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Bible preaching from the pulpit of Choice Hills Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina
Alright, Psalm 55, we will read the whole Psalm tonight.
It's 23 verses, I believe.
Psalm 55, verse number one.
The subtitle says,
"'To the chief musician upon Neganoth,
Mosquil, a Psalm of David,
give ear to my prayer, O God,
and hide not thyself from my supplication.
Attend unto me and hear me.
I mourn in my complaint and make a noise.
Because of the voice of the enemy,
because of the oppression of the wicked,
for they cast iniquity upon me,'
interesting way to put that,
"'and in wrath they hate me.
My heart is sore pained within me,
and the terrors of death are fallen upon me.
Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me,
and horror hath overwhelmed me.
And I said, oh, that I had wings like a dove,
or then would I fly away and be at rest.
Lo, then would I wander off
and remain in the wilderness, say Lai.
I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.
Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues,
for I have seen violence and strife in the city.
Day and night they go about it,
upon the walls thereof.
Mischief also and sorrow are in the midst of it.
Wickedness is in the midst thereof.
Deceit and guile depart not from her streets,
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 mine acquaintance.
We took sweet counsel together
and walked unto 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.
As for me, I will call upon God,
and the Lord shall save me.
Evening and morning and at noon will I pray and cry aloud,
and he shall hear my voice.
He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle
that was against me, for there were many with me.
God shall hear and afflict them,
even he that abideth of old, say Lai.
Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.
He hath put forth his hands against such
as be at peace with him.
He hath 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.
Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee.
He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
But thou, O God, shall bring them down
into the pit of destruction.
Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days,
but I will trust in thee.
Let's pray together.
Our Father, thank you for this word,
these 23 verses in this psalm,
and we pray as we look at this psalm and examine it
and try to draw out principles and truths from it
and see, Lord, through the work that you did
in the life of David, that we might see truths
that will help us.
Lord, our eyes are upon you.
Lord, we want to see more about you
and how you interact with us and how you deliver us.
And so give us hearts to understand,
give us ears to hear, eyes to see.
Help us, Lord, to be inclined to your word,
not be distracted by the goings on of this day, Lord,
and things that are on our mind, things we have to do.
But Lord, we might set this time aside and sanctify it
for your purposes and for your glory, Lord,
that we might grow by your word.
So Lord, we look to you now.
We ask for your help in Jesus' name, amen.
So you'll notice in the first several verses of the psalm,
there's David's opening up in a prayer,
and this is a, you might call it a prayer of the fearful.
That's what my Bible, the plea of the fearful,
that's the heading in my Bible.
And you've seen this before,
and as we go through the psalms,
you see the same prayers that David prays over and over
and over in different situations.
And sometimes you might get the impression
that we're covering the same ground.
And really, in a way we are,
because these things are repeating in David's life.
And so that's one thing.
We've already looked at that in previous psalms,
and we'll see it again.
We'll see David repeat these same things.
Probably in Psalm 56 next week, we'll see the same thing,
because it just describes this up and down,
kind of yo-yo of the Christian life that we all experience,
good days, bad days, ups and downs,
and our temperament is always changing
depending on the circumstance.
But we're running with this theme in the psalms
of the heart of the Bible.
That is, the psalms are the heart of the Bible.
Not only is it in the middle of the Bible,
the psalms are, but it also speaks a lot
to the inner part of man,
especially the emotional part of man.
That's why the psalms are such a healing kind of balm to us,
because we see and hear, and when we read these psalms,
we can relate with the emotional state of many things
that the psalmists say in the psalms.
And in this psalm, we have a glimpse into the heart
and into the mind of this man, David.
Now, take a peek at Hebrews chapter 11,
because I want to just show you one verse.
And one thing about David,
and this is something you all know,
this is not new information here,
but it's important for us to see this.
When God gives us a glimpse into the heart of David,
we have to keep something in mind about David
and about other figures we see in scripture.
Hebrews 11, verse number 32,
this is the kind of et cetera portion of Hebrews 11,
when the deeds of faith are not really mentioned,
but the people are mentioned kind of in a list.
Hebrews 11, 32 says this, and what shall I more say?
For the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon,
and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah,
and of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets.
So here David is, although nothing that David does
is cited in Hebrews 11, yet he is listed
as a man whose life was characterized by great faith,
like the others in, like Moses and Abel,
and these others that are mentioned in this,
in Hebrews 11, hall of faith, right?
