Gooding, David: 1 - The Upper Room Ministry

And so now let's hear what John has to say about the development of holiness in the life of a believer, where it starts and how it proceeds. Of course, other writers in the New Testament talk about it. Paul does. Paul spends chapters three, four, and five talking about justification by faith. He doesn't end it there. He then spends chapter six, seven, and eight talking about sanctification. The mark of the gospel that it is true, that salvation by faith is true, is that it leads on to a holy life. Not to get salvation, but because we've got it. And so Paul will speak about it. But now who is John the Apostle? The calling for is what God gave him to talk about. So we start in chapter thirteen in the upper book, and it announces to us in verse one that Christ is about to depart. And that's not simply a time limit, because he happened to say when he was about to depart. It's going to be about the provision that Christ made by going away. Uh, it was necessary for him to go away. Right. Well, now, we're leaving out the details. Let's come to the major lessons. The first major lesson is what he taught the disciples when he took a basin, filled it with water, and began to wash their feet. And the first lesson was a lesson in humility. You see. Uh, if I have washed your feet, verse fourteen, you also ought to wash one another's feet. So it was a lesson in humility, but it was far more than that. And now it's that far more than that that we want to hone in on tonight. Eh, when he got round to Peter, verse eight, Peter saith to him, thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered, if I wash you not, you hast no part with me. Uh, now check your translations there. Your translation ought to read, if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. Some modern translations have been inexact and have put thou hast no part in me. That would be terrible. Every believer is in Christ. But if I don't rinse you, says the Lord, you'll have no part with me. Not in me, with me. Every believer's in Christ. But if we're going to have part with Christ in his work, then we shall have to allow him to do what he here calls as rinsing our feet. But for a moment, because Peter didn't know, and he generally spoke a lot when he didn't know what he was talking about, he's on the whole. Some people do. He said to say, I know you're going to wash my feet. So then I'll say, Lord said, if I wash you not, there's no part with me. Peter saying unto him, Lord, then not my feet only, but also my hands and my head went from one extreme to the other. And our Lord quieted him and said, How long? He that is, now notice the terminology. He who has been bathed all over, is what the word means, needs not except to rinse his feet, but is clean every bit. And you are clean. So now he's talking far more than about the lesson in humility, isn't he? Two types of washing in water, in the literal illustration, and that's going to be a picture to us of certain spiritual things. Lesson number one in the school of holiness. To make us holy, two things necessary. They're both concerned with washing and water. That's the thing he uses to illustrate. The one is a bathing all over, that is once and for all, and never needs to be repeated. He who has been bathed all over doesn't need any more except rinsing his feet. That is clean anyway. Though, on the other hand, once you have been bathed all over, you will need to allow the Lord to rinse your feet constantly. So what are these two things? What on earth is he talking about? Lesson number one. So let's think for a moment of what our Lord may mean by washing in water. Uh, and uh, we can't, perhaps the first place to see the, the difference between the two is Epistle to the Hebrews, chapter ten. Hmm. Somebody read for us, please, Hebrews chapter ten, verses nineteen to twenty two. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new living way open for us through the curtain that is his body, and since we have a great priesthood and house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled with gladness from a good conscience, and having our bodies washed with pure work. Hmm. Hmm. The condition for our coming into the holiest of all, and into the presence of God, is said to be two things. Our hearts, and this is number one, our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, number one. Hearts sprinkled. Number two, our bodies bathed, and you know that's the same word as our Lord uses in John thirteen, le lumenos. Our hearts having, our body having been bathed all over. That was the word he used of he that is once been bathed all over needs only then after to rinse his feet. Same word. And here's the writer to the Hebrews repeating it, you see, two things necessary to be accepted in the presence of God. And as we know, we can be accepted in the presence of God now. We can do as we've just done. We lifted our hearts to the very throne of God, entered the very holiest of all. Knew ourselves accepted in the presence of God. How? Why? On the basis of two things: heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, true body bathed with pure water. Now, to see that, uh, uh, let me repent of my sins, and and and all of that here on the blackboard, uh, you see, because the writers of