controlled his enemies as he does to this day.

That's what sovereignty does. John 13, 11. For he knew who would betray him. Therefore, he said, You are not all clean. This is when he washed their feet. He knew he would. He washed their feet. He said, You're clean because I've pronounced you clean. But Judas would have none of it. He just went through the ritual. He didn't mean it.

In the end, there's a contrast given to us. There's Peter, who failed because of his flesh and went out and wept and repented and was restored. And there's Judas, who regretted his decision. It didn't work out right. And he went and killed himself. He did not repent.

And these lessons are there for us to consider and understand. Since the church has been born miraculously, Satan has filled many hearts of churchgoers, some churchgoers who really don't care about Christ, but about themselves. In the book of Acts in the fifth chapter, there was a man and woman who pledged a large donation to the church. It could have been 30 cents. It would not have mattered. What mattered was is they lied about it. They really weren't interested in serving the Lord. They wanted people to applaud them.

They wanted to be recognized as these devout believers and givers. And Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? And there is one indication that the Holy Spirit is not an it, but a him.

He can be lied to. He is a person. If you have never been born again and you go to your death, you will wish you've never been born at all.

And this is what God is saying. It would be better if he was not born. But he was born. Listen, he could not stand before God and say, Well, I was so confused about things. Because God would say, Well, the other 11 were not.

And you, Judas, you kept the money box. And others trusted you because you were so intelligent. So are we to believe that the intelligent people of the world cannot believe? But the not so intelligent are the ones that get saved? No, it comes down to the individual. Intelligence has nothing to do with it.

It comes down to the will. I mean, you've got to use your brains to some degree and reason. But you do not have to be one of those high IQ types.

You can be of a lower IQ. Verse 19, And they began to be sorrowful and said to him one by one, Is it I? And another said, Is it I? You've got to love this part about these men.

Startled by his word, and one of you will betray me. That was the bombshell. Again, they should have had it. They did not. But they trusted his words more than their own hearts. If he said one was a betrayer, they believed it so much they felt it could be them. Instead of saying, No way.

Well, maybe, you know, Peter did not say, Well, John might betray you, but I'm not at this moment. The Greek is actually this. It's not me, is it?

That's the Greek phrase. It's not me, is it, Lord? And so when they say, Is it I? They're very concerned. They have skin in the game. They were suspicious of their own selves.

They weren't cocky at this point. We'll get to Judas in a moment about this. Eleven men were afraid and sorrowful.

The twelfth was not. Each man, no matter how much he hated this fact, he realized that he had the capacity to be a traitor. Paul says this in Romans about this thing about we people. He says, For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, nothing good dwells.

For to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. Do you know some commentators try to say Paul didn't know what he was talking about? Not the believing commentators, those liberal ones. I don't mean politically liberal, theologically liberal. Theologically liberal person is one that does not believe the Bible. But they use it nonetheless to criticize. Again, I don't understand. When people say, Well, have no more of the Bible, why do they still call themselves a church?

Why don't they go call themselves somebody else, the people with happy hats, or something? But they insist on corrupting Christianity that they don't even believe, and not consider that a mean thing to do. Anyway, the apostles were not above self-examination, and hopefully we are not either. They questioned their loyalty to God. Second Corinthians. And you see, here's the thing about the Corinthian letters. So, I'm saying, Well, Lord, we'd be coming to an end on Mark's gospel.

Where are we going next? I would like to do the book of Acts, because it's exciting. But a church needs correction, whether they want it or not. And where do you get that from? You don't get it so much from the Old Testament, because we can hide behind, well, those were the Jews. You get it from the letters in the New Testament.

They get up in your face. Paul says, What, you don't have houses to eat in? You got to come to the church and burden everybody? What, are you getting drunk at the communion table?

Who do you think? What is wrong with you? So, when you hear these things coming off the scripture in the presence of the Holy Spirit, in God's house that is the most special place on earth, the Holy Spirit begins to do His work. And that's what makes a strong and solid church, are people who can sit under the Word of God, together, rowing in the same direction, even if we are all messed up to some degree. So, this loyalty, Paul, when he gets to talking about the Corinthians, who were in 1 Corinthians, he dealt with the crazy ones, the ones that were really just not coming under the Spirit, but acting like they were.

