We'll see you in this chapter, dear God, before we get into the 27th chapter.
But, dear God, I just pray that you would please bless the lesson tonight.
Speak to our hearts. Help our love for you to increase as we read about your time on this earth, dear God,
and the great price that you paid for our sins, dear God, to save us from our sins
and to save us from damnation in the lake of fire and in hell, dear God.
And I pray that you would please just bless the service tonight.
Speak to every heart. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Now, in Matthew 26, we're pretty much finished with all of Jesus' teaching and preaching.
You know, really I'd have to say that throughout studying the entire book of Matthew, coming to the end here,
I think probably the strong meat of the book of Matthew was probably Matthew 24 and 25,
a little bit complicated, some of the teaching,
and that Jesus is really revealing some of the greatest truths that he reveals,
some of the most revealing things about the future in those two chapters.
And that kind of closes out that section of the book of Matthew, and we get into chapter 26.
Now, chapter 26 is an extremely long chapter.
It's the longest chapter in the book of Matthew with 75 verses.
Now, sometimes I've wondered as I looked through the Bible,
and I'll be honest with you, I believe that the chapter divisions are God.
You know, I've heard people say, well, the originals didn't have the chapters and the verses and stuff.
Personally, I don't believe that.
I'd like for somebody to show me one of the originals, to show me that it didn't have any of those kind of divisions.
But in any case, I believe that the books of the Bible are arranged in the order that God wants them to be in.
You know, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges.
I think that's the order that God wants them to be in.
I think that the books of the New Testament are in the order that God wants them to be in.
I think that the chapter divisions are exactly where God wants them to be.
I think the verses are divided the way that God wants them to be.
I mean, this is a book that's written by God.
And I think that if you study the way the verses are,
you can see so many things with the numbers and everything, you'll see that God had his hand in it.
But sometimes I've wondered as I've read the Bible, why is it that some chapters are very short,
others are extremely long?
Like, for example, there's a Malachi chapter 4, extremely short, six verses.
I was thinking about Esther chapter 10, I believe it's three verses.
Extremely short chapters in the Bible and other chapters that are very long.
And I'm thinking to myself, you know, why does God divide things up the way he does?
Well, there's a reason why.
And if you look at Matthew 26, there's one great theme.
Even though it's 75 verses long, even though it seems to cover a whole bunch of different events,
there's one great theme that goes throughout the book of chapter...
I'm sorry, throughout the chapter 26, really from the very beginning all the way to the last verse.
And that's the main thing I'm going to look at tonight,
because I just don't have time to teach verse by verse this entire chapter,
unless everybody has time right now.
Just kidding. Got some time? A couple, three, four hours?
But anyway, I was thinking about... and before I get into that,
I want to tell you what some of the chapters were about.
Let me just give you a brief synopsis of what we've seen so far in the book of Matthew.
Chapter 1. One great theme dominated chapter 1.
One person was Joseph, was the key character there.
We saw Joseph's genealogy given, and then we saw Joseph coming to the knowledge
that his wife is with child, the Holy Ghost.
He receives a vision from God, the great revelation that Jesus Christ is going to come
and save his people from their sins.
Chapter 2. We got into all the prophecies that were fulfilled about the birth of Christ.
His early years, Herod trying to murder every...
well, he did murder every child under two years old.
Only just by a divine revelation to Joseph were they able to escape,
and Jesus was not part of that holocaust that took place of mass baby infanticide going on.
Chapter 3. We see John the Baptist come on the scene, preaching a very fiery sermon.
At the end of that, it culminates with Jesus Christ showing up to John the Baptist's
preaching service and demanding to be baptized to John the Baptist.
John the Baptist baptizes Jesus at the end of chapter 3,
and that's when he gets baptized.
That's when the Holy Spirit of God rests upon him in mighty power.
Of course, there's a difference between the indwelling of the Holy Spirit
and then the Holy Spirit upon you.
The Holy Spirit indwelling you, as we saw on Sunday night in some of the verses we read,
is something that happens immediately upon salvation.
The Bible says if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he's none of his.
He says the moment you get saved, you're sealed with the Holy Ghost.
But through being filled with the Holy Spirit and through prayer and fasting
and studying the Bible day and night, the Bible talks about having the Holy Spirit upon you.
That external manifestation like they had in the Old Testament.
We still have today. Nothing's changed.
God will put his Holy Spirit upon his servant to empower them for the work that he's given them to do.
And when Jesus Christ is baptized, the Holy Spirit of God came and rested upon him.
Then the Bible says in Matthew 4.1, into chapter 4,
Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
And when he had fasted 40 days and 49, he was afterward and hungered.
And the tempter came to him and said, and on and on.
We see those temptations that took place with Jesus Christ.
And then at the end of that great 40 days of temptation where he did not consume any food,
Jesus only drank water.
And that is humanly possible, by the way, to only drink water for 40 days and 40 nights.
At the end of that time, after he was finished being tempted by the devil,
he goes out and chooses his 12 disciples by the Sea of Tiberius, Sea of Galilee.
And then in chapter number 5, we get into his first great sermon, the Sermon on the Mount.
5, 6, and 7, a lot about just how to live as a Christian.
The key verse of chapter 5,
Be ye therefore perfect, even as my Father which is in heaven is perfect.
He says how the Old Testament said this, I'm saying this, and it's more strict.
It's more righteous, because I want to fulfill the law, is what he says.
And then you get into Matthew 6, he talks a lot about giving, a lot about prayer, fasting, faith.
Chapter number 7, he talks about not judging falsely, hypocritically, things that you do yourself.
And then he gets into how to identify a false teacher, a wolf in sheep's clothing, a liar,
somebody who's bringing in false doctrine.
Then he talks about how there are going to be many people, many who call themselves Christians,
who are going to be cast into outer darkness, cast into hell, because they think it's by works.
But he says, few will be saved. He says, few there be to find it.
He says, enter into that narrow gate of salvation by faith through Jesus Christ alone.
Chapter number 8, 8 and 9 are kind of a duo there,
where it just goes from Jesus doing one miracle to another.
And people of great faith, he says, all things are possible, only believe.
It's kind of the theme of those two chapters.
He says, be it unto you according to your faith.
He says, if you believe, I can do anything.
Nothing is limiting us except your lack of faith, and he's just doing one miracle after another.
Then in chapter 10, the great soul-winning chapter where he sends about two by two
and tells them as you go, preach, saying the kingdom of God is at hand.
And he goes on and on with just instructions for them as they go out, soul-winning.
Chapter 11, we get into John the Baptist where Jesus is preaching about John the Baptist,
how he's the greatest man that ever lived and what was so great about him and why he was so effective.
And then we get into chapter 12 where he talks about, let's see, chapter number 12 I believe was,
oh yeah, he starts out with one of those conflicts with the Pharisees, which we saw in so many chapters.
And he goes into this conflict, arguing with them about whether it's lawful to heal on the Sabbath day.