And so God himself cites David as a man of great faith.
We also are familiar with probably the most famous
characterization of David, is that David is a man
after God's own heart.
In other words, David's heart was like God's heart.
David's heart was after the Lord,
and David pursued the Lord.
He had great affection for God.
He wasn't just obeying God, he was obeying God
with his heart, and that's what stood out with David.
And that's why you see so much emotion in the Psalms
and his relationship to God described in the Psalms.
So God says David is a man of faith, Hebrews 11, 32.
God says David is a man after his own heart.
But notice back in Psalm 55, verse number two,
it says this, attend unto me and hear me,
I mourn in my complaint and make a noise.
Because of the voice of the enemy,
because of the oppression of the wicked,
for they cast iniquity upon me,
and in wrath they hate me.
Now notice how he describes his emotions.
How he describes what's going on inside of him.
My heart is sore pained within me,
and the terrors of death are falling upon me.
Well David, why are you afraid?
You are a man of faith.
Why are you afraid?
Why are you afraid to die?
That's what he's talking about, right?
The terrors.
David, if you have believed on the Lord,
and your sins are forgiven,
and I know the view of David was not so much
like we view salvation.
David was looking at salvation
from this personal problem he had.
But the truth nevertheless remains.
David did know God, and he knew where he was going.
A few times he mentions he knew where he was going.
Why are you afraid to die?
He says, verse five,
fearfulness and trembling are come upon me,
and horror hath overwhelmed me.
David, why are you afraid of your enemies?
Why don't you trust God that he's gonna come through,
and he's gonna deliver you,
and he's gonna save you from your enemies?
Hasn't God saved you before?
If a person of faith, this is what you expect them to say,
but this is not what David says.
He says, oh that I had wings like a dove,
I would fly away and be at rest.
This is all describing his fear.
He would hasten his escape.
He wanted to get out of the Windy Storm and Tempest.
You see, we see that David endured these troubles,
but he did not endure these troubles
as some sort of superhuman.
This is what I want you to see,
and this is something you see in the Psalms over and over.
He endured the testings and trials
that came upon him through his enemies in this case,
not as a superhuman.
David, the man cited for his faith,
the man whose heart was after God,
was a man who had the same doubt and the same fear
that every single one of us would have and do have
in similar circumstances.
He was no different than we are.
And remember, he was no different
while also being cited as a man of great faith
and a man after God's own heart.
So we can say it is not then the absence of doubt and fear
in the midst of this kind of trouble
that makes a person of great and of notable faith.
That is not what makes a person of faith.
It is the exercise of that faith within that trouble,
which is what David is doing in the Psalm.
If you're a person who walks after God and lives for God
and obeys God and loves God, and you're like David
and you live by faith,
and that's the way we're all supposed to live,
number one, you are going to have trouble in your life
in some way, fashion, or form.
And we're gonna see one source of trouble
that was kind of unexpected,
but you're gonna have physical trouble,
you're gonna have trouble with your relationships,
you're gonna have trouble in your life,
with your family, you're gonna have trouble,
financial trouble, I mean, just go on,
I mean, you might have,
I mean, you might get drafted and get sent to war.
I mean, there's no way for us to know.
But here's about, it was true of David,
even though David was a man of faith, it's true of us.
Okay, but when we face those troubles and those difficulties,
whatever they may be,
it is not a mark of great faith that we have no fear
and that we have no terror
and that we don't wilt under the pressure.
David wilted, David did have fear,
David did not come through it cleanly as some giant,
no, he was just like you and just like me.
And that should be a great encouragement.
All the people that we find in scripture,
all the people in Hebrews 11,
every figure in scripture that dealt with difficult things
who is cited as a person of great faith
and obedience to the Lord,
did so with great weakness and with great fear and with doubt.
None of them were flawless like that.
So we need not think of them in that way.
They were human, thoroughly human.
But what that does is it makes that kind of life of faith
in Christ, that kind of love, just passionate,
white hot love for the Lord accessible to us.
We can do that.
And the moment you do that doesn't mean that somehow,
you think these missionaries that go off to the mission
field in the backside of nowhere,
you think of the muskots, I read a letter by them today,
they're in Guyana, they live in the sticks in Guyana.
You think, well, man, what great faith,
they're just, they're pursuing the Lord's will,
just doing what the Lord wants them to do,
and it seems kind of in an extreme example, maybe.
