Handling Judas (Part B)

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. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the Gospel of Mark. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio.

Specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Here's Pastor Rick with part two of his message called Handling Judas in Mark chapter 14. We missed that today. We missed that.

I've missed it over the years. You get upset with someone whom the devil has tripped up. But if we remember that God loves them and that it is the devil tripping them up, then we're not so ready to be resentful and bitter. It takes, it shaves off the carnality of what's going on in this world.

Because we're supposed to live not as though we figured it out, but that way it has been revealed to us what is going on. And so the Lamb of God reminded them of the blood that would be on the doorpost there when they were in Egypt. And this is what this Passover was all about. Here he is, this great servant that loves his people, is saying, God loves you so much. He is going to be the, his son is going to be the Lamb of God. It is in this atmosphere of love that he taught servanthood and gave us the communion table.

It came from this room at this very time. He washes their feet and then he will institute what we call communion. And there, while dining together, Judas Iscariot would be released to betray him.

He's going to wash the feet of Judas too. The greatest teachings on the Holy Spirit took place in this upper room. John chapter 14 through 17 is, well 17 is the Lord's prayer which took place in this room also. But the teachings on the Holy Spirit are just unmatched in the scripture, the details given by Christ himself to us.

I'll not leave you orphans. And in this room, he did sing his last song while on earth. We'll get that in a few sessions later. In verse 14, it says, so that his disciples went out and came into the city and found it just as he said to them and they prepared the Passover, which was a process again that would be into the next evening. His directions, incidentally, are similar to those given in Mark 11 when he sent them to find the, to get the donkey that he was going to ride into Jerusalem on. But back to this Passover, the Jewish Passover at this time. It consisted of the roasted lamb, the flatbread, bread without bread, bread without leaven, and bitter herbs. The lamb, it was to remind the people in every generation about the blood applied to the doorposts while they lived in Egypt as slaves, that God was delivering them, and that blood would be the indication to the angel of death that these were God's people.

And this is still the way it is. It is the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from all sins. And judgment is removed from us as sinners because of our faith. God says, listen, I know you're sinners by nature in this life. You're going to sin. You're born in iniquity. As cute as you might be when you're born, you are born a sinner.

But you can be born again so that when you carry out those sins, the judgment will be passed over you because of the lamb of God. The bread reminded the people of the haste made to get out of slavery, to get out of Egypt, and it is to remind the believer of the haste to turn away from the old life, to turn to Christ. They didn't have time for the bread to rise.

They had to get out of there. This was an urgent matter to God. Salvation is a bloody matter.

It is an urgent matter, and there is bitterness connected with the whole affair. And so the bitter herbs, which spoke of the sufferings that they endured while slaves in Egypt, a reminder for us. It speaks about our bitterness experience when we were slaves of Satan, and this is what God has delivered us to. So Jesus talks about joy, which we have to fight for in this life. He says, and he'll say it in this upper room.

We won't get it here in Mark, but it's in John. In the world, you're going to have tribulation. You're going to have hard times, but be of good cheer.

I've overcome the world. Well, that be of good cheer part. Maybe it comes easy to one of you.

I doubt it. It may at times, but overall, it's a long, hard haul. And if you're serving the Lord, there are going to be things that are going to attack that cheer, and that is Satan. And we learn this, and we learn not to give it up to him, but to fight to retain it. And this is one reason why Christians love singing to the Lord.

It gives you a pit stop sort of thing to get, you know, sort of shut out everything else and sing to the one whom you believe in. Now, centuries later, the Jews bloated this simple ceremony from God—the lamb, the bread, the herbs. But they've added to it napkins and eggs and going outside. This is not from God.

This is something the Jews put into it. And in fact, there were not even napkins in though. They didn't use napkins. They wiped their hands on their bread or they licked their fingers.

Then they wiped their hands on their bread, and then they ate their bread sometimes. I know Christians mean well when they have these rabbis come and teach you on the cedar. It means nothing to us. They miss the Messiah. We have the Christ. We don't need to find out what the egg means and Elijah's down the block or something and looking for him.

I know. I don't want to be too hard because I know some of you have probably attended churches where they did these things and you were so impressed, but they really have nothing to do with us at all. And if the Jews had just retained the simplicity of it, maybe they would see the Messiah fulfilling these emblems that are given to us. Well, no hate mail on that, please. I'll read it and then I'll say, God, can you get them?