They're mixed up because they haven't read is what he says.
You need to read the Bible, you need to study the Bible and know what it says because you're reading it wrong.
He says you've been reading too many other books, you've been reading all the theological books,
all the commentaries, all the encyclopedias.
Hey, throw those things away, get out the Bible and read it, and you wouldn't accuse the guiltless,
my disciples who are doing right, they're not doing anything wrong,
but you're accusing them because you don't know the Bible.
That's chapter 12.
Chapter 13, we get into the great parable of the sower, probably Jesus' main parable in the book of Matthew.
And then he goes into several other parables just reinforcing the same truth that's taught in that same parable,
and that's what chapter 13 is about.
Chapter 14, John the Baptist, we have him beheaded.
Because John the Baptist is beheaded, Jesus decides to go apart and be by himself.
His good friend has been killed, his cousin in the flesh.
Then he goes apart and great multitudes come to him.
That's where the feeding of the 5,000 happens in chapter 14.
Then in chapter number 15, again, more faces off with the Pharisees, more battle back and forth contending with them.
Then the feeding of the 4,000 at the end of chapter 15.
Then in chapter 16, we have Jesus talking about the church.
Don't tell me the church started in Acts chapter 2, because it didn't.
Because in Matthew 16, he talks about some of the rules and how to deal with things in the church, problems in the church.
And then he starts to testify to the disciples about how he's going to be crucified and buried and rose again.
Chapter 17, the great transfiguration, where he's shown in the glory of his second coming,
kind of a preview of the second coming of Jesus Christ at the beginning of chapter 17,
where he only shows that to just Peter, James, and John.
He comes down from the mountain, rebukes the other disciples for their lack of faith,
their lack of power of God on their life, because they weren't up on the mountain.
They were down in the valley where Jesus was not, and they just didn't have the power of God.
Then we got into chapter 18, where Jesus is just preaching a lot on sin.
He preaches on forgiving other people, tells a story about that.
Chapter 19 is another preaching service of Jesus preaching about marriage, divorce.
He really lets it rip on that subject.
And then he preaches about just salvation and not letting money dominate you and so forth.
Then in chapter 20, he gives more parables about rewards, some of the rewards that God's people are going to get if they're faithful.
Chapter 21 was his triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
Chapter number 22, we saw the kingdom of God type parables.
You know, the kingdom of God is like unto this.
The kingdom of God is like unto this.
Basically showing a dichotomy between people going to heaven versus going to hell.
Kind of like in chapter number 13.
And then in chapter number 23, we have that great sermon where Jesus just directs it at the Pharisees
and just points out their hypocrisy for the one last time.
Chapter 24, of course, Olivet Discourse, where Jesus preaches about the tribulation, the rapture, the second coming.
And then chapter number 25, Jesus preaches more about the rapture and more about the second coming.
And then here we are in chapter number 26.
What's the great theme of chapter number 26?
The great theme is Jesus Christ being betrayed by Judas Iscariot and being let down by his greatest disciple, Peter.
That's what this whole chapter is about.
You'll see so many different stories and different things are happening.
You say, what's the common denominator?
Well, if you look through this chapter, that's all that the whole chapter is about.
I mean, almost every verse is dealing with either Judas Iscariot and his betrayal of Jesus,
or you'll see a lot about Peter and how Peter is letting him down.
See, the contrast is the saved Christian, Peter, that loves God, that lives a sold-out-for-God life,
but he's let Jesus down in this chapter.
And then we also see Judas Iscariot, who is an unsaved devil, the Bible says.
An infiltrator, a liar, a traitor.
He was a devil from the beginning, the Bible says.
I mean, he snuck in. He said all the right things.
He was smooth. Everybody thought he was for real.
Everybody thought he was really saved.
But really, the Bible calls him the son of perdition, which means the son of damnation.
He said he was a devil from the beginning.
And at one point in the story, Satan actually enters in to Judas Iscariot when he betrays him
and actually possesses his body.
I mean, the devil himself, Satan himself.
Only two men in the Bible does this ever occur, Judas Iscariot and the Antichrist,
are the only two people who actually physically possessed with the spirit of Satan himself.
Chapter 27 is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, you know, where Jesus is mocked and crucified.
Some of that happens in chapter 26 because it has to do with the theme of chapter 26
about Judas Iscariot and Peter and just about Jesus as being let down in general.
And Jesus being betrayed and sold out.
And then in chapter 28, we have the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
That's what that chapter is about.
And so you see that the chapters in the book of Matthew are very much laid out
with particular themes of each chapter.
And each chapter is kind of a cohesive whole that goes together
and it makes sense why God divided it the way it is.
Now, in chapter 26, let's start at the beginning and I'll show you what I mean.
Chapter number 26, the Bible reads here.
And it came to pass when Jesus had finished all these things, he's through preaching,
he said unto his disciples, Ye know that after two days is the feast of the Passover,
and the Son of Man is betrayed to be crucified.
There's our theme already.
Then assembled together the chief priests and the scribes and the elders of the people
unto the palace of the high priest who was called Caiaphas.
Now here's what I love about this.
You notice that before the elders and the chief priests and the scribes,
before they met together to decide that they were going to take Jesus by subtlety and kill him,
what happened?
Well, verse 2 happened where Jesus says with his mouth,
Ye know that after two days is the feast of the Passover,
and the Son of Man is betrayed to be crucified.
Look, it wasn't them that made the decision, you know, when this was going to happen.
It wasn't their plan, it was God's plan.
I mean, this is the plan of Jesus Christ.
He could have lived another ten years.
He could have had this happen earlier.
It was all according to his exact timing.
He was in the driver's seat.
Now you can just see as God himself in the flesh, Jesus Christ, opens his mouth and utters these words,
You know, after two days is the feast of the Passover,
and the Son of Man is betrayed to be crucified.
It's like then things just happen according to what he said.
Because what he speaks, it's like we're talking about the man who controls the universe.
We're talking about God himself.
And so the Bible says that Jesus Christ was delivered by the full, ordinate counsel of God.
I mean, God decided that this was exactly how it was going to go.
And as soon as Jesus uttered the words,
Okay, two days from now I'm going to be betrayed to be crucified,
then it's like they get together and start that ball rolling.
See, this is all his plan.
He said, No man taketh my life from me.
He said, I offer it freely.
He said, I have the power to lay it down, I have the power to take it up again.
And so that's what we'll see throughout the Bible.
And then the Bible says in verse 4,
And consulted that they might take Jesus by subtlety and kill him,
but they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people.
Now when Jesus was in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper,
here what happens is, Jesus is sitting at the table with Simon the leper,
and he's having a meal, and a woman walks in the door,
and she has a box of precious ointment.
And she takes that box, and it was extremely expensive,
like a year's wages or something.
And she breaks it open, and just pours it out on his head,
and anoints him.
And we see that the disciples are upset about this.
The Bible says in verse number 8,
But when his disciples sought, they had indignation saying,
To what purpose is this waste?
