The sermon titled 'Judas the Monster' delves into the biblical narrative of Judas Iscariot's betrayal of Jesus Christ, as depicted in Matthew 26:14-25. It explores the visceral reaction elicited by Judas's actions, reflecting on the gravity of betrayal from someone who lived alongside Jesus, witnessing His purity and miracles. The speaker examines the underlying motivations of Judas, particularly his love for money, and how this 'darling sin' was exploited by Satan to drive Judas to betrayal. This action is contrasted with the selfless act of a woman who anointed Jesus with expensive ointment, highlighting the divergent attitudes towards Jesus. The sermon emphasizes the concept of God's sovereignty, asserting that human beings are inherently inclined towards evil unless transformed by divine grace. It discusses the theological implications of free will and predestination, suggesting that God's mercy is the only reason anyone deviates from a path of destruction. The message also underscores the importance of recognizing one's sinful nature and the necessity of genuine repentance and faith in Christ for salvation. Finally, the sermon reflects on the significance of the Passover meal, illustrating how Jesus's crucifixion fulfills Old Testament prophecies and serves as the ultimate sacrifice for humanity's redemption.

Holy God, I pray that none of us will harden our hearts, betray you, or continue in sin, that we may, by this act, crucify you again and again. Crucify you again and again. Father God, it's in your name. And I'm going to read this word. Matthew 26, 14-25.

Matthew 26, 14-25. Then one of the twelve called Judas Iscariot went to the chief priest and said, What are you willing to give me if I deliver him to you?" And they counted out to him 30 pieces of silver. So from that time, he sought opportunity to betray him. Now on the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus saying to him, Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover? And he said, Go to the city to a certain man and say to him, the teacher says, my time is at hand.

I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples. So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and they prepared the Passover. When evening had come, he sat down with the twelve. Now as they were eating, he said, Surely I say to you, one of you will betray me. And they were exceedingly sorrowful.

And each of them began to say to him, Lord, Lord, is it I? He answered and said, He who dipped his hand with me in the dish will betray me. The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of him, with wow to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been good for that man if he had not been born. Then Judas, who was betraying him, answered and said, Rabbi, I said, I, he said to him, you have said it.

Title of the sermon is Judas the Monster. And I wanted to name it that. I was trying to figure out a way to capture the visceral reaction that you get when you read this text. And you cannot read this text and not feel disgust for this man who does this thing to our Lord. And have contempt for one who could live day in and day out with this man who was so perfect and so pure, so gentle.

And so pure, so gentle, and to actually look for an opportunity to turn him over to his enemies. As we come to this text, you have some verses early in the chapter that are lurking in the background. In verse 2, Jesus has said very explicitly to his disciples that he's just about to be delivered up to be crucified. So there's really no mystery as to how the week is going to end. Jesus has said, I'm about to be delivered up to be crucified.

So there's really no mystery as to how the week is going to end. Jesus has said, I'm about to be delivered up to be crucified. He said exactly how He's going to die even. And then in verses three and four, you begin to get a glimpse of how all this is going to come together. The Jews are plotting.

The leaders of the Jews are coming together and wondering out loud together how they might take Jesus to do this thing to him. This is not new. Jesus has been talking about this for a while now. Listen to Matthew 17 verses 22 and 23. Now while they were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them, the Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of the priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify.

And the third day he will rise again." And so he said this, He said almost exactly the same words in Matthew 20. And so, did you notice how much of the detail? He's laid it all out. He says that it's going to be the chief priests and the scribes. He says they're going to hand them over to the Gentiles.

He said there's going to be mocking, scourging, and then he's going to be crucified. Jesus hasn't left very much to the imagination at all. He said exactly how it's going to play out. He said it in chapter 17, then he says it again in chapter 20. But he's never said that his betrayal is going to be at the hands of one of the twelve.

That's new information that we never had in the gospel accounts before the last Passover. Let's look at verses 14 through 16. Then one of the twelve called Judas Iscariot went to the chief priests and said, What are you willing to give me if I deliver him to you. And they counted out to him 30 pieces of silver. So from that time he sought opportunity to betray him.