the Hebrews and our Lord himself, they were Jews. They were used to the Old Testament symbols, uh, that God had used to teach his ancient people Israel, and in the dwelling place of God, in the temple, or tabernacle in the Old Testament times, there was a building right there, as you know, and this was the holy place, and this was the most holy place, and here was the ark, showed in on top of it, where the Lord was, which was the dwelling place of God, the most holy place, and this was the well going along here, the well. And the priest could go in here every day of the week, but nobody ever went in here, not in Judaism, except the high priest went in here once a year, that was all. Otherwise, they nothing to read. Uh, now, uh, there's a lesson on that, we mustn't go into that now. Across here, there's a curtain called the door. Then there's a big court down here. Like a great catamack or linen screen, you'll see, on all sides, and then at the front here there's a gate, 10 feet wide, and they had a curtain standing across there like that. Now, when you first came in, into the court, on your way into the presence of God, you met two vessels, two very big vessels in the court, and the first one was her enormous altar, at which they sacrificed the sacrifices of animals, bullocks and goats and sheep, shed their blood. The blood. That's the number one. The second thing was a labor, so-called, at which the priests rinsed their hands and feet. Water. And they were sprinkled with blood. And when they became first became free, they were bathed all over in water at the door, which is here, of the tavern. That was a ceremony, it wasn't to go down clean, it was a ceremony, with the ceremony. They bathed all over when they first became priests at that door with the walk of that labor, of course. Thereafter, they only washed their hands and their feet. In their ceremony, there was a once and for all bathing all over with water, and then after that, only a constant rinsing of hands, isn't it? What do you say, well now, pop in it. Right. Is it the sea? Is it, it's shiny? What? Is there somewhere Yeah. Yeah. Okay. You see? You say that was Israel, and this blood they had was liquid blood. They sprinkled, they actually got some something and got drips of the blood and sprinkled. They sprinkled with blood, bathed with water. That all. Now you notice what Hebrews says, that we now have boldness to enter the very holiest of all through the veil. That doesn't mean that we've got the right to go to Jerusalem and go into the back of some building in Jerusalem City. We're not talking anymore about the literal tabernacle, we're talking about the true tabernacle, and the holiest of all is the very presence of God, where Christ is, and we as believers have right here on earth in spirit to ascend into the very holiest of all and know ourselves welcome there. How do we come? Well, first of all, cleansed by the blood of Jesus. The number one. Notice the order. We come, says our verse, our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. Notice the order. That has to come first. The blood of Jesus Christ, says John the Apostle, cleanses us from all sin. How does the blood of Christ cleanse you? Well, when the Bible talks about the blood of Christ cleansing us, it's talking about cleansing our conscience from guilt. So the Bible means by the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from our sin. The blood, I repeat, and Hebrews chapter nine will tell you this, the blood cleanses us and cleanses our conscience from guilt. How can it do that, you say? What do you mean? Well, you see, if I have sinned, then if I know God's law, my conscience begins to work. I've broken the law, and therefore I've incurred the penalty. How can I cleanse my conscience? Tap water won't do. How will my conscience ever be at peace and be cleansed? Well, says God now, you see, it's the blood of Christ that does that. Why is it the blood of Christ does that? Why can't I say, oh, Holy Spirit, cleanse my conscience? You, you know, you're saying that. It's the blood that cleanses your conscience. How does it cleanse your conscience? Why, you see what the blood of Christ is? When, when he died, he bore the penalty of my sin. I broke the law. The law said the penalty was death. My conscience wouldn't give me rest because I knew I, I, I deserved the penalty. However, says God, you see the blood of Christ, yes. What about that then? Well, says God, don't you see what that's done? He bore that penalty and died for you. He's paid the penalty. And when I see that blood, and I see the significance of it, the penalty's been paid. And my conscience is at rest. And that has no effect of brushing the thing under the carpet or trying to forget it, or trying to pay God or appease him for something. The whole thing's been done in the open. The penalty, the full penalty, has been actually paid. Therefore, the blood of Christ, which tells me he is alive, cleanses my conscience. Number one. Ah, but next. I need something more than that, don't I? You see, let me take, uh, a really bad boy, and he got mixed in with the wrong gang, and he got into bad habits. You see? And he got into a violence in the Bureau, and he murdered the chaps. And then, shall we say, the president, for some reason or other, used