For this ointment might have been sold for much and given to the poor.
Now, by the way, if you study the Bible,
if you read in the book of Luke,
I think actually it's in the book of John,
it explains that the man who was really the most upset was Judas Iscariot.
He's the one who kind of incited the other disciples and said,
What are you doing wasting it?
And then the other ones probably chimed in a little bit,
because he was somebody that they looked up to and respected.
But you'll see that the phony Christian here, Judas Iscariot,
who's not even saved, noticed his emphasis on money.
He doesn't understand that a few verses earlier,
Jesus just said that in two days I'm betrayed to be crucified.
He's worried about some kind of a financial transaction.
He doesn't realize that this is the greatest event in human history
that's about to take place,
the death and burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
He says she did it.
He said in verse 12,
For then she had poured the sword on my body,
she did it for my burial.
He said she's anointing me to be buried.
He said she's basically signifying the Gospel,
the second part of the Gospel, the burial that I'm going to undergo
where I'm going to be buried in the earth for three days and three nights.
He said she is having a part in this story
everywhere around the world where the Gospel is preached.
They're going to tell the story about her,
and here we're talking about it tonight,
and they're going to tell this story about her putting the ointment on her.
I said, And you're worried about money.
You know, you always tell,
You want to talk about phony Christianity?
You want to talk about a phony preacher?
You want to talk about a phony church?
It's the guy who talks about money all the time.
Yes, that's right.
It's the guy who talks about money all the time
because somebody who talks about money all the time
is carnal and worldly
because after all these things do the Gentiles seek,
but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things shall be added unto you.
Now, look, if that applies to me and my life,
if that applies to you and your life,
that if we seek first the kingdom of God,
all these things will be added unto us,
food, raiment, whatever we need.
If your Heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things,
then why in the world would that promise not apply to a church?
You know, why does the church have to just be on you
about money all the time?
You know, big fundraisers all the time,
and push, push, push, push,
you know, full paycheck Sunday,
you know, put your whole paycheck in the plate.
And, I mean, believe it or not, churches have that.
Full-check Sunday!
And, you know, pass the plate again.
I've been in services where they pass the plate.
Not enough. Pass it again.
Who's been in a service where they did that?
Come on. Yeah, there we go.
See, pass it again, brother. Fill it up.
Okay, that's garbage.
Yes, it's garbage, because I'm going to tell you something.
God pays the street with gold in heaven.
He says it's like dirt to me. I mean, it's like junk to me.
And, yes, the Bible does talk about money,
but not the inordinate amount
that you'll see a lot of churches talk about money.
And, you know, I preached about money before.
I preached a whole sermon on Sunday morning
about how to handle your money.
And I mentioned about tithing, and I talked about tithing.
Hey, I'm not afraid to talk about money,
but I'm not just going to be ringing that bell all the time, you know?
Money, money, money, money, money, money, money.
Because money is not what it's about.
Why don't we seek first the kingdom of God
and His righteousness?
And all these things will be added unto us.
Hey, you say, Pastor, Pastor,
where do we get the money to have a building?
Hey, who cares?
How many people are we going to get saved this week?
Why don't we talk about that?
How many people are going to be baptized?
How many people are going to be,
their life changed for the things of God?
Hey, that's what I want to talk about.
I want to talk about buildings and cars and money.
No, I want to talk about preaching, the Bible, salvation.
Hey, look, I don't even care if this place is filled up
to where people are hanging out the windows.
Glory to God.
And then we'll get a building.
And look, you say, Pastor Anderson,
are we going to get a big building soon?
No, we will not.
We will not get another big building
until this place is so full
that people are falling out the door.
Yes, that's right, on Sunday morning.
I want this place to be full on Wednesday night.
And I mean like full, okay?
Like full here, full there, full here on Wednesday night,
and then we'll get a building.
Because I'm not going to let money control me.
I'm not going to let money dominate me.
I'm not going to say, well,
I know we're only 33% capacity or 50% capacity,
but you know what?
Let's all just squeeze our bank account
and put all our money in the place
so we can have a building prematurely.
What's the point?
Hey, let me ask you something.
Didn't God say, but my God shall supply all your need
according to His riches and glory?
So let me ask you something.
If we need a building,
are we going to have the money for a building?
Yeah.
And if this place is full
and people are falling out the door,
hey, you know there will be money for a building.
See what I mean?
Where's the need for this big push
for some building program?
If you have that many people,
the way your building's packed,
and you're preaching right,
the money's there just from the tithe.
You know what I'm saying?
I mean, you wouldn't even have to have all these push,
push, push, sign this card and put this in.
You know, it's not popular to preach that way
because people like money,
but that's the truth.
And so notice the emphasis on money
by the phony, heretic, ungodly Judas Iscariot.
And then we'll see that Jesus says,
look, who cares about money?
I'm about to die on the cross and be crucified.
Get your eyes on the spiritual.
She did a good work on me.
Now look at verse 14.
This is kind of the thing that kind of pushed
Judas Iscariot over the edge.
He didn't like being rebuked like that.
And don't mess with his money.
And the Bible says that the reason that he was upset here
is because he was the treasurer.
It said he had the bag, and it said he was a thief.
And the Bible says that throughout Jesus' ministry,
Judas was constantly stealing money from the pot.
Did you know that?
And so he was stealing money.
And the reason that he wanted to sell this
and give it to the poor, okay,
is because he was going to get his piece of the action first
before it went to the poor.
That's all he cared about.
It said he didn't care about the poor.
So that's just his excuse.
But look at verse 14.
Then one of the twelve called Judas Iscariot
went unto the chief priests.
And see how the timing is?
This is just a few days' time
between the time that they get together
and have this meeting saying,
how are we going to get them away from the crowds
because we don't want there to be an uproar among the people?
How are we going to do this?
And then just right at the same timing, Judas,
Satan enters into Judas, it says in the book of Luke,
and he goes to them and makes them an offer
and said unto them, what will you give me?
And I will deliver him unto you.
Notice the motivation about money.
Hey, look, the love of money is the root of all evil.
The longer I live on this earth,
and it hasn't been that long,
but the longer I live on this earth,
I see that the love of money is the root of all evil.
I mean, more than ever, that's true.
And the Bible says, and said unto them,
what will you give me?
Then I will deliver him unto you.
And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.
And from that time, he sought opportunity to betray him.
Now, before I go any further,
let me show you something interesting
about these thirty pieces of silver.
Look, if you will, keep your finger there,
look at Zechariah chapter 11.
And this is right at the end of the Old Testament,
the second to last book, Zechariah chapter 11.
Zechariah chapter 11.
You know, part of what I was saying
about my philosophy about buildings
is because a lot of churches,
what you'll see is a real big Sunday morning crowd,
because they don't preach hard on Sunday morning.
So on Sunday morning, just big crowd, okay?
Then Sunday night and Wednesday night, real small crowd.