Judas in every listing of the 12 is introduced as the betrayer. In Matthew it was Matthew chapter 10 verse 4. And Matthew is giving the list and He ends with Judas Iscariot who also betrayed him. And it's the same in every other listing. He's identified early on by all the gospel writers as the betrayer.

So none of the gospel writers hold it to this point. They let you know, the first time any gospel writer introduces Judas, they introduce him as Judas the betrayer. And actually John calls him the son of perdition. So it's never been a mystery to anyone reading and contemplating the Gospels who Judas is because the Gospel writers don't allow for that at all. Judas goes to them.

Judas seeks them out. They may have been looking for a crack in Jesus' armor, but If they ever approached any of the disciples, it's never recorded. It is recorded here that Judas seeks them out. Now why? Why would Judas seek out Jesus' enemies?

Fast forward with me just for a minute to the beginning of chapter 27. And Judas is going to try to give back this 30 pieces. So we're skipping ahead in time just a little. In our text, He asks what they'll give him. They count out 30 pieces of silver and give it to him.

He's going to be back to them in less than a chapter, insisting on giving this money back and saying that Jesus is an innocent man. And his conscience is going to be dogging him so much that he's actually going to take his own life. He's going to hang himself. So, it's not Jesus. Jesus isn't the problem here.

Jesus could never be the problem here. But even Judas knows Jesus isn't the problem here. And we find that out in chapter 27 as he's throwing the money at them when they won't take it. He's throwing the money into the temple because they don't want to have it back and say, what does that have to do with us? So he throws the money in the temple and he goes and he hangs himself.

It wasn't Jesus, it wasn't anything Jesus ever did, it wasn't anything Jesus ever said, It was the monstrosities of his own heart. Luke 22, a parallel text to this, recording the same accounts, Luke 22 verse 3 says, then Satan entered Judas. It was a satanic impulse. It was a satanic impulse. But from that, you can't say, well, Satan just took him over and now he's just a puppet.

He's on strings. No, Satan is actually capitalizing on the things that are already in Judas' heart. In last week's text, Matthew describes this woman who's come and done this beautiful thing for Jesus. And you can't help but to see the contrast here. In last week's text, this woman comes and she pours out $15, 000.

She pours out a year's worth of a worker's wages just, quote unquote, wasted on Jesus. But it's just this extravagant, lavish display of her love for Him. And so this year's worth of wages is nothing to her. Jesus is everything to her. It's nothing for her to come and break this flask open and anoint him as a show for her love.

But now Judas, here's Judas, the exact polar opposite of that. And in that text, Matthew doesn't do it, but John does it. He says, it was Judas who says, why are you being so wasteful with these resources? We could give it to the poor, but John puts his finger right on Judas' heart. He inspired John.

Puts the finger right on Judas' heart and he says, Judas didn't care anything for the poor. He didn't care anything for the poor. He was a thief. He wanted a full purse because he was taking out of the purse for his own uses. So we know that Judas loved money.

This is one of the things that brought Judas to our text here. Judas loved money. J.C. Ryle says, he clung to one darling sin. So he's given up much to follow Jesus.

He's following him around. He's probably foregone a lot of sleep to be with Jesus. And He's given up a lot of his own agenda, but he loved money. He clung to one darling sin. And circumstances will always make that bubble up to the surface.

Always, always, always, always, always if you cling to a darling sin, the circumstances of life are going to cause that to bubble up to the surface. You can only hide it for a certain period of time. You can only press down your hypocrisy so that your friends and neighbors don't see it for so long. But God will make it so that the circumstances of life make it bubble to the surface. And you'll be exposed for what you really are if you cling to one darling sin.

Also, in John, Jesus rebukes Judas to his face. So you have an unteachable man here who can't stand to be rebuked to his face. And when he's rebuked to his face and when he's deprived of his darling sin, he's looking for payback. And he's looking to give advantage to Jesus' enemies. So he goes to these enemies and he wants to know what they'll give him.

And again, this darling sin bubbles up to the surface. I want you to turn your Bibles to 1 Timothy 6. Paul puts his finger on this in 1 Timothy 6. And he talks about the love of money as a darling sin that will lead you into all manner of destruction. Isn't this exactly what we're seeing with Judas?

Judas is led into destruction by this gateway sin. It's right to call it a gateway sin. It's a sin that will lead you into all kinds of other sins. This is what Paul says in 1 Timothy 6. We'll begin reading in verse 6 and we'll read through verse 10.

Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing with these, we shall be content. Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. Judas is the son of perdition.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." Could there be a more accurate description about what is happening here? There's a darling sin that is clung to, and it gives Satan the little ray of daylight, the little separation between this man and Jesus that is needed to put in the crowbar and pry them so far apart. And Satan is happy to make use of the daylight and to capitalize on this man's darling sin. Matthew Henry says, it's not the lack of money, it's the love of money. Judas didn't lack money.

He never lacked anything with Jesus. There was always what they needed. The things that Paul says we should be content with, Judas never lacked a day in his life. If they needed food, Jesus could call into existence food for 5, 000 men, not counting the women and children. He could just take a couple of fish and a couple of loaves of bread and make all the food that the world would ever need.

It wasn't the lack of money, it was the love of money that was his darling sin and sent him headlong into destruction and perdition. Jesus said, no one can serve two masters. No one can serve two masters. You have to come to this text, you have to hear Jesus saying no one can serve two masters and know that no one has ever cheated this system. No one in the history of the world has ever been able to game this system successfully.

You just can't serve two masters. Listen to the rest of this. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God in mammon. You cannot, you cannot, You cannot, you cannot, you cannot, you cannot, you cannot serve God in mammon.

You cannot have a darling sin. When we come to this text and we think about Judas Iscariot, this point cannot be lost on us. You cannot take comfort in any of the means of grace that you're drowning in. You can buy a Bible for $2. You have 15 of them in your house and so do I in mine.

You go to church, you hear the gospel preached all the time. The picture of the body and the blood of Jesus Christ is always before your eyes. It's always before your eyes you cannot take comfort in any of these things. Judas enjoyed the highest privileges of religion. Even higher than yours, under the new covenant, under the preaching of the gospel every week, his were so much higher than yours.

All the sermons he listened to were better than my sermons, every one of them. And he saw miracles, he saw the blind receive their sight, he saw the deaf receive their hearing, Lepers were cleansed, the dead were raised, and Judas remained an unconverted man, drowning in means of grace that are even above yours and you're drowning in them. Take no comfort in the means of grace. Make sure that you're born again. Make sure that you have repented of your sins and turned toward God, trusted in Christ.

For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul. Or what will a man give in exchange for his own soul? At the end of the story, there's nothing that Judas can give in exchange for his own soul. His conscience will not let him. He throws the money back into the temple.

And he goes and he takes his own life. They set a price on Jesus. They agree on what Jesus is worth. They agree on what Jesus is worth. You had this woman last week, and all that she had, she would gladly waste on Jesus.

Waste. Because it never occurred to her that any of it was a waste. And so it is for the people of God, it would never occur to them that anything given up was a waste because it never can be. You can never give enough. You can never give what he's worth.

And so the bargain continues to be entirely in your favor. No matter how much ointment you pour over him, the bargain continues to be entirely in your favor. And so it was with Mary. Mary never thought that the bargain was now in Jesus' favor after she dumps out the 15, 000. 30 pieces of silver.

Listen to Exodus 21 verse 32. If the ox gores a male or female servant, he shall give to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned. Your ox kills my servant." Just a slave. You owe me 30 pieces of silver. About four months wages.

Thirty pieces of silver is exactly the amount mentioned in Zechariah 11, which is a prophecy about Judas. I'm going to just part that until chapter 27. But we'll come back to Zechariah 27 and the 30 pieces of silver when Judas is throwing it back into the temple in a couple of weeks. I really don't understand Zechariah 11 yet. That's why I'm not talking about it today.

I've got plenty to talk about today, so I'm happy to buy time in order to try to understand Zechariah 11. But that's the amount in Zechariah 11. Mark 14, parallel text, same events, Mark 14 and 11. And when they heard it, they were glad. Oh, they were so glad that Judas had come to give them the advantage that they had been looking for so that they could take him when the crowds weren't around, the crowds that loved to see him do miracles and hear his sermons.

Luke 22 says exactly the same thing. Oh, were they glad to see Judas. You don't want the enemies of Jesus to be glad to see you. Do you understand that? You don't want to be welcome in the company of the enemies of Jesus.