It was an overall good church. He said none of them lacked the Spirit and the gifts, but they abused them, many of them, and they turned on him. But anyway, he says in the second letter, which is a little softer until you get towards the end, and he has to go again against the knuckleheads in the church. He says, examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you are disqualified? So, you come back and you hear these men say, is it I? They're examining themselves.

They're not cocky. Now, unfortunately, there are some Christians that give their life to Christ, and won't receive the forgiveness, and they question their faith when they shouldn't be questioning their faith, when they should be out serving the Lord, because they do know that He is their Savior. This is for those who are pretending, for those who dare to have the Lord wash their feet while they're intending to betray Him anyway.

These are beautiful things. I mean, I'm a person just like you. When I come to these things in the Scripture, I don't feel spooked by them. I may have reverence, there's the fear of God in me, but I see all of it as to, I've always felt, as the saying goes, if I were the only person born, Christ would die for me still. I've always felt His love.

Why would I not? He died for me. In that Christ demonstrated His love, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, Paul wrote to the Romans. He proves His love.

What more do you want? Is walking around, am I saved or not? What do you believe?

He died and rose again to take your sin away. And if you say, yeah, then don't let the devil trip you up and sideline you and make you a burden to everybody else. Get in the fight. Preach Christ.

Serve. These men, they often debated who was the greatest amongst themselves. Now here they are, faced with the vilest part of themselves. Matthew tells us what Judas said, Matthew 26. And Judas, who was betraying him, answered and said, Rabbi, is it I? And he said to him, you said it. What did he say? He didn't say anything different from the other guys. Well, yeah, he did. The others said, Lord, is it I? He says, Rabbi, is it I? There's a huge difference. Christ is not just this great man amongst the Ghandis and the Bahudas and whoever else is out there. That was intentional. Boy, he's so dumb he doesn't know how to say Bahuda. He says you shouldn't mock them. Why? I mean, they're sending people to hell.

I'm supposed to be impressed with this lie? Right now the Buddhists are leading the charge of persecuting Christians in Burma. They're slaughtering them. They're sending airplanes in military and slaughtering believers.

Why? What did these people ever do to anyone? Right now the Taliban are in Afghanistan going through people's phones and seeing if there's a Bible on it so they can publicly execute them as viciously as they can think of. And I'm supposed to be, well, you know, let's be respectful. Well, I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but I'm not going to be respectful of that which is disrespectful.

And if you don't like it, I'm sorry, but I'm not changing. Anyway, you know, Elijah on Mount Carmel said, you know, shout louder. Maybe your God's in the bathroom.

Maybe he's taking a nap. Was he supposed to respect these people for what they were doing to little babies that were born in their practice of sacrifice? Are we supposed to respect abortion clinics? I'm not saying we should do violence. I'm not saying, not physical violence. Spiritual violence is on the table.

So, back to this. All of them said, Lord, is it I except Judas, the unbeliever. They can, you know, they'll grant, well, Jesus was a good man. You know, he cared for the poor. He spoke about love. Yeah, well, is he the Lord God or not? That's what it comes down to, because if you get that question wrong, that perdition that he spoke about concerning Jesus is going to be spoken about you too. Who do you say the Son of Man is?

It is the most single important question about every human being. And then here come the protesters. What about the people who never believed?

What about this? Listen, the God of the universe will do right, but once you learn about him, now it's on you. Your sins have to be dealt with.

Well, verse 20. He answered and said to them, it is one of the twelve who dips with me in the dish. I would have started a fast right then. He says, the guy that eats with me, that's it. I'm done. I'm not eating anything else.

A very simple formula. And maybe they did that, except Judas. No one suspected it was Judas. The tragedy of Judas tells us that a man can fall slowly, that a human being can fall to sin in slow motion, that they can trade against Jesus slowly. How many little children are born interested in God, but by the time they become adults, they want no part of him?