So look, if you have a real big crowd on Sunday morning,
well, then you've got to build a real big building,
because you've got to fit, I mean, the biggest crowd,
is what your building's got to be for,
or else you're not going to have room.
So then you go to these churches that have a job.
I've been in a church with a 500 CE auditorium
with the amount of people on Wednesday night
that are sitting in this room right now.
In a 500 CE auditorium.
I've been there.
And on Sunday morning, it's packed.
I mean, it's 400 people, you know, or whatever.
And on Wednesday night, you know, just wait,
I mean, it's like the front several pews are filled
and the rest is empty.
And see, there's something wrong with that picture, I think.
And so instead of preaching different on Sunday morning
and Sunday night and Wednesday night,
I just preach it all three times.
And then we have, you know, similar crowds,
you know, maybe a little more on Sunday morning.
But we have similar crowds, you know, at all the services.
And so our growth is like normal, you know,
so that by the time we need that building,
we have that many people that are actually coming
and actually on board with us,
not just swinging by on Sunday morning
to, you know, mark off that they went to church.
And they don't believe what we believe anyway.
And so we can have a more normal growth.
I mean, think about it.
It would be like a child whose hand just like grows real big.
You know, no.
God makes things grow proportionately.
And so the three services are growing proportionately.
And when we need the building,
it will be because we need it for all three services.
And that's the philosophy.
You know, Dr. Jack Hiles, I don't know if you heard him.
He's actually the one that I heard teach that philosophy,
where he said, you know, build for the Wednesday night crowd.
Don't get into these big buildings that you don't need.
And so Zechariah chapter 11, moving on from that point,
but Zechariah chapter 11 and verse number 12 and 13,
I want to show you this.
Actually, yeah, let's see here.
It says in verse number 12,
And I said unto them, if ye think good, Zechariah 11, 12,
give me my price, and if not, forbear.
So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.
And the Lord, see that Lord with all capital letters?
That's a name when it has the all four capitals.
And the Lord said unto me, cast it under the potter,
a goodly price that I was prized at of them.
And I took the thirty pieces of silver and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord.
Now look, there's the Lord God Jehovah of the Old Testament saying,
I was valued at thirty pieces of silver.
Now you see, this is another proof that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh.
That the Jehovah God, the Lord, all capitals of the Old Testament,
is the same person as Jesus Christ of the New Testament.
You know, we had some of the Latter-day Saints with us on Sunday night,
the ladies that were here.
And we were talking to them about this after the service.
They don't believe that Jehovah is Jesus Christ.
I mean, they think that there's like another God, Elohim,
and He's like the Father, and then you've got Jesus Christ,
and then you've got the Holy Spirit.
It's like three gods, and they say you can be God, too.
If you excel enough, she was telling me that in the after world,
you can have all kinds of babies for all eternity and be your own God
of your own planet, okay?
Now that's weird.
Yes, it's weird.
So the Mormons need to get saved.
They need to believe on Jesus Christ because Jesus said,
if you do not believe that I am He, you'll die in your sins.
He said you have to believe that I am the Lord,
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and I shall be saved.
And the Bible says there's one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all.
That's why I believe there's one Bible.
Yes, God's favorite number is one.
He says the Lord thy God is one Lord.
He says, I am God.
Before me was there no God formed?
Neither shall there be after me, it says in Isaiah 43.
So look, Jesus Christ here, priced at 30 pieces of silver,
exactly like Jehovah God was priced at 30 pieces of silver.
And look what he says,
and I took the 30 pieces of silver and cast them to the potter
in the house of the Lord in chapter number 27 of Matthew.
You'll see that the Bible says in verse number 5,
are your fingers still there?
Matthew 27, 5, and he cast down the pieces of silver
in the temple, this is Judas Iscariot,
and departed and went and hanged himself.
And the chief priests took the silver pieces and said,
it is not lawful to put them into the treasury
because it is the price of blood.
They took counsel and bought with them the pauver's field
to bury strangers in.
And then flip back to Zechariah chapter 13 and it says,
and cast them to the pauver in the house of the Lord.
See how the Bible is very consistent with itself.
Very consistent with itself.
Look if you would at chapter 13 while you're in Zechariah
so we don't jump around too much.
Turn over to Zechariah 13, 6.
Let me show you another prophecy of Jesus Christ
that's fulfilled in Matthew chapter number 26.
Zechariah 13, 6, and this is going to be fulfilled
in our chapter that we're looking at.
The Bible says, and one shall say unto him,
what are these wounds in nine hands?
Who are we talking about?
Who do you think?
Jesus Christ.
We're talking about the nails piercing his hands.
What are these wounds in nine hands?
Then he shall answer, those with which I was wounded
in the house of my friends.
See, that's the reference to his friend, Judas Iscariot,
one of his closest, one of the 12 inner circle of the disciples.
He says, I was wounded in the house of my friends.
And then look at the next verse.
Awake, O sword, against my shepherd
and against the man that is my fellow,
saith the Lord of hosts.
Smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered
and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.
See, the Lord Jehovah here calls Jesus Christ his fellow
because they're fellow members of the Godhead,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,
and these three are one.
But look at that.
Now keep your finger there and flip back to Matthew.
Look at Matthew 26, 31.
Jesus saith, then saith Jesus unto them,
all ye shall be offended because of me this night,
for it is written, I will smite the shepherd
and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.
See, this is a reference to Jesus Christ.
I'll smite the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.
What are those wounds that you have in your hands, Jesus?
He said, these are the wounds that I received
in the house of my friends.
Now, you say, Pastor Anderson,
why are you so big on King James only?
That's right.
Not just, well, we use the King James Bible,
but we are King James only.
We don't just believe the King James Bible
is the best translation.
We believe that the King James Bible
is the word of God at this church.
We believe that every word in this book
is exactly the word that God put there.
Every jot and every tittle in this book
is preserved down to our generation.
That's not very popular, unfortunately, these days.
Everybody wants to go back to the Greek
and change what the Bible says.
I mean, they'll actually go to the Greek and say,
well, actually, it means something different.
No.
This Bible that you have in your hand,
if you have a King James Bible in your hand,
it's the right Bible.
It's the word of God.
Jesus said, heaven and earth shall pass away,
but my words shall not pass away.
Now, you could say, well, you know,
God's been copying, copying, translating, translating.
Hey, look, God preserved it.
It was the hand of God preserved it down to us.
But you say, why is it so important, you know,
to have the right Bible?
Well, you know, I looked this up
in my handy-dandy living Bible, the dead Bible.
And I looked it up in the dead Bible
by Kenneth Taylor in 1981.
And I open it up, and let me read for you.
Look at your Bible.
And I'll read for you Zechariah 13.6
in this false Bible, the living Bible.
Someone asks, then what are those scars
on your chest and your back?
Okay, now, does that say the wounds in his hands?
What are those scars in your chest and back?
Now, get this.
He will say, I got into a brawl at the home of a friend.
What?
Is that stupid?
I got into a brawl at the home of a friend.