They were glad to see Judas. Oh man, were they glad to see him. Just what they'd been hoping for. It should make us think, When are we welcome? So welcome in the presence of Jesus' enemies.

We should think about that on the basis of this text. Jesus has a lot of enemies around there. You don't want them to be glad to see you coming. Back to the text. Let's read 17 through 19.

Now on the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus saying to him, where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover? And he said, go into the city to a certain man and say to him, the teacher says, my time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples." So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and they prepared the Passover. Don't miss the drama of this moment. For fifteen hundred years the people of God, since the Exodus, Since the night when the destroying angel came and did the last sign that would allow the people of God to be released from their bondage and their captivity, 1, 500 years, give or take, they've been celebrating these Passover's shadow, shadow, shadow, shadow, shadow, substance, substance.

Jesus Christ coming to host a Passover right before. He does personally, physically, really what the pictures have shown for 1, 500 years. In Matthew 5, the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says that He didn't come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them. And here we see Jesus fulfilling the law again in two senses. One, He came to obey it.

He has to obey the law perfectly so that He'll be an acceptable sacrifice. I can't die for you, you can't die for me. We have our own sins. If there's going to be a substitution, there has to be an acceptable substitute. So Jesus has to obey the law so he can be an acceptable substitute, And here he is again, obeying the law, being an acceptable substitute for you, living the life that you should have lived, living the life that I should have lived.

Secondly, to be the substance for the shadows, to come be in reality what all the ceremonial law was pointing towards, was picturing all along. So it's Thursday of Passover week. It's the 14th day of the first month and it's twilight And it's the time where they kill the Passover lamb. And they have the Passover meal. This reads so much like chapter 21.

You remember at the beginning of the week, coming into the triumphal entry, Jesus says, go to this town and you're going to find a donkey with her colt. You're going to untie it. They're going to say, hey, what are you doing with my donkey? This is all paraphrased now. What are you doing with my donkey?

And you just tell them the master has need of it, and they'll let you take it. And this reads just like that. Though he has set aside his form that he's had since eternity past, the glory that he's had, though he's set aside the glory, he keeps pulling back the veil a little bit, a little bit, so that there's a witness that he really is God. And he did it in chapter 21 with the two donkeys, and he's doing it again here. Listen to Mark 14.

Again, This is one of our parallel texts. And Luke 22, the other parallel text, reads almost exactly like that, but I'm just reading out of Mark 14, verses 13 through 16. And he sent out two of his disciples. In Luke, it says that it was Peter and John. So these are the ones going to meet this man about preparations.

Mark says it's two of the disciples. Luke tells us exactly who it is. It's Peter and John. And he sent out two of his disciples and said to them, Go into the city and a man will meet you, carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him.

Wherever he goes, say to the master of the house, The teacher says, Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with my disciples. Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and already prepared." I added the already, but prepared. There, make ready for us. So his disciples went out and came into the city and found it just as he had said to them. And they prepared the Passover.

Jesus Christ is getting these men ready to be without him. Keeps just pulling back the veil a little bit. To see if they'll obey and to show them that time after time they'll find things exactly as He said it would be. Two things to notice. Number one, Jesus is in total control.

You see, Jesus is controlling every single thing about this week. Circumstances are not happening to Jesus. Circumstances never happen to Jesus. He always controls everything. No one is taking his life from him.

John 10 verse 18. He has the power to lay it down. He has the power to take it back up again. Circumstances are not happening to Jesus. Jesus is happening to circumstances.

Number two, the disciples have learned little by little, so slowly during our gospel readings, to trust and obey. For there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. They're learning. I'm so encouraged by this account of them going to get the donkeys because those instructions make no sense to me. And I'm so encouraged to see them go to meet this man with a pitcher because those instructions make no sense to me.

And I'm so encouraged to see them go to meet this man with a picture because those instructions make no sense to me. It doesn't matter. Jesus says it will be so, it will be so. And his disciples, little by little, very slowly over the course of three years have learned to trust and obey Jesus because that's where the happiness is. Sometimes my sanctification is so slow that I'm just overjoyed to see a text like this.

Progress is possible. You can learn to really trust and obey Jesus. You can learn. Even though it's so much slower than you hope it would be, wish it would be, know that it should be. One last thing in this section.