Do you think they do that without fear?
Do you think that they don't get on their knees and weep?
Do you think they don't get on their knees
and cry out to God because they don't know
what's gonna happen?
They do.
They do.
Do you think they ever get to a place in the map,
Matt Brown and Nikki Brown get to a place in ministry
where they're extremely frustrated and don't know
how to deal with the problems in front of them?
They absolutely do.
And that doesn't mean they're not a person of great faith.
And the same is true of you and the same is true of me.
We're all just weak, we're all just weak people.
David is not unique among figures in the Bible.
David is one of many and they're all the same.
Every one of them was plagued by thoughts,
by these kinds of thoughts and emotions.
Even though they were in that moment experiencing
what would be the greatest deliverance of their life,
they still had those thoughts of doubt and fear.
Still, in the moment of deliverance,
Gideon, the Almighty Man of Valor, what's he doing?
He's hiding, threshing wheat.
That's what he's doing, he's hiding.
At the moment the angel comes and says,
the angel of the Lord comes to him and says,
you're gonna do some great thing for God.
And he's like, what are you talking about?
And yet Gideon is cited in Hebrews 11
as a man of great faith.
I could give you a couple,
let's look at a couple of examples.
Look at Numbers 11, Numbers 11.
And then we'll also look at 1 Kings chapter 19.
Just very quick examples, make you see what I mean.
Numbers 11.
Numbers 11, verse 15.
Verse 14, Moses speaking here says this.
He's complaining to God.
He says, I am not able to bear all this people alone
because it is too heavy for me.
We think, well, that's, you know, that,
okay, I feel bad for Moses.
He's stressed, right?
No, Moses is not just stressed here.
Moses is having a meltdown, okay?
A total meltdown.
How many of you have ever had a meltdown?
How many of you will be honest and say,
I have melted down every hand.
I'm gonna go, yes.
Some of us ought to do this right here in our foot, right?
Moses had a meltdown, David's had have meltdowns.
That doesn't mean you're,
it doesn't mean that you can't be a person of faith.
God's still gonna, he's still gonna deliver you
because it never really was about your faith to begin with.
Verse 15, notice what it says.
And if thou deal thus with me, Moses says to God,
kill me, I pray thee, out of hand.
If I have found favor in thy sight,
let me not see my wretchedness.
This is what Moses says.
Lord, if you love me, kill me.
If you have any grace, just put me out of my misery.
That's a meltdown.
That's not just stress, that's a meltdown
from the great man of faith.
First Kings 19, look at that if you would.
First Kings 19.
Look at verse four.
This is Elijah.
But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness
and came and sat down under a juniper tree
and he requested for himself that he might die.
How many of you know the context of this?
What just happened?
Yeah, prophets of Baal, fire from heaven.
And here immediately after,
he requested for himself that he might die
and he said, it is enough.
Now, oh Lord, take away my life
for I am not better than my father's.
I'm just trying to show you,
there is not outside of the Lord Jesus himself,
there is no great figure in the Bible.
They're all just weak people who had fear and doubt,
no different than you have in your current trouble.
No different.
You can still be a person of great faith.
You can still be a person of great love to God.
You can still do his will.
What did David do when he was faced back in Psalm 55?
What did he do when he was faced
with these kinds of adversities?
What we see in Psalm 55, he turned to the Lord.
He turned to the Lord.
Verse 22 says, cast thy burden upon the Lord
and he shall sustain thee.
He turned to God in prayer.
As for me, verse 16, I will call upon God
and the Lord shall save me.
You see, it's not that he didn't have the fear and the doubt
and all those other questions and weaknesses and such.
No, he had all of them, but he took them to God.
You see?
And the taking of those things to God
is the exercise of the faith.
That is the faith.
It's not the absence of all of those feelings.
It is within those things,
still taking it to God and calling upon him.
It was, listen, it was never about me
and you is never about David.
It was always about God.
It was never about the one who exercises faith.
It was always about the God who delivered him.
His faith did not deliver him.
God delivered him.
And that's the emphasis.
The emphasis should be not upon David's great faith,
but upon the faithful God that delivered a weak man.
And that's exactly what every person in scripture is.
But David's, those emotions in David's heart
were not limited to just doubt and fear.
Look at verse nine.
He says, destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues.
For I have seen violence and strife in the city.