Like, you know, he probably had
a little too much to drink, right?
And started horsing around, they got in a brawl?
Hey, the Bible says that a pastor of a church
is not supposed to be a brawler.
I struggle with that.
No, I'm just kidding.
But the pastor of a church
is not even supposed to be a brawler.
So look, if the pastor of a church
is not supposed to be a brawler,
what's Jesus doing having a brawl at a buddy's house?
Getting cut up.
You know, it reminds me of when we've been
to the emergency room in the middle of the night.
I hate the emergency room.
You walk into the emergency room
in the middle of the night,
and, you know, you have, like, a legitimate problem.
Inevitably, you know,
Jerry Springer's on a TV show, of course.
Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.
You know, it's like, man, somebody's doing Morse code.
It's World War II.
You know, I'm trying to interpret the code,
and then I realize, oh, it's the Jerry Springer show.
They're just bleeping out so much.
It sounds like somebody's calling for help for somebody, SOS.
And so I'm sitting in there, you know,
doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo.
And I'm sitting there, stupid Jerry Springer,
filthy, ungodly shows blasting my eardrums.
And inevitably, you know, you're waiting there.
You have a legitimate problem.
You know, you're trying to get to the emergency room.
Your kid's sick or whatever,
and somebody walks in, you've got in a bar fight.
You know, they got stabbed, and they walk bloods everywhere.
I mean, have you ever seen that in an emergency room?
Put up your hand if you've seen it.
I've seen it.
I've seen it a couple times, because it happens all the time.
If you go there in the middle of the night,
there's people coming from a bar.
They got stabbed.
They got cut with broken glass at a bar.
Is that the level that this Bible reduces Jesus to?
He's out bawling.
I mean, it takes away the flow of the Bible,
you know what I'm saying,
where you've got the wounds and the hands.
You've got the smite, the shepherd.
Because it still has the part about smite, the shepherd.
It says in the next verse, you know,
Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,
the man who is my associate and equal.
So now him and, you know,
God the Father and Jesus Christ are in business suits.
They're associates and equal.
Says the Lord of hosts,
Strike down the shepherd, and the sheep will scatter,
but I will come back in comfort and care for the lambs.
So look, he's still saying it's about Jesus Christ,
you know, in the next verse.
But now he's getting in a brawl at the home of a friend.
Now he's got, you know, wounds and his scars
and his chest and back,
as opposed to the wounds and his hands and his feet,
as the Bible says.
And so I just wanted to show you that.
But go back to the book of Matthew
now that we're through with that.
But I want to focus,
as you're turning back to the book of Matthew,
I want to focus on that phrase,
those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.
Look at Psalm 55.
Think about those words for a minute where Jesus says,
these wounds are what I received in the house of my friends.
Psalm 55, I'm going to show you some of the prophecy.
There's a lot of prophecy in the book of Psalms
about Judas Iscariot since that's the theme of this chapter.
Judas Iscariot is pretty much the central character.
Judas and Peter, obviously the whole Bible is Jesus,
but the two characters that are sort of highlighted in this chapter
are Judas Iscariot and Peter.
Look at Psalm 55.
I'm trying to hurry up here.
Psalm 55, look at verse number 13.
Verse 12, I'm sorry.
Psalm 55, 12.
For it was not an enemy that reproached me,
then I could have borne it.
Neither was it he that hated me
that did magnify himself against me.
Then I would have hid myself from him,
but it was thou, a man mine equal,
my guide and my acquaintance.
We took sweet counsel together
and walked into the house of God in company.
Let death seize upon them and let them go down quick into hell,
for wickedness is in their dwellings and among them.
See, here we see the mind of Jesus Christ a little bit.
He's saying, boy, I couldn't believe it.
He says, you know, if it was an enemy, if it was the Pharisees,
if it was the Sadducees, you know, I would have hid myself.
It wouldn't have bothered me, but he says, but it was thou.
He says, it was my friend.
He says, we went to the house of God together.
I mean, we went to church together.
You know, we grew up together.
You know, people are going to let you down in life.
I'm going to tell you that right now,
and that's part of the theme of this chapter.
People will let you down.
Two kinds of people will let you down,
just like two kinds of people in this chapter let Jesus down.
Number one, there are going to be unsaved, ungodly infiltrators
that are in this church that are not saved.
That's just the fact.
There will always be tears among the wheat.
And number two, there are going to be Christians like Peter,
you know, who are going to let you down.
Christians who will not stand with you.
And I'm going to get to that part in a little bit.
But here we see an ungodly man
that was closely associated with Jesus Christ.
I mean, think about it. Judas is scary.
At the table, and if you look at the book of John, you'll see this.
At the table of the Last Supper, he says,
one of you shall betray me.
And the Bible says, they're all asking him, is it I?
You know, they're not saying, is it Judas?
Because if everybody knew,
there's something about Judas anyway I was wondering about.
No. I mean, they trusted this guy.
They gave him the money.
They're letting him handle the money.
They trust him.
And they're looking at him saying, is it me?
I mean, before they thought it was Judas,
they thought, am I going to be the one that betrays you?
They didn't suspect him at all.
Even when he says, it's he to whom I dip the sop and give it to.
And he dips it and hands it to them.
And they still didn't believe it.
Okay? Then he says, that thou doest, do quickly.
Judas gets up from the table and leaves.
They still didn't get it.
They're like, oh, maybe he's going to go buy some more food.
I mean, literally.
That's what it says.
It says, they thought he bought something for the feast or something.
They thought he had to go give something to the poor
because he handled the money.
I mean, they could not even fathom that it could have been Judas.
Even after he points him out and says,
and when Judas says, it is I, he says to him, thou hast said.
But they're just like, I must have misheard something
because there's no way it could be him.
Look, if you would, at Psalm 109.
Oh, no, I'm sorry.
Stay in Psalm 55.
Sorry about that.
I want to show you one other thing.
Look, if you would, at verse number 20.
He had put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him.
He had broken his covenant.
The words of his mouth were smoother than butter,
but war was in his heart.
His words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.
You see that?
I mean, these people that will be an infiltrator,
I mean, they're smooth.
I mean, they say exactly the right thing.
They'll have everybody convinced.
Figure this out in your life that you don't really know that somebody's saved.
You know what I mean?
You know that you're saved, and that's kind of about it.
I mean, you could have a pretty good idea about other people,
but sometimes there will be somebody and they're not saved,
but they sure look like they're saved.
They've got it all together and they're saved.
Now, I want to explain something to you about this
because a lot of people have so much misunderstanding about this thing
about people who are saved and not saved
and about people who are among us, maybe in church.
I'm not saying tonight, but just in general,
people that are going to be among us that are not saved.
A lot of people have this misunderstanding about it,
and a lot of people will think that there's all these people
who claim to believe exactly right
and they will just tell you exactly the right thing,
but they're not saved.
Well, if you think about it, I mean, among Jesus' crowd,
there was really only one of his 12 that was like that.