his presidential powers and pardoned him. So now he's released from the guilt of his crime. You suppose that makes him the fit chap for to go and have dinner with Mrs. President? Mm. What about those old habits? I got guilt of the guilt, got rid of the guilt of his crime. What about the old strength of his old habits? And his dirty ways. We'll need something more than the blood of Christ here. The blood of Christ cleanses us from guilt. Now we shall need something to deal with our uncleanness, our bad habits, our wrong attitude. What deals with that? Uh, the next thing I have is cleansing by water. And in the New Testament. The New Testament will tell us about both those things. First of all, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from our sin. Secondly, Ephesians chapter five. Would you like somebody to read that? We looked at that last night, and we were talking about cleansing by water, weren't we? But let's look at the passage in Ephesians chapter five. and see what cleansing by water does. Ephesians chapter five, and uh, here we have it, verse, um... Somebody read, please. Verses twenty five, twenty six, and twenty seven. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for, he made her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the dirt, and he presented her to himself with a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but fully and blameless. Hmm. So here's the New Testament talking about cleansing by water. God loved the church and gave himself to cleanse her by the washing of water. So in this connection, washing away what? Well, not the guilt of her sins, but what is here called spots, blemishes, wrinkles, and any such thing. Let me try and illustrate that in a homely way and fashion. You see, probably I know not about it. I suppose there are some wise occasionally who do some very bad things, you know, like burning the tables. Why is all them to burn potatoes? And the husband has said, thou shalt not burn potatoes, but this afternoon the wife has burned the potatoes, sauce them and all. You'll say, oh, a very serious crime. But the wife, being dutifully repentant, will say, uh, dear husband says, I forgive you, Bernard the goddess. Right. A week later, one morning, as he's eating his nuts and his toast at the breakfast table and looking at the time, he happens to please notice over the time, he knows his wife sitting on the side of the time. Oh, come on, my dear. Oh, you've got a nasty boil coming up over that day. Now what does he say? I forgive you having that boil. No, of course not. Boils aren't things you forgive. Pimples aren't things you forgive. It'd be nonsense if I forgive you having that pimple. Oh, you've got a wrinkle. Never mind, I forgive you. I've been a dog. No husband ever forgave a pimple or a wrinkle or any such thing. Christ forgives the guilt of our sin. He won't forgive our unholiness. He won't forgive my temper. He won't forgive anything, those nasty things that deform my, my behavior and personality. He doesn't forgive them. He doesn't get rid of them. He'll forgive my nasty deeds I did out of temper. Oh, ah. And I'll forgive the temper itself. That's a blot, isn't it? Or a spot or wrinkle. And those he's determined to get rid of. You begin to see the difference between the two things, you see. The blood deals with the guilt of my sin. What is it that deals with these other things? So our Lord did a little illustration. He got this basin of water. My goodness me, the water that puts away my sin, my, sorry, my, my, my unholiness. That ain't ordinary water. Is it? What deals with that? Well, let's read about it. Uh, and here we've got to bear in mind, what have we got to bear in mind? This is lesson number one in the path of holiness. Perhaps you can begin to see why it's lesson number one in the path of holiness. Not now cleansing by blood, but cleansing by water. Because you're not talking about guilt and forgiveness. You're talking about blocks and blemishes and holiness. So what is this once and for all bathing by water? Well, let's read about it. It's Titus chapter three and verses three to six? Titus three, verses three to six. And, uh, if you want to know what pimples, wrinkles, blot, blemishes, things are, well, have a notice while here with these three particularly, particular, so see a few pimples and blots and blemishes as you go along. Anyway, somebody be kind. Titus three verses three to six. At one time, we too was foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved by all kinds of passions and prejudes. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hurting one another, but ran the kindness and love of God our Savior appears, he saves us not because of both the sins we have done, but because of his mercy. He saves us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior. And do you notice, uh, what he did? Uh, you saw the blemishes. What did God do about it? You'll notice in these verses it doesn't say he gave Christ to die for us, because that's not what we do. This time he saved us by the washing of regeneration. And the renewing of the Holy Spirit means the renewing performed by the Holy Spirit. This is the great regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. Not by works which I did, not by my self-effort to improve myself, but the great regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. And now you see the metaphor again maintained, whom he poured. Yes, because you see John Baptist made the point of that, didn't he? He said, you know, he said, gently he said, I baptize you in water. Okay. But when the Lord come, he baptize you, not as ancestors as water, he baptize you in his blood. Two things then. One, forgiveness through the blood of Christ. Two, regeneration. We were talking about it more than being born again. Regeneration by the Holy Spirit. Now, this is very important. God's way of making anybody holy. Lesson number one. Please will you get it, says our Lord to his disciples. Now, Peter, you need it particularly, get this. There are two kinds of rin- uh, blossom. There's a once and for all that never needs to be repeated. The bathing all over. Here's Paul talking about that we were a horrible crowd, Titus is there on a, on a rotten rock. So those Cretans actually slow-bellied lies, evil beasts, he says, Cretans. And God saved us? How? By trying to improve us? No, no, no. God's basic method of making us holy is to give us a brand new life. You see, you can't clean up a corpse very well. Well, you have a gel and put some nice coverings on them and make them look pretty, roots and cheeks, but they're corpses, you know, and you could wash them. And there's no good washing them. No, there's no good. What God does, his way of making us holy, is in that corpse, I nearly said, he puts a new life. And nothing short of that will do. An absolute new life, what he calls regeneration. If any man be in Christ, he's slightly polished up from Hollywood. No, no. If any man be in Christ, there is a new creation. There's a new life there that never was there. The regeneration of the Holy Ghost. And the marvelous thing is that so many folks are trying to be holy without the means to be it. Uh, you know, they're like the Israelites trying to make bricks without straw. And Pharaoh told them to make bricks and didn't give them a straw to make them bricks, and that made life difficult. And a lot of folks are trying to live holy lives, and they haven't got the things to leave it, lead it with. They're trying desperately to be Christians without becoming Christians. They look upon being a Christian. If you ask some folk, if you ask, are you a Christian? Oh, what do you think I am? I'm a Muslim. Because, I mean, I'm not a very good Christian, but I do my best. That's like if you were to ask me, are you a singer? I should say, what, you come to music to me? I don't make any great professional big concerts or anything like that, of course not, but then I do my best. You hear me in the bathroom some mornings. And you ask people, are you a Christian? Well, I mean, I don't make any great claim. I think it's a thing you'd be in degrees. That's absolutely false. Absolutely downright one hundred percent false. What does it mean to be a Christian? It means to receive this new life, to be born again. As our Lord put it to Nicodemus, he said, oh, Nicodemus, oh boy, you see, what is born of the flesh is flesh, that's that. What is born of cabbages is cabbage, you know. And you can redecorate it all you like, and it remains cabbage. But what is born of the flesh is flesh, and that's that, Nicodemus. And I'm telling you, you'll never get into the kingdom of God. Unless you receive a new kind of life that you never did have before. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Don't be surprised when I said you must be born again, because cleaning up old flesh isn't good enough. Oh, how radical Christ's teaching was. When you're asking folks to be holy, well, do let's make it clear to them first. They have no hope of being holy. Because first, they know what it is to be born again of God's Holy Spirit, the great regenerating work of the Holy Spirit that implants a new life. And once it's been done, it's done for all time. In the words, he, he saved us by the washing of regeneration. Bathe our bodies, bathe once and for all, all over with pure water, the washing of regeneration. That's where it must start. When I say it must start there, I'm not preaching it as though it's the law, it's a gift to us here. There's an enormous amount of people trying to be holy, and they've never really known what it is to be born again. Water, blood, blood, and water. When our Lord died at Calvary, John, the gospel writer, says, you know, I saw, and I'm telling you, but God knows I'm telling the truth. They pierced his side, and there came out blood and water. You know the hymn, surely you do, old hymn, maybe kind of worse than that. Let the water and the blood from thy riven side which flow be of sin the double cure. Cleanse me from its guilt and power. The blood for the guilt of my sin. The regeneration of the Holy Spirit for a new life. Lesson number one. And it wasn't any accident that our Lord started it there, you see. Superb teaching. You can talk about that, they get stymied at feet with this blessing of water. You see the word regeneration? Yeah. As new? Right, right. Yes. New life. Why the Holy Spirit uses the term renewal? Uh, that's what I had in my last text, yes. Yeah. I make all things new, says God. Mm. Born again. Ah. So now then, uh, uh, uh, then our Lord makes this distinction, now this