Why is he talking about tongues?
Go back up to verse number three.
Because of the voice of the enemy,
because of the oppression of the wicked,
for they cast iniquity upon me.
Cast iniquity upon me.
You know what that is?
They're slinging mud, right?
They're slandering him.
They're saying all kinds of evil things about him.
So I mentioned in verse nine, their tongues.
And so verse nine, notice he says,
for I have seen violence and strife in the city.
Verse 10, day and night they go about it
upon the walls thereof.
Mischief also and sorrow are in the midst of it.
Wickedness is in the midst thereof.
Deceit and guile depart not from her streets.
He says, verse 15, look at that.
Let death seize upon them
and let them go down quick into hell
for wickedness is in their dwellings and among them.
If that's not enough, verse 19.
God shall hear and afflict them.
Even he that abideth of old say, lie.
Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.
So David, you see David's fear and doubt,
but you also see David's anger.
He's mad.
David is angry because people are slandering him.
David is angry because of what his enemies are doing to him.
And that's also something that we sometimes deal with,
is it not?
We're gonna see in a minute
there will be people who betrayed him.
And just like doubt and fear,
David had to take that anger
and bring it before the Lord in prayer,
just like he did his doubt and fear
when he called upon God.
And that's what he's doing here.
He's taking the anger
and instead of directing it in vengeance,
he's directing it upward, right?
That's what he's doing.
That's what we call the imprecatory Psalms.
We covered, if you weren't here maybe
when we talked about the imprecatory Psalms,
we went through one of them early on in the Psalms.
I encourage you to go back and listen to that
because it's very, very important truths
about why the imprecatory Psalms are there
and how that relates to justice and those things.
You can find it on the website
if you're interested in listening.
But that's the source of the imprecatory Psalms
is you're taking what would be anger and vengeance
and you're directing it upward to God, right?
Which is the proper place for it to be.
So doubt, fear, anger, all of these things.
This is why we call it the heart of the Bible.
And then we get to verse number 12.
He says this,
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.
In other words, he's saying,
listen, if this was an enemy, I could have avoided him,
but I can't avoid this guy.
What David is talking about here is betrayal.
Is betrayal.
The hardest part about David's trouble in this Psalm
is the betrayal.
It's not what his enemies are doing,
it's what his friends have done to him.
Now, how do we know that?
He says this, verse 12,
For it was not an enemy that reproached me,
then I could have borne it.
So he's saying that the betrayal is something
that is actually worse.
If it had just been my enemies oppressing me,
which is what he's talking about at the front of the Psalm,
if it had just been my enemies,
I, you know, they're oppressing me, okay, fine.
I expect that from my enemies.
But the betrayal is next level.
The betrayal is something I wasn't expecting.
And betrayal, I could have handled
and endured my enemies harming me,
but this is way worse,
is what he's saying in verse number 12.
And so the hardest part of David's trouble in this Psalm
was that the betrayal
that he experienced from his friends.
Now again, you know, you think about your enemies,
though you know there's certain people that don't like you.
All of us have people that don't like us, you know.
I mean, maybe in their, you know,
it's all, truth is oftentimes in our family,
that's sad, that's a sad commentary,
but a lot of times that's true.
But you can avoid those people.
That's what he says in verse 12.
And you expect bad treatment
from people who are your enemies.
But you don't expect bad treatment
from people who are your friends.
And what happens is this kind of reproach,
this kind of slander, this betrayal,
the problem, the reason it's so painful
is because it takes us by surprise.
It comes out of a quarter that we do not,
from which we do not expect it.
I'll tell you something, just as a general rule,
whenever you talk about trial, trouble, difficulty,
you know, sorrow, the worst sorrow is the kind
that you didn't prepare for,
that just took you completely by surprise.
And is it not, is it just me or is,
it seems like we always try to prepare ourselves
for everything, right?
We do, we have insurance, you know,
we try to prepare ourselves for everything.
And it always seems that when something happens,
it always comes from a place that we're not expecting.
And betrayal is an example of that.
And the betrayal that David experienced
was a special kind of pain.
Notice what he says in verse 13.
But it was thou speaking to the betrayer,
a man mine equal, my guide and mine acquaintance.
We took sweet counsel together
and walked unto the house of God in company.
You see, so not only do you have what the betrayer,
the pain that the betrayer is,
of the things that he is saying and doing.