You know, it wasn't like half his disciples were phonies.
I mean, it was pretty much one out of the 12,
so it wasn't really a huge percentage,
but there will be these type of infiltrators
who say that they believe exactly right.
I mean, they will just be exactly straight down the line,
living right on the outside, you know, behind the baggage, stealing money,
but they'll just have it all together.
They'll say all the right things because they're just a devil.
Their whole purpose is to come in and to destroy a church,
to destroy people.
There's your child molesters that get found out later in churches all the time.
I can list them for you that I've known just growing up.
People that turned out to be pedophiles and weirdos in churches.
Infiltrators, people who bring in heresy.
They come into a church and they're just a big star,
but now all of a sudden they start bringing in false doctrine, lies,
start bringing in heresy.
But then there's a whole other crowd of people
who is not saved in churches.
Now, I've been in churches where they have these real gut-wrenching invitations,
and I'm not criticizing that at all,
but where they have these gut-wrenching invitations where they say,
like, somebody in this room is not saved.
In a crowd this size, you know there's somebody that's not saved.
Come down the aisle and be saved.
And they'll say, like, you've just been going through the motions or whatever,
but you're just not really.
You've never really got it in your heart.
You had it in your head, but you never are.
And they'll say all this stuff, and to me it's kind of foggy.
Let me make it real clear.
Let me make it real clear for you, okay, who is saved and who's not saved.
Besides the Judas Iscariot, who is an infiltrator.
I mean, he's just a liar.
You can't go by what he says because he's just there for the purpose to destroy.
So you can't go by that.
Nobody's going to find out who Judas is.
That's why you've just got to not trust people.
You've got to keep your hands on your wallet because you don't know Judas
because if they couldn't figure out who Judas was,
you're not going to figure out who Judas was, okay?
You're not going to be around worrying about the Judas,
but the people who aren't saved, here's how you can tell.
They don't believe right.
I mean, isn't that what it takes to be saved?
I mean, doesn't the Bible say believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved?
Doesn't the Bible say thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus
and shalt believe in thine heart that God is raised from the dead?
Thou shalt be saved.
Look, the person who's not saved in a church
is because they don't believe right.
If you believe on Jesus Christ, then you're saved.
I mean, if you believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven,
if you believe that by placing your faith in him,
you'll be eternally saved, once saved, always saved,
and that Jesus paid the whole thing on the cross,
that it's by grace through faith, not of works lest any man should boast,
hey, you're saved.
I mean, people doubt their salvation.
If you're going to doubt your salvation,
doubt it because you don't believe that.
But if you believe that, then you're saved.
I mean, if you believe that in your heart, that it's all what Jesus did
and it's nothing that you're doing,
and if there's been a time, of course,
when you pray and ask Jesus Christ to save you
and when you open your mouth and confess Jesus Christ,
hey, look, then you're saved.
That's what salvation is.
And so some of these invitations I've been sitting in
where they're just this real gut-wrenching thing,
I'm thinking to myself, you know what, maybe they ought to say,
like, hey, are you trusting in works a little bit?
You know what I mean?
Hey, are you thinking it's because you gave up the sinful life
that you're going to heaven?
Huh?
Are you thinking that maybe you could lose it if you don't live right?
You're not trusting Jesus Christ alone?
That it's finished on the cross?
That the death barrel and the resurrection
was sufficient for your salvation?
Then you need to come down the aisle and get saved
and get that right with God
and put your trust in Jesus Christ alone.
Because the people that I've talked to, just in my experience,
and again, I haven't lived that long,
so I don't have the ultimate experience,
but in my experience, the people that turned out to be,
not the Judas Iscariots,
but the people who just turned out to be unsaved in churches,
you talk to them and they never believed right.
They'll say, well, you know, if you commit suicide,
you could lose your salvation.
Or if you totally got out of church,
I mean, good night, you're not still going to go to heaven,
you can't just live however you want.
You know, the people who got out of church and they said,
well, you know, I don't believe in Jesus anymore,
and they just showed the fact that they were never saved.
It always turned out that they believed something wrong.
It always turned out that they had some wrong belief,
because faith is what saves you.
And they had their faith in the wrong thing.
Or they said, well, you know what,
I had to give up such and such in order to be saved.
Like, I had to give up alcohol, you know what I mean,
in order to be saved.
And I mean, that's not right at all.
I mean, there are people saved who drink alcohol, okay?
There are people saved who lie.
There are people saved who steal.
It's us. I mean, we do wrong.
You're looking at them, okay?
I just drank last night? No, I'm just kidding.
I don't drink at all.
I don't even know what beer tastes like.
I'm serious.
But hey, look, we're all sinners.
And sometimes people have this attitude of like,
well, I gave up sin.
You know, I got a haircut, and it was like,
that's when I got saved.
You know, I got a haircut.
I had the hair down on my shoulders.
I was playing in a rock band.
But it's like, I gave all that up so I could be saved.
It's like, well, you know what?
Maybe it sounds like you're trusting it works a little bit.
Maybe you need to get saved.
Because it sounds like you need to give God the glory for salvation.
Because he paid it on the cross.
Your haircut is nothing compared to the wounds that were in Jesus' hands
that he received now as his friends.
Hey, give God the glory for salvation, because it's through faith.
And so the point is,
if you want to talk about who's saved and who's not saved,
if you want to know whether you're saved or not,
is all your faith in Jesus 100%,
then you're saved.
And if there was a time when you received Christ as Savior,
if all your faith is not in Jesus Christ,
then you're not saved.
And I don't care if you prayed a prayer.
I don't care if you've been baptized.
If your faith is not 100% in Jesus Christ,
if you don't believe with all your heart, then you're not saved.
And believing with all your heart means that all your faith is on Jesus.
That's what it means.
And if you're not, then you get saved tonight.
But it's not just because of something like,
well, I didn't pray just right.
You know, that's not it at all.
The words that you pray is not the issue.
It's the belief that you have in your heart
where your faith is on Jesus Christ to save you.
Turn, if you would, to Psalm 109 quickly.
Actually, you know, I'm going to skip that just for sake of time.
Let's get back to Matthew 26.
It's later than I thought,
so let me just blow through the rest of this.
But we see these two men, Judas Iscariot and we see Peter.
Now, I'm going to close quickly here,
but Judas Iscariot, of course,
his whole purpose was to come in
and to get access to money.
His purpose was to get in
and to destroy Jesus Christ in his mind, you know.
Of course, it was all in God's plan.
That's his purpose.
And there will be false prophets among us,
he says, who will bring in damnable heresies.
And that's their whole purpose,
is to look, walk, talk, and act like us
so that they can hurt us.
That's why I don't send your kids with them.
That's why I don't trust people financially.
That's why I don't have financial dealings
with people in church ever.
Come to me and try to have a financial dealing with me.
It's not going to work.
Come to me and try to borrow money from me.
It's not going to work.
I mean, I'll give you money.
I'm not going to loan you money.