Because they're listening to the wrong people. They're being indoctrinated by Satan through various vehicles, and you know who they are. Verse 21. The son of man indeed goes, just as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed. It would have been good for that man if he were never born.

And there you go. If you're not born again, you're going to be sorry you've been born at all. Closed hearts, they don't see themselves in the scripture. They don't see themselves as a Judas, or a Cain, or a Balaam, or any of the many other characters, a Jezebel. They just see themselves as decent, intelligent people, because they're comparing themselves with themselves, as Paul wrote, I believe the Corinthians, comparing themselves with themselves.

They are not wise. If there is a God, we should be very much interested in what interests him, what upsets him, what does not upset him. It is insanity to know that there is a superior. You cannot know there's not a God.

I'm sorry. If you say, I'm an atheist, you're lying. You've lied to yourself so much you can't tell the truth to yourself. Because you know, when you look at the moon and you see it round and it stays where it's supposed to be, something's keeping it there.

You look at the rest of the universe and you say, why do we not? Anyway, God says, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God, because he's lying to himself. Where he's quoting here Psalm 41, 9. And you say, well, you know, pastor, you're offending me. Oh, like you don't offend Christians when you call us, you know, narrow-minded, fundamental and self-righteous. You can get in the flesh preaching righteousness, I'm telling you. You just can. You say, is that a six-shooter the pastor has?

Yeah, but not right now. He is quoting Psalm 41, even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted who ate my bread has lifted up his heel against me. He ate my bread.

Who's paying for this meal? It ain't Judas. Anyway, that's when he said, the Son of Man indeed goes, verse 21, just as it is written of him. That's the primary verse, but you can take Psalm 29, Isaiah 53 and other verses also.

And so here it is. To the very end, Jesus is hiding from his disciples, who the betrayer is, giving Judas an opportunity, yes, to turn from his sin. What would have happened if Peter found out Judas was going to betray Jesus?

Judas would have been killed by Peter before he could have betrayed him. It's a simple formula. How do we know this? Well, Peter tried to find out in John 12. He nudges to John. Who is it? And John tries to find out. What's the one that dips bread with me?

And they're like, well, we've been all, I mean, what is that? He doesn't come out and say it is Judas, because again, he knows Peter will kill him. And what about Simon the Zealot? He probably would jump in too. The Lord is handling Judas, and he's handling all of us.

Is it malevolent or not? It's up to us. Jesus is never thanked by Judas for protecting him. Peter will write this, will say this, Acts chapter 1. Judas, by transgression, fell that he might go to his own place, which is perdition, hell. Now, Jesus says, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. The judgment of Judas is just, and those who line up with him, their judgment is just. You say that doesn't sound very loving.

Don't be silly. I've been talking to you about nothing but the love of God, reaching out to sinners, and because he acts like God in judging those who reject him, somehow it's not loving. It may work that way in your imagination, but that's not the truth. Yeah, Judas was obeying the prince of darkness, Luke 22, verse 53. When I was with you daily in the temple, you did not seize me, but this is your hour, the power of darkness. No other and no ordinary victim of betrayal can receive the intensity of these words.

The intensity of these words cannot apply to a mere human being. The betrayal of sinners against God, against Christ, is out of the ordinary. John, chapter 13, verse 30. Having received the piece of bread, he then went out immediately, and it was night. A few hours later, Judas will be dead, and he will be damned, not because he killed himself.

Physically. But because he traded against Christ. Judas, for him, it is still night.

It will always be night. If you have not the fear of God, you have not knowledge, because the Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. To see life for what it really is. Enough of it.

Not all of it, but enough. And that's why we give sinners a chance to get right with God at the end of each service. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the Book of Mark. Cross Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville in Virginia. To learn more information about this ministry, visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. Once you're there, you'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. You can search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. That's all we have time for today, but we hope you'll join us next time as Pastor Rick continues to teach through the Book of Mark, right here on Cross Reference Radio.