is an important one to get hold of. Not just one thing with water, two. First of all, the thing that never has to be repeated. Baze all over. And after that, Peter, you don't need to be bathed all over. Is Peter being excessive in his feelings, is he? Oh, then not only my hands and my head, uh, but all over. No, no, no, no, says God. Man's been bathed once, he doesn't need to do anything other than rinse his feet. But you do need me to, you do need me to rinse your feet constantly. What did he mean? Well, they tell us, you know, about these things that in the ancient world, people didn't have bathrooms in their houses, not many, unless you were the emperor or something. So they went down to the common baths, doze in, bathed all over down there, then walked home. Finally got home, feet were all dusty. So they got the slave, and he washed the feet. Didn't have to bathe all over again. And from that home, our Lord is making the promise. These men and women being regenerate by God's Holy Spirit, born again, receive the Holy Spirit of God and a new life. Still they've got that old life with them, haven't they? Now they've got two natures. Still got the old faith. Now they have a Holy Spirit as well. Now, as they go along through life, they'll need the Lord to come along with his word. And say, look, that's a pimple, isn't it? How about this? Now, today at work, you got exasperated more than you could sit, because you know you do behave rather badly before those unconverted folks. Now that's not right, is it? Now, what are we going to do about that? And here's our Lord coming along applying his word, and I shall have to acknowledge that that was wrong, and I must repent, and then I must seek the Lord's grace and power that I don't do that kind of thing again. And I must read his word, and you know, as sad as I have a very small mirror in my room, because it's not very flat, and the bigger the mirror, the worse it is. And you see, that's how the word of God is. I go along thinking I'm pretty decent, but I start reading the word of God, and oh, presently the Lord will say, what about that? And I want rid of it, says Paul. And then there's going to be a tussle, battle, and I don't want to give it up, or I don't want this, or I can't do that, no, I, no, I can't do that. And so the Lord will start working on us. And we need to let him do that. Because if we don't, he tells us straight, you see, if I don't rinse you, now no, he doesn't say you have no part in me, he doesn't say that, because if we're believers, we're in Christ and in, in him forever. But if he doesn't rinse our feet, we can't have any part with him. In his great work of those. What a good of me if I've just torn a strip off his chair because he ran his car over my tulips, you see. And I just torn a strip off him there, so it was good. And then just as I finished, I said, oh, I remember we've got some gospel. Would you like to come? Well, I might as well shut up, my guy. The fact we have fellowship with Christ, with me, letting him. Yeah. So lesson number one, that was a simple lesson. It is absolutely important to start there. For some of your believers, you know, forgetting that they try to pitch in at the higher levels, and they want them to be so marvelously holy, and in the end they're living on their nerves, and they need to go down to Ben, because it's all up to them. So it all starts where it has to start, on the ground floor by his great provision. And let me ask you, there are two things here, bathing by water and rinsing. Which is the bigger? Bathing by water. Well, what do you mean, isn't that already happened for every believer? The implantation of the life of God in the heart of the believer, that's the biggest thing. Ah, by far the biggest thing. It doesn't need to be. Clean every bit. What a marvelous thing. What a tremendous statement from Christ. You are clean, every bit clean. And there's old Peter, he was about to deny the Lord. Ah yes, our Lord hasn't forgotten his failings, but in the sight of God, as now someone in whom the Holy Spirit dwells. Ah, this is the great radical thing that's going to fit this man for the sky. He's a new creation in Christ. He has a life of God that cannot sin. It is home, is the very life of God in him. Tremendous thing. Fast revision. I hope he will. Well, then there was lesson number two. So after he'd taken his, uh, after he'd taken his, uh, seat again and said many other things, and we can't go into that detail. Big lesson number two, another ceremony. The ceremony of giving the salt. Chapter thirteen, in the second half of it. In, In um, an Eastern. Eastern house, it's not just like Robin, you see, he's kindly host his bread, and if you need a marmalade, a marmalade will toss it to you, and that's very nice. But in an Eastern house, if the chaplain's out of the house, can serve personally, takes a bit of bread and dips it in the sauce rather than hands it to you. He's not just being polite. He is offering you his friendship that puts between you and him a big bond, and now he becomes responsible for you. He's placed his friendship to you. That was an offer of friendship. A very serious thing in the ancient East is this there some among some Bedouin tribes. And here's our Lord who takes a salt to give it to Jews. Ah, but to that