Because I'm special to you and they're not. It certainly doesn't work that way. Anyway, verse 17. Let me just pause just to add a little bit more to that. We don't need to sensationalize our faith. It is sensational.

Just the blood of Jesus Christ. It is a big deal. I mean, there is nowhere on earth like the church of God. Well, you know, no place like home.

Sure, that's true. And there are believers there in God's work. But when he brings a bunch of believers together and says, get along in love, there's no place like it. And it is a tragedy that so many Christians have a low opinion of the church. They think the church is their social club, that they can go in and do this and it's not. It's God's house and he is appointed overseers of this house and they will enforce the policies. And this is a good thing, something to embrace. I think when you come to this church, everything's pretty much done for you except, you know, your seating. Well, sometimes you're even assisted to sit. You come in, you worship, you fellowship, then you go home if you want.

Well, eventually we're going to send you home, or at least out of here. But we've not come here. We've come to worship God.

And it is very powerful. And if it wasn't, Satan wouldn't hate it so much and work so hard to leaven the church, to corrupt the pastors, to weaken them so that the pastors begin to be led by you instead of you being led by the pastor. That is perversion. And there's nothing to boast that you got your will done with the pastor. The pastor should be saying, God, that your will be done, my Father in heaven. You know the drill. So back to this, verse 17, in the evening he came with the 12.

And he's going to only leave with 11 of them. But between verses 17 and the next verse, 18, that's when Jesus will wash their feet. It appears that way. Sometimes it's hard to figure these things out because the apostles just, you know, it's kind of like, if you ever come to church and say, you know, the pastor doesn't stay on point. Sometimes he goes down these little rabbit trails. Well, look at the gospels.

They did it all the time. And don't stop there. Go back to Genesis and work your way to Revelation. And find, Revelation doesn't even stay on cue. Because there's so much to say about God. How can you, how can you just, you know, outline it?

You can try, but you'll find out the outline. Paul is notorious, notorious for doing what I just did, talking about one thing, and then goes down this whole two or three chapters more on something else, and then comes back to it. And if the reader is not careful, you say, I lost the point. Well, verse 18, now as they sat and ate, Jesus said, the foot washing is over, but surely I say to you, one of you who eats with me will betray me. That was a bombshell to them and it should not have been. This is not the first time he's brought this up with them. Earlier he warned them on this very thing. He preached a sermon that people didn't like.

We don't have that problem today. John chapter 6, this is after, you know, unless you, you know, eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, and they of course took it literal, and which is so dumb. Because if it was literal, he would hold his arm out and say, here take a bite.

He was spiritualizing his points that they would never forget what he was saying. Because it's pretty intense to say to someone, first of all, who is saying it? Who is qualified to say it?

No angel could say this. He must be God the Son. And so of course, he says this, and this is a hard saying, which is another way of saying, we don't like your sermons, nor you anymore. Verse 70 of John 6, Jesus answered them, did I not choose you, the 12, and one of you is a devil? He spoke of Judas Iscariot. So why are they so shocked now? Because of course, whenever Christ spoke of hard things, they kind of like tuned him out. He's going to release Judas to do his wicked work, and it will be at the hour of his choosing.

And we talked about this last session. The Pharisees did not want Jesus to be betrayed while the multitudes were in Jerusalem for the Passover feast. They wanted the crowds to die down.

In fact, when the crowds are asleep, that's when they're going to arrest him. Anyway, Mark chapter 14, which we're in, verse 2, but they said, not during the feast, lest there be an uproar of the people. Well, Jesus is saying he's going to betray me, and they're going to find out it's going to be that Jewish day when he is betrayed. Hell was not allowed to arrange the hour of his cross. His sovereignty is all over this, but by this time, Judas had sailed beyond the point of repentance.

He was gone. Throughout the whole thing, Christ is giving him an opportunity when he veils the location of the upper room. He's saying, I don't want Judas to know he's going to, you know, jump the gun and have me arrested there, but I want to give him time to repent, and he's going to continue to give. He's going to give him an opportunity to repent right up until Judas hangs himself. When he is arrested, Jesus refers to Judas as a friend.

He calls him a friend, giving him a chance, but he doesn't take it. Days earlier, he tried to reach Judas when he rebuked him for his greed. This oil could have, despite not, could have been given, you know, sold and given to the poor, and Jesus rebuked him, 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 grieves 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. And 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 12, 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 he knew 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.

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 also 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, this is the thing about the Corinthian letters. So I am saying, Well, Lord, we'll 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? 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 could 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.