So that's painful enough.
And if an enemy did that, it would be painful.
But you have compounding that is the reality
that the person who is doing it is not your enemy,
but your friend or who you thought was your friend.
Now here's the thing about betrayal.
Now David is the one who says betrayal is worse
than what his enemies could do to him.
In verse 12, you see betrayal has a unique effect upon us.
You know what betrayal does?
It destabilizes us.
Because with this person who betrays us,
we are sure or we were sure anyway
that this person was sincere,
only to find out that the person wasn't.
So we were certain about where we stood with them
and all of a sudden the rug has pulled out from under us.
And so therefore we began to question
the sincerity of other people
and the faithfulness of other people who are around us,
many of whom are actually sincere.
But when someone betrays us, we then begin to think,
well, I mean, what about them?
I thought this guy was faithful and loyal and he wasn't,
and then what about this guy and this guy?
And you know what it'll do?
It'll make us a cynic.
It'll make us mistrust people, like everyone,
because we don't want that pain
to experience that pain again.
And we start to think nobody is sincere.
And in fact, it can bring us into despair
because the people who are there to be our friends
to hold us up, we don't trust them anymore.
These are all effects of betrayal.
Betrayal is very serious.
Listen, you think about a marriage.
You think about a marriage.
You have a situation where a husband commits adultery
against his wife or a wife against her husband.
There's a reason why it is rare to come out of that
with an intact marriage.
You know why?
Because betrayal cuts super deep, super deep,
and you can't just get over it.
You can't just get over it.
It is a serious matter.
And let me just pause here and say something about this.
We see how serious it is here,
but don't just think of yourself,
of course, like we always do, do we not?
Don't just think of yourself as the one who is betrayed.
Think of the heavy duty and responsibility you have
as the person who's been trusted by another,
and how important it is for you and for me
as people who others trust to hold that trust as precious,
whether it be our marriage,
or whether it be our children,
or whether it be our friends,
that we have just absolutely tenacious
and unmoving loyalty to people.
Not loyalty toward evil, but loyalty toward those people.
We will under no circumstance betray them,
because we can cause that upon others.
We can cause that upon others.
Every, listen, every Christian, every Christian,
every person who names the name of Christ
ought to be the most loyal person that anybody knows.
The most loyal person in their circle,
that under no circumstances,
no matter what temptation is held out,
and sometimes that's hard to do,
because some people don't always act right.
Are you just gonna eject someone,
abandon them immediately when they act out?
No, sometimes loyalty means you have to look at that person
to whom you are faithful and say,
what you're doing is not right.
That doesn't mean I'm abandoning you, but it's not right.
Another thing about betrayal,
this mention here with David,
is that people who can betray us are friends,
who are close confidants,
are in a unique position to harm us.
You think of your enemies,
if your enemy approaches you, you're tense, you're ready.
If you think of a literal enemy, you're gonna be armed.
I'm reaching for four o'clock is what I'm saying, right?
But with your friend, you're not, your guard is down.
And so they have a unique ability to harm us.
Our enemies are nearest to, our friends rather,
unlike our enemies, are nearest to us,
and they know us best.
They know our weak points, they know our faults,
they know where we're sensitive,
and they have a unique ability.
Our enemies do not, but our friends have the unique ability
to cut us straight to the quick.
And notice, even notice this,
and this is just super, super sad, verse 14.
We took counsel together
and walked unto the house of God in company.
Not only was this man his friend,
but this man was, played the part
of a brother or sister in Christ, right?
So you had that additional layer.
Religious hypocrisy.
David describes it further in verse 20, look at what he says.
He hath put forth his hands against such
as be at peace with him.
He hath 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 they were drawn swords.
That is hypocrisy.
What he said and what was in his heart were not consistent.
He knew how to speak and sound spiritual.
They went to church together.
And this is an additional kind of pain of sorrow to David.
Not only were these people his friends,
not only did they slander and reproach him
and seek to hurt him, not only that,
but they also did so under the guise and in the name of God.
They took God's name in vain, which is what that means.
And of course, as you read verse 12 and 13 and 14 and 15,
your mind probably immediately went to Judas Iscariot, right?
There is no greater, worse rather, example of betrayal
than Judas Iscariot that has ever been.
There's no worse, worse betrayer.
I'd like you to look at a couple of passages
to finish up here.
Look at John 18 and Luke 22.