You know, everybody's going to come up for me now.
I'm just kidding.
No, but honestly,
I had a good friend of mine tell me one time,
he said the first thing I do when I loan somebody something
is I go out the next day and buy a new one.
Because, you know, that's just the way life is.
I don't loan people things.
I try to borrow things from people.
I mean, I just, I'll give somebody something
or else I'm just not going to do it.
Because you start loaning people money.
I've known people in church who go in together
and, like, buy a house together and say,
oh, you know, you're a fool.
Because if you knew what has gone on through history
of people getting involved in business and people in church,
well, I thought since they were from church,
I didn't need to get it signed.
You know, it's like, no, get it signed, buddy.
Get everything signed, especially if they're from church.
And so that's just the sad truth about it.
Don't just trust people blindly. Trust God.
God never tells you to trust everybody.
Don't think, well, it's Pastor Emerson.
You know, I'm going to have him take my two-year-old,
you know, for the day or something.
I don't want to take your two-year-old for the day.
I've got my own two-year-old there, you know.
But, you know, people just leave their kids with people.
People just leave their kids with people
because they're from church or because they're a pastor.
Hey, there have been pastors who have been pedophiles.
Now, I'm not a pedophile tonight,
and I hate every pedophile,
and I think they should have their head cut off and be killed.
But I'm going to tell you something.
You don't know who you can trust
except Jesus Christ is who you can trust.
And so I'm not up here trying to get you to trust me tonight.
I've never tried to get you to trust me with money,
with people, with things.
Hey, don't trust me at all.
Don't trust what I'm preaching to you.
Get out the Bible and read it yourself and make sure it's true
because you can't trust whatever comes out of my mouth.
You can't trust whatever comes out of anybody's mouth.
You've got to understand that there are people out there
that are wrong, that are evil, that are bad.
And see, I'm not afraid to say that because I'm not.
And that's why I'm not trying to get anybody to trust me
because I don't have an agenda.
I'm trying to have anybody give me something to put under my care
because I don't have that kind of an agenda.
But there are people out there who will try to get you to trust them,
and so they won't tell you what I'm telling you tonight,
and sometimes they're a devil, and so you've got to watch out.
But then there's Peter on the other side of the coin,
and I'm going to hurry up and close with this.
Look at verse number 58, and we'll see what was wrong with Peter.
Before we get to verse 58, just get your eyes on that part of the page,
and I'll tell you that before this, remember Peter is the one that's mentioned
where he says he took three disciples, one with Peter,
and he says that he wanted to pray with them.
This is in his most agonizing hour,
and Peter could not stay awake and just force himself awake.
And there's so much I want to preach in this sermon
that I just have to blow through,
but Peter could not even stay awake for that one hour
to be with Jesus Christ during his most trying hour.
He let them down. People are going to let you down.
Jesus was let down in the most extreme way.
I mean, he's let down. He came unto his own.
He came to the nation of Israel.
He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God,
even to them that believe on his name.
So he's rejected by his own family, said earlier in the book.
He's rejected by his own nation.
He's rejected by his disciple, Judas Iscariot, who's a devil,
and now he's being let down by his greatest disciple
in his most greatest hour of need.
But look, what was Peter's problem?
Why did Peter let him down?
Let's face it, Peter was a great guy.
And you'll see throughout the rest of the Bible he's a great man,
great preacher, great man of God.
He didn't become that way overnight.
He's a great man, but even a great man can let down Jesus Christ.
Even a great lady can let down Jesus Christ.
How do you let him down?
Look at verse number 58, and I'll see a couple of the problems,
two problems that I see with Peter, why he let Jesus down.
But Peter followed him afar off.
There's problem number one.
See, he's following Jesus Christ.
He's doing what Jesus Christ told him to do.
That's what's signified by following.
I mean, he's going the same direction as Jesus.
Jesus is going this way.
He's following him.
Follow me and I'll make you fishers of men.
Hey, he's a fisher of men.
He's following Jesus, but he's following him afar off.
You see, no matter what your service for God is,
no matter how much you're following God,
no matter how much you're doing for God,
if you're not with Jesus Christ, close proximity,
not afar off following him, but following him right there,
you will let down Jesus Christ.
You will not have the boldness that it takes to stand for Jesus Christ.
When the hour comes, when there's going to be a temptation,
when there's going to be trouble, when there's going to be persecution,
you won't stand unless you're close to Jesus Christ in that hour.
What am I talking about?
What are you talking about?
Look, you go out and spin all your wheels serving God and soul winning,
and I'm all for soul winning, man, soul winning as much as we can.
But see, if you work too hard for God and you don't have that walk with God,
you're following him far off.
You're headed for destruction.
I'm talking about you're daily meditating in God's Word,
daily reading the Bible, daily speaking with God and praying to God.
Hey, that is what is so important is to stay right there with Jesus,
you know, he'll catch you when you fall.
But when you start falling and fall off and getting real far away,
you're still following him, but all of a sudden it's like, where is he?
And then all you see is the people around you who hate God,
who hate Jesus Christ, that are giving you a bad time.
And all of a sudden your view of Jesus starts to get real dim
and you're not going to last.
You can't follow Jesus and fall off forever.
You've got to make sure that no matter how busy you get serving God,
make sure that this is number one in your life, reading the Bible.
Make sure that spending time with God is number one.
You think about the story of Mary and Martha,
where Martha is in the kitchen, she's making food, she's serving,
and she says, force my sister Mary to be serving with me.
He says, no, she's got the better part.
She's sitting at my feet spending time with me.
I'm going to be God soon.
She knows the value of what's coming out of my mouth.
She's sitting here listening to it.
And so don't ever let work and service for God replace Bible reading.
Never. Never.
You say, well, you can read the Bible.
I've heard preachers get up and say,
you've got the whole eternity to read the Bible.
You can read the Bible all eternity.
Just work for God.
And I'm like, maybe that's why your sermons are so boring
because they're so shallow because you don't know the Bible
because you're so busy out working for God.
Oh, yeah, you can read that thing all eternity.
No, I'm going to read it now.
I'm going to read it now because I want to have the power of God in my life
because I still want to be serving God 50 years from now.
I'm not in it for the short little sprint.
I'm in it for the marathon, the long run.
And so I'm going to read and meditate on this book day and night.
I need it more now than I'm ever going to need it.
This is when I need it.
And so don't ever get into that trap of I'm too busy to read my Bible,
but I'm doing it all for God.
No nuts to that.
You sit down and stop everything and read this book.
I mean, it's hard.
I fall into that trap sometimes if I'm not careful because I'm a busy person.
Make the time.
This is everything.
And then number two, you'll see why he let him down.
Look at the last phrase there.
Peter followed him afar off into the high priest's palace
and went in and sat with the servants.
Actually, there's three reasons.
I'm learning something new this while I read this.
He sat with the servants.
What's he doing hanging around with these idiots?
What's he doing hanging around with the world,
sitting around the campfire with a bunch of worldly, unsaved crowd?