night, it had a very special significance because our Lord, just before that, he said, verily, one of you shall betray me. Now, that was shocked the disciples, because they didn't know, except Judas. So now all the disciples knew, and Judas, for the first time, knew that Christ knew. What he was going to do. As I say, get that. Now, for the first time, Judas knew that Christ knew. But the other disciples didn't know who it was. And was itching to know. Like you all are, most more interested in how Peter sings my own, aren't you? A, interested to know who this was that was going to be claimed at all. So Peter, as you, he had a wink and a nod over his job, who was nearby. Who is this? So our Lord now comes to expose Judas's sin. How would you have explained? He who has eaten my bread, says our Lord, has lifted up his heel against me. That's a very vivid metaphor, isn't it? In a Bedouin tent, you see, you eat a man's bread. Well, that's a pledge, surely, of friendship. If you then are traitorous to him, that's the most heinous crime you could possibly be guilty of. He that has eaten my bread, he hasn't kicked me like that. That would be open and honest if he's done that. He's lifted up his heel against me. I ain't even manly. That's the rockin' most dirty trick you can possibly do. And here is Judas, and Christ has given him, he's got the bag, Christ has given him his friendship, and Judas has taken Christ's bread, so to say. It's a metaphor, isn't it? And he's about to lift up his heel in a sneaky, dirty, rotten fashion and betray Christ. He'll take all that Christ has got to give him, and he doesn't want Christ. He'll take Christ's gifts, there's no time for Christ himself. Why tell us that here? Well, this is the school of Christ's holiness. Do you know what stops us being holy? Do you know what the opposite of holiness is? Do you know what holiness is that you're aiming at? What is holiness? You see, we better know what it is, Mike, if we're going to aim at it. What is holiness? Well, I see what the opposite is. The opposite of holiness, now you'll see the most extreme example you'll ever see on earth. It's a man that will take everything that Christ has got to give. Money, friendship, power if need be, and no time for Christ personally. But take all that God has to give, no time for God. God. Now you say, well, now that's a fearful crime. How will Christ expose it? You know, when Christ came to say certain things about the Pharisees. The meek and lowly Jesus, yes, but when he started exposing the Pharisees, you should have heard it. How shall you escape the damnation of hell, he said to the Pharisees. Why? Because they were binding burdens on widows' backs with all their religious pranks and religious duties. Instead of preaching salvation, were preaching burdens on the people that they couldn't bear, holding the people back from salvation. Christ denounced them in some of the loudest terms he ever used. I shall escape the damnation of hell, he said. Because that's what they did to other folks. Now you've got Judas sitting there, and he's going to betray Christ himself. How will Christ expose this nasty, dirty, rotten little sinner? Who has eaten Christ's bread and would lift up his hand against him. You want to know, says Christ. Judas. He said, you've taken my bread, haven't you? And lifted up your heel against me. You don't want me, Judas. Oh, Judas, here you are. Some more of my bread, Judas. What do you make of that? That wasn't an empty sign, you know. That was done in all the love of infinite God, saying to that poor wretch Judas, man, I love you still, man. And there's my friendship, Judas, grab it, man. Yeah. That's the love of God. What a heartbreak for God to see his creature and take all his gift. No time for God. Uh, there are sort of pastors who would think he was such a holy man, and no time for Christ. And holiness, you see, is devotion to the person of Christ. Yes, all the rules and regulations come next, but at its heart, it is love and devotion to the person of Christ. Love and devotion to God. Here is the opposite of holiness. Take everything Christ has got to give, or God has to give. No time for crying, send it down the drain. It's the young woman that will take her music. Oh, she loves music. Talk to her about Christ, no time for Christ. Why? She's too busy with music. Man can murder, woman can murder in a fit of temper. But this is a settled attitude of life. And so here, our Lord is lesson number two, you see, the grave of what is holiness. Holiness is love and devotion to God, and shown in love and devotion to the person of God. And what you God, what Christ did to Judas that night, God did it carefully. To a world that would take all God's gifts and have no time for God, and will throw in his son out, God in Christ is offering them the sop of his breath. And Judas took the sop, had no time for Christ, and he went out. And John says in his characteristic way, Judas went out, and it was night. Do you know for Judas, that night never, never knew a dawn and never will. There'll come no dawn for Judas. He finally rejected the proper friendship with Christ. And I tell you, this universe is a lonely place without Christ. It's dark when you're out there. And in the spiritual world without Christ, there is no dawning. Yeah.