Now, what we just read in Psalm 55
is not necessarily referring to Jesus.
It's not quoted in the New Testament,
but the parallels are uncanny.
There is definitely a pattern match
if it's not directly talking about Christ.
But look at John 18.
Remember what I said?
We're gonna start in verse one.
Remember what I said?
The reason why a betrayer is so painful,
more painful than regular oppression
and reproach and slander,
is because a betrayer is uniquely able to cause pain.
And that was true of Judas Iscariot.
Judas was in a position to uniquely cause pain
to the Lord Jesus that the scribes and the Pharisees
and the Sadducees sought to do for several years
and were not able to do it.
But Judas once was able to do it.
He was uniquely able to hurt him
because he knew the habits and patterns of the Lord Jesus.
John 18, verse one, look what it says.
When Jesus had spoken these words,
he went forth with his disciples over the brook Kedron,
where was a garden into the which he entered
and his disciples.
And Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place.
Now, read that.
He knew the place, for Jesus oft times
resorted thither with his disciples.
Judas then, now stop verse number three,
Bible student, notice the word then.
Then is there because it's built upon the truth
of what was just spoken in verse two.
See, Judas knew the place, the Garden of Gethsemane.
He knew because he had been in the inner circle
with Jesus where only the disciples went.
He knew that Jesus went to the garden,
to this particular garden.
And he knew the times he would usually go.
Judas then, having received a band of men and officers
from the chief priests and Pharisees,
cometh thither to the garden with lanterns
and torches and weapons.
Now, look at Luke 22,
Luke 22 verse four.
What is the significance of the garden
in the betrayal of Judas, when Jesus betrayal Christ?
Why is it important that Judas knew
that Christ would go to the Garden of Gethsemane
and when he would go to the Garden of Gethsemane?
Here's the reason.
Luke 22 verse four, or look at verse three.
Then entered Satan into Judas, this is at the Last Supper,
surname Iscariot, being of the number of the 12,
and he went his way and communed with the chief priests
and captains how he might betray him unto them.
And they were glad and covenanted to give him money,
and he promised and sought opportunity
to betray him unto them in the absence of the multitude.
Now, we won't go there, Matthew 21 verse 46.
They sought to lay hands on Jesus a number of times.
Matthew 21, we should know, is Holy Week,
is the last week of the life of Christ, right?
So he's in Jerusalem for the last time,
he's gonna die soon.
And in that week, they sought to lay hands on him.
The elders and chief priests,
they sought to lay hands on him, but they couldn't.
You know why?
Because of the multitude.
They knew that if they tried that,
they would probably get stoned by the crowd.
There'd be a riot to defend Jesus.
And so what Judas did is Judas took the information
about the habits of Christ that he knew
and weaponized it to find a way
to turn him over to the elders
where the multitude would not be present.
And the only way that Judas could do that
is because Judas was close and intimate
and in that circle.
There were no other people at the garden except the 12.
So his access to Jesus is what gave him the ability
to bring special harm,
the closeness.
And this is exactly why this kind of betrayal
is so painful and why people who are close to us
betray us and why it's so painful
and why we must guard ourselves
from doing anything that might betray those who trust us.
But what do we do once we have been betrayed?
Do we keep everybody at a distance
as a result of that betrayal?
I mean, you can do that,
but that's not gonna be a happy life
because you need people around you.
You need people to help you.
So I'll just remind you of one truth
from the life of Christ that we just read.
Judas Iscariot did indeed betray Christ.
He was close to him and used that intimacy with Christ
to do him harm, yes.
But don't forget that there were 11 other disciples.
That went to death for Christ.
That were loyal until their dying breath.
That didn't betray him.
So not everybody's gonna betray you.
There are gonna be some godly people around you
that will be faithful and loyal.
So the lesson from us is you can't cut everybody off
as a result of that, but the other lesson is be that guy.
Be one of the 11.
Be one of the 11.
So I'm gonna read you a little bit of the gospel.
Psalm 55, 22 says this.
Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee.
He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
This is the only reason that David,
despite his fear, despite his sorrow, his doubt,
his suffering, his being betrayed,
this is the only reason David was not moved
because God suffered it not.
Man, that's encouraging.
Listen, you and I are going to come through this thing.
You are gonna come through it.
You are, because God is going to hold you up.
It was never David's strength to begin with.
It was always God's from the beginning.
Let's pray.