Jesus has said many times across Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, over and over again He said, my time has not yet come. Or the gospel writers would say, his hour has not yet come. Jesus sends word to this host for the Passover supper, My time has come. All of history has pointed towards this moment. All of history has been a lead up to this moment.

Nothing's really been consequential in history like this moment. My time has come. Verses 20 through 25. When evening had come, he sat down with the twelve. As they were eating, he said, Assuredly I say to you, one of you will betray me.

And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and each of them began to say to him, Lord, is it I? He answered and said, He who dipped his hand with me in the dish will betray me. The Son of Man indeed goes just as it was 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 had not been born. Then Judas, who was betraying him, answered and said, Rabbi, is it I?

He said to him, you have said it. Jesus announces his betrayal and identifies his betrayer at the Passover Supper. Evening comes, they sit down together and they begin the Passover meal. And they're surrounded by the shadows. They're surrounded by the pictures.

Have you ever been to a Seder meal? We had one several years ago. And the Passover lamb is just the climax, the pinnacle. But there's a hundred other things in the Seder meal that points to Jesus. It's everywhere.

So they're at this meal where the pictures are everywhere and the substance is hosting the meal, and he looks these men in the eye and he says, one of you is going to be the one who delivers me up. One of you is going to betray me. And of course they're exceedingly sorrowful. So we said at the very beginning, Jesus has been saying this, I'm going to be delivered up, I'm going to be delivered up repeatedly, much earlier than this. And they keep having the same reactions, just sorrow, Sorrow.

But now he says, it's going to be one of you, and they're exceedingly sorrowful. How can these men be anything other than exceedingly sorrowful? You cannot miss this in the gospel accounts. Jesus always knew before the manger, before the manger, Jesus always knew every single thing that would happen to him. Every discomfort and slight and shame and abuse, every single one of them.

He knew this night was coming. He knew a friend would dip bread in the same bowl with him. And he didn't shrink back. Do you understand that? Do you see that?

Jesus knew every abuse before the manger, before he ever took on flesh, every single one. He knew he was going to become sin. He's getting ready in several weeks, he's getting ready to sweat blood, because he's going to be made sin. Him who knew no sin, who abhorred sin, and he knew it all, and he didn't shrink back. For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame.

He despised the shame. But it was for the joy that was set before him. It was the redemption of a people. It was the glorifying of his father and the glorifying of himself. It was the joy that was set before him.

He knew it all and he didn't shrink back. What manner of love is this? That he would know this in advance from all eternity past. He would know that this night was coming. And he wouldn't shrink back because of his love.

They begin to ask him, one by one, around the table, Lord is it I? And this question presumes two things. First, it presumes that Jesus has it right. One of them is going to betray Him. There's not even a hint of debate or doubt about this.

They know Jesus has it right. Now, Later in the chapter, he's going to say, you're all going to scatter, you're all going to stumble because of me. And there's debate about that. And Peter swears he's not going to deny Jesus. But here there's no debate.

They take Jesus at His Word. The second thing that it presumes is He knows their hearts better than they know their hearts. Do you see that? I mean, it has to be true of them to be asking this question, Lord is it I? Lord is it I?

Lord is it I? They've seen Him exposing the hearts of men all through the…and we've seen this. How many times have we seen this in Matthew? I should have counted before I got in the pulpit. I should have counted.

So many times we say, Jesus knew their hearts. Jesus knew their thoughts. Jesus knew what they were whispering behind closed doors. And so they know, He knows that there's a betrayer. And they know better than their own selves whether it's them or whether it's not them.

Jesus says, this is verse 23, "'He who dipped his hand with me in the dish will betray me." Now turn to John 13. John 13 has the expanded version of this. We've seen this a bunch of times where Matthew will condense some things that other gospel writers have expanded and vice versa. Actually, we've seen the opposite too. But in this case, Matthew has abbreviated what John gives in greater detail in John 13.

So I'll begin in John chapter 13 verse 18 and I'll actually read through verse 30. John 13 verse 18. I do not speak concerning all of you. I know whom I have chosen, but that the Scriptures may be fulfilled. He who eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me." Jesus is actually quoting Psalm 41.9 here, and I'm going to come back to Psalm 41.9, but I just want you to see he's quoting a scripture about his betrayal here.