Hey, there's another problem.
But here's the problem that I wanted to talk about,
the last four words, to see the end.
See, he had this mentality where he says,
you know what, I want to follow Jesus,
but before I really get too far into this palace,
before I really stand up and say that I'm with Jesus Christ,
I want to see how this whole thing turns out.
Do you see that?
He says he sat down to see the end.
He says, I want to see how things are going to turn out
before I really plunge into this.
You might have an attitude.
Pastor Anderson started Faithful Word Baptist Church
ten months ago, right?
He just moved into town and started it from nothing.
You say, well, I just want to see how it turns out.
Let's see if Pastor Anderson's just going to be a big flop.
Let's see if Faithful Word Baptist Church
is just going to spring up and then die.
Hey, look, that kind of an attitude
is not the kind of attitude that we ought to have
when it comes to this church.
Hey, I love this church, and this church is not just me.
This church is us, and I love this church.
This church will succeed, and if you have an attitude
of saying, like, well, you know, I'll try it.
You know, I'll try it. See how it goes?
See what this is about? Hey, look, just jump in.
Just commit to it and say, like, I live or die by faith.
You know, if this church dies, if the ship goes down,
I'm going to be, like, waving like this at the top
while it goes down, right?
I'm going to be standing on the bow at the highest point,
just saying, see you later.
You know, hey, if the ship goes down,
I'm going down with it, right?
And so have that kind of a zeal,
and I'm not just talking about a church,
because, like, obviously, if this church
were to ever change its doctrine,
hey, get out of here.
If I start preaching out of another Bible,
one's screaming in the other direction.
You know, Paul said, if I come and preach another gospel,
let me be accursed.
He said, if an angel of God comes and preaches another gospel,
let him be accursed,
because your loyalty should never be with man.
You know, it should be with Jesus Christ.
But I'm talking about what this church represents,
somebody with the house of God.
You know, this church is the house of God.
Did you know that?
This church is the body of Jesus Christ.
Did you know that?
The local church's assembly of people is the body of Christ.
It's the house of God.
It's the church of the living God.
It's the pillar and ground of the truth.
Hey, don't stand back and say,
I want to see how it all turns out.
Why don't you make it turn out?
Why don't you jump in and say,
I'm going to make this thing succeed.
You make this thing succeed.
Hey, get involved with it.
Don't say, I'm just going to sit back and see the end.
I'm going to see, boy, let's see if we really can hit,
you know, 200 salvations this year.
Well, that'll be interesting.
Let's see if we do hit 20 baptisms this year.
Hey, don't stand back.
Why don't you make it happen?
I'm going to make it happen.
Hey, let's all make it happen.
Let's not just have it be a couple people.
You know, let's have everybody getting involved.
Nobody should be standing and fall off
just to see how it turns out.
And see, the problems with Peter,
he's falling far off.
He doesn't have that close,
very close relationship with Jesus Christ daily.
Number two, he's hanging around with the wrong crowd.
Number three, he has this attitude of,
let's see how you do.
And you don't have that attitude with your friends either.
You know, you have friends and it's like if they fail,
it's like you don't want anything to do with them,
you know, because you don't want to be associated
with a failure or something like that.
Hey, look, people that are my friends,
I mean, if you're my friend in this church,
if you fail, then I'm right there with you.
I want to take some of that failure with you
because I'm going to tell you something.
That's not a real friend.
The Bible says a friend loveth at all times
and a brother is born for adversity.
And so when you have this attitude
where you'll be friends with people
until they are, you know, not popular,
until they're having problems,
a fair-weather friend.
Don't be a fair-weather friend in life
and don't be a fair-weather friend to Jesus
and don't be a fair-weather friend to this church.
Hey, there may come some trying times
with Jesus Christ along the way.
Are you going to be faithful to him?
Are you going to be faithful to this church
when there's trying times?
You know, are you going to be faithful to your friends?
I mean, your brothers and sisters in Christ,
maybe outside of this church that you know, that you love?
Hey, are you going to stand with them
in the hour of their temptation
or are you going to turn and run like the disciples did?
Like Peter did?
No, be with them.
Be right there with them.
Who cares what the end is?
Hey, stay faithful to the people
who've been faithful to you.
Stay faithful to Jesus Christ
who's been faithful to you.
Stay faithful to God.
Stay faithful to the church.
Stay faithful to your friends.
That's what God is talking about here when he says
he sat down to see the end.
You know, this is how it turns out before he decides
whether he's going to really identify with Jesus Christ.
And that's why he denies him three times in this chapter.
But I'll close with this.
What did they both do?
The unsaved, ungodly man who stabbed Jesus in the back
and ended up going to hell, committing suicide.
All his bowels gushed out, the Bible says.
He went to hell because he was unsaved.
Not because he committed suicide,
but because he was unsaved.
And then Peter, who went out and let Jesus down.
He fell asleep when he was supposed to be praying.
He denied that he even knew Jesus.
He called him afar off.
Look what he did in the last words.
And this is what I'm talking about,
about the continuity about this chapter.
Read it again with that in mind,
thinking about the continuity of betrayal,
people letting you down.
If you ever come to a place in your life
where people are letting you down and you just can't take it,
hey, just read this chapter.
It'll bring you encouragement.
But look at verse number 75.
And Peter remembered the word of Jesus,
which said unto him, Before the cock crow,
thou shalt deny me thrice.
And he went out and wept bitterly.
And then look at verse number three.
Then Judas, which had betrayed him.
Verse number three of chapter 27, I'm sorry.
Then Judas, which had betrayed him,
when he saw that he was condemned,
repented himself, and brought again
the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests.
And Elod was saying, I have sinned
and that I have betrayed the innocent blood.
And they said, What is that to us?
Seed out of that.
Who cares?
We don't care about you.
We're just using you, Judas.
And they said, What is that to us?
Seed out of that.
And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple
and departed and went and hanged himself.
So we have the two men, either of them,
both of them felt disgusted with themselves
because they'd let down Jesus Christ.
Don't let him down.
Stay with him.
Don't hang around the wrong crowd.
Don't wait to see how it turns out.
And if you're a Judas, if there's a Judas Iscariot,
hey, he has no hope.
I mean, he went out and hanged himself
and died and went to hell.
But then Peter, he wept bitterly.
I mean, just bitterly sobbing.
I'm a failure.
I'm a loser.
I'm an idiot.
But what did he do?
He got back up and became a great Christian
for the rest of his life.
So when you do let down Jesus, hey, keep on going.
Just get up and do it again.
And you could be used greatly by God.
I mean, he was used greatly by God in the book of Acts.
Second only to Apostle Paul for being talked about
in the book of Acts and in the New Testament.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, I thank you so much for the Bible.
And Father, boy, I can think about it a lot of times
that I've been let down by people
and fair-weather friends,
people who want to see how things turn out,
people who don't want to stand with you
during the darkest hour.
It's life.