Verse 19, Now I tell you before it comes that when it does come to pass you may believe that I am he. Most assuredly I say to you he who receives whomever I send receives me and he who receives me receives him who sent me. When Jesus has said these things he was troubled in spirit and testified and said, Most assuredly I say to you, one of you will betray me. Then the disciples looked at one another, perplexed about whom he spoke. Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus loved.

That's how John always introduces himself. Verse 24, Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask who it was of whom he spoke. Then, leaning back on Jesus' breast, he said to him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, It is he to whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have dipped it. And having dipped the bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.

Now after the piece of bread, Satan entered him. Then Jesus said, What you do, do quickly. But no one at the table knew for what reason he said this to him, for some thought, Because Judas had the money box that Jesus had said to him, buy those things we need for the feast, or that he should give something to the poor. Having received a piece of bread, he went out immediately, and it was night. So we see here the specific identification of the betrayer as Judas.

Jesus actually explicitly says, I'm going to give a piece of bread to my betrayer. He dips it and he hands it to Judas Iscariot. Not to all of them, but to Judas Iscariot. Jesus quotes Psalm 41 verse 9. I'm going to just give you visibility to a little of the context there.

Psalm 41 verses 7 through 9, listen to an expansion of what Jesus is quoting. "'All who hate me whisper together against me. Against me they devise my hurt.'" Sounds like Matthew 26. "'An evil disease, ' they say, clings to him. Now that he lies down, he will rise up no more.

Psalm 41 verse 9, even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted who ate my bread has lifted up his heel against me. This is what Jesus quotes. So they've been whispering, they've been devising, the enemies of Jesus have been gathering and plotting. And even his own familiar friend who had enjoyed Jesus' trust, who had the money bag even, lifts up his heel against him. Now look at verse 19.

We're still in John 13. Look at verse 19. Jesus tells them for a very specific reason, and it's obviously not that they would stop Judas because they don't stop Judas. Jesus knows that. So it's not to head off his betrayal.

It's for a very specific purpose. Jesus told them to strengthen their belief After the fact. So they would look back and say, Jesus told us all that. Jesus knew every single thing about what was going to happen. Jesus, verse 19 again, now I tell you before it comes that when it does come to pass you may believe that I am He.

After the fact, your faith will be strengthened." Again, Jesus is building up these men for the time when He's not even going to be among them. But they'll have a hundred things and they can look back and say, Jesus knew all this. Jesus told us all along. Verse 24, Jesus acknowledges that everything that is happening is according to plan. Not against the plan, not overturning the plan, not overthrowing the plan, but according to plan.

He says, just the Son of Man is betrayed and murdered according to the Scriptures. According to Psalm 22, listen, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? They pierced my hands and my feet. They divide my garments from among them. All these things.

Go read Psalm 22. It's unbelievable when you compare the crucifixion account with Psalm 22, how much God said in advance. According to Isaiah 53, he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. According to Daniel 9, 26, and after the sixty-two weeks, Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself.

Things are happening to Jesus just as the Scriptures always said they would happen to the Messiah. None of this exonerates Judas. If you don't get anything from this text, you have to get that. Judas maintains responsibility. Even though everything is happening according to plan, everything is a fulfillment of prophecy, Judas isn't off the hook.

Judas is fully responsible. Judas is doing just what Judas wants to do. The enemies of God have to know this. They're serving God. They might rage against him in their hearts, they might betray him, flog him, spit on him, crucify him, they're serving God.

And they will be, their lives will be to the praise of God, either to the praise of his glorious grace if he chooses to save, or to the praise of his glorious justice in which everyone will say, God, you were so right in all that you did. This brings us to Judas, this monster, to these verses that are so disgusting when you read them. Who could do this? Who could sit at could sit at the Passover table having already cut the deal and accepted the money and say, Rabbi, is it I? And take this man, this perfect man, and hand him over on a silver platter to his murdering enemies.

Here's the answer to that question. I could do that. You could do that. Judas is a monster, but he's not unique in any way. Do you understand that?

He's not a unique monster. He's just a monster. He's just a natural man who loves himself. And it makes him do things that make us just want to spit on him and despise him when we're just like him. We're made out of all the same stuff.

You have to come to this text. If you're ever going to love God for His mercy towards sinners, you have to make peace with this. You are Judas. You're made of all the same stuff. If you're ever a day in your life different than Judas, it's because of the mercy and grace of God.

Ever a day in your life different than Judas. It's because of the mercy and grace of God. Ever a day in your life different than Judas. There will only be one reason, and it's His grace. It's His mercy towards sinners.

Listen to Paul in 1 Corinthians 2 verse 14. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned." When Jesus rebukes Judas, It's foolishness to him. He just can't receive it. Because he doesn't have eyes to see and he doesn't have ears to hear.

Because God has mercy on whom he has mercy. I want you to be one step closer to making peace with this doctrine when we leave here today. It takes many steps to make peace with this doctrine, but you'll never understand the goodness of God until you make peace with it. You'll never understand how you're nothing and how He's everything until you embrace this doctrine and learn to love it. Turn in your Bibles to Romans 9.

Romans 9. If you don't understand Romans 9, you come to Matthew 26 and Judas is a monster, but you're not. And you miss all the help in the text. And you wag your finger at the villain. And you don't realize that you're the villain.

You're not the hero in the story. You're the villain in the story. And every time we come to a text of Scripture, we're served well if we see that we're the Pharisee and the traitor and the betrayer and the murderer and the adulterer. Romans 9, we're going to read 15 through 24 and then 29. Romans 9 verse 15, For God says to Moses, I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy.

And I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion. So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the scripture says to the Pharaoh, For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show my power in you, and that my name may be declared in all the earth. Therefore he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens. You will say to me then, why does he still find fault for who has resisted his will?

But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, why have you made me like this? Does not the potter have power over the clay from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom he called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.

Skipping to verse 29, unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah. Verse 29 is the interpretive key that helps you rightly understand the whole rest of the chapter. If you don't understand 29, then you come away with a God who just saves or destroys out of his own whim. You end up disgusted at the picture and saying, that's not fair. But verse 29 shows fair.

And when you understand verse 29, you understand, I don't want fair. Fair is Sodom. Fair is Gomorrah. And you're an object of wrath. You're despicable and disgusting in the sight of God.

And He's right to view you that way. He's right to be disgusted at the sight of you. Do you understand that? Did you think you were something? Did you think maybe there was something good in you that would attract you?

That would attract Him to you? And like a little bit of a magnet that would attract His mercy towards you. That is not the teaching of Scripture. And that's not the God of the Bible. And until you worship that God, you've not worshiped the God of the Bible.

Do you understand that? I keep saying that. Do you understand that? This is so central. You don't understand very much until you understand that.

You can be saved and not understand that, I'm pretty sure. I'm almost positive. But you don't understand very much until you understand that. And you'll always be much too big in your own eyes until you understand that. God will always be too small until you understand that.

Do you see how great God is in this text? Do you see that He's everything and that you're nothing? And that the universe revolves around Him and nothing revolves around you. Do you see that? So, it's not a few people who have had a crisis of faith over this doctrine.

Good! Have the crisis of faith so you know the God of the Bible and not the God of your own invention. Go! Go headlong into the crisis to find out who God really is and who you really are and keep coming back to Romans 9 until you can say that the potter is just to do what he wants with his own makings. Fair is every monster justly being sent to hell.

That's verse 29. That's the interpretive key. The appropriate of key. Fair is every monster being justly condemned to hell to endure it forever. Be careful when you want fair.

If God has made you willing to believe, bless His name. Bless his name if God has made you willing to believe. If God has put you somewhere where you're under the sound of the gospel, if God has put you in a home where you're exposed to the means of grace, bless his name. He might be having mercy on whom he will have mercy. He might be having compassion on whom he has compassion.

It's not magic, it's not pixie dust that falls from heaven. He puts those he wants to call to himself, draw to himself, even though they've never merited it for one second of their lives, he puts them in contact with these means of grace and his spirit can make them effective. His Spirit can make these means of grace bear fruit, although they don't always. Judas enjoyed many privileges that even we won't enjoy. These are all secondary causes, but you must know that God is the primary cause.

He's behind every gospel sermon that ever converted anyone. He's behind anyone who's ever come across a Gideon Bible in a hotel drawer and turned to the Gospel of John and been converted or wherever. Those are all secondary things. God, God, God is God, God, God is the God of the universe and it revolves around him. He's the primary cause of everything.

Jesus says it would have been good for Judas if he had never been born. Judas will not revile God on the last day. Judas did what he wanted to do. And that's the point of verse 29 in Romans 9. If God just leaves you to do what you want to do, 100%, 1, 000% of the time, you'll destroy yourself.

It's His mercy holding you back from the self-destruction that you would be doomed to if God didn't actively reach in to show His mercy. Seven billion people on earth, there will be no exceptions. If God doesn't do something to take them away from their own inclinations, they'll never choose Him. In that sense, there are no seekers. There's not one person seeking God.

There's a lot of self-seekers. There's a lot of people who love themselves, but in that sense, there's not a seeker on the planet. Our own inclinations, the inclinations of the natural man will always lead you to destruction. Always lead you to destruction. Judas asked, Rabbi, is it I?

All the others said, Lord, is it I? Lord can be a term of honor, but it can also, in that setting, in that culture, kireos, the Greek word, can also just mean serve. So it's not always a term of high honor. Rabbi, always a term of high honor. Master, the Rabbi has full authority over his students.

Full authority. Lord can just be served. Rabbi, master. Rabbi is...in fact, going back to Matthew chapter 23, when Jesus is telling the disciples not to be exalted, he says, don't let anybody call you a rabbi. It's just too exalted a term.

Don't let anybody call you father. Don't let anybody call you Rabbi. Judas uses the term of greater honor. Rabbi is an eye, knowing he's already cut the deal and taken the money. Jesus lets his own words condemn him.

You have said it. No other witnesses will be necessary for those who stand condemned. Their own words will condemn them, so it is with Judas. A few concluding remarks. Three.

Number one, consider the natural man. Consider the natural man and how bent he is towards everything evil. Did you think there was something good in you? Do you think you're made out of different stuff? It's not true.

I tell you, it's not true. Every inclination of the natural man is towards evil, even though he invents a thousand ways to think well of himself. That's why it's an inescapable trap. You understand that? That's why the natural man, the condition of the natural man is such an inescapable trap.

Because even though all of his inclinations are towards self, all of his desires are towards self, He invents a thousand ways to think well of himself and to justify himself. This is the natural man. Number two, consider the Passover lamb. Consider the Passover lamb. This is the only hope for a natural man, is a switch of places for an innocent to have the sins laid upon him and for the blood to be drained out in exchange, because the wages of sin are death.

Number three, lastly, consider the sovereignty of God. So then, it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy." Why is it not of him who wills? Because the natural man willing will always run headlong into destruction. It can't be of Him who wills. You want the exercise of your free will?

Okay. Your free will will always take you headlong into destruction. We should be glad that there's a sovereign God. We should be glad that there's a sovereign God. We should be glad that there's not libertarian free will.

Libertarian free will means there's no pre-existing inclination. And so you're free to choose whatever. That free will does not exist. Free will does exist in the sense that we do what we want to do. But when you start with a nature that's been ruined since Genesis 3 and so perverted and so bent towards everything that's evil, the doing of exactly what you want to do is the exercise of free will that takes you headlong into destruction.

Consider the sovereignty of God and rejoice. It's your only hope that God would take an object of wrath. It's what everyone is when they're born. God would take an object of wrath and show mercy so that His character might be displayed. He's a potter doing what He wills with His own things.

Let's pray. Father, I pray that You would give us a mighty wrestling again, maybe for the hundredth time, with the doctrine of your sovereignty and the doctrine of election. May we make peace with this. It is our peace. May we learn not to despise it, may we learn to love it as the gracious mercy of our God being poured out on objects of wrath.

Oh God, do what you will with your own things. There's no one wiser to dispose of them than you, oh God. For grace or for justice, there's no one wiser than you. We happily submit ourselves to you as if we had a choice. God, you will do what you will do with your own things, but we're Happy to see it, God.

Be glorified in these lives of ours. Oh God, come and make us able to offer them back to you. May we live to your praise, oh God. May we live for the spread of your glory. May we love these things.

Pray in Jesus' name, amen.