I titled this message, Betrayed. Betrayed. Curtis was telling
me a little while ago, he's saying to me, he thanked me. He thanked
me for bringing these messages that has to do with the believer's
conduct. And I told him, I said, that's
the advantage of going verse by verse. When you go verse by
verse, book by book, you have to deal with the Scriptures.
You know, you don't just jump to your favorite Scripture, your
favorite portion of the Scriptures, and always preach from that.
And it's like this morning. This message here this morning
is a sobering message. It has to do with betrayal. And
it's the betrayal of one of the twelve. I mean the inner circle. This is the inner circle. This
is not a disciple that was following the Lord. This is the inner circle.
You know, one time our Lord spoke of eating His flesh and drinking
His blood, and it said, many went back and followed Him no
more. Many disciples, which called
themselves disciples, when they heard that, they said, this is
a hard saying, who can hear it? And they left. This is not just
one of those kind of disciples. This is one of the apostles. One of the most
painful things that one can experience is the betrayal of a friend.
And I am confident that the Lord, as a man, felt the sting of his
betrayal. It wasn't like, well, you know,
He's supposed to do this. No, He felt. He felt the sting
of His betrayal. One whom you trusted, one whom
you've confided in, fellowshiped with, has betrayed you. That's
painful, isn't it? That's painful. Written in Psalm
41.9, Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I've trusted. This is the Lord speaking in
the Psalms. My own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did
eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me, one whom
I trusted." Look over in Psalm 55. In Psalm 55, listen, in verse 12. In verse 12, Psalm 55, "...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 hidden 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." When a friend
betrays you, it's so painful. and to add to that pain to realize
that your friendship could be sold so cheap that it didn't
mean any more than 30 pieces of silver. But these things were
written for our learning. We know this. They are written
for our learning and as examples for us to either follow or to
avoid. I thank the Lord and I was given
some thought to this. I thank the Lord for the warnings
as well as the promises. You know, we like to grab hold
of the promises of God. But are you not glad for the
warnings? Are you not glad for the warning that says don't go
there? Flee from idolatry as we have saw this morning. Flee
from idolatry. The instructions we received
this morning out of 1 Corinthians, I thank God for them. Now first
of all, let's look at Judas. Who was Judas? He was one of the chosen 12 to
be an apostle. Now I'm not going to get into
all the why this, why that. I know this, Judas did what he
did because he wanted to do it. God did not make him do this.
He did not force Judas to do it. Judas did what he did because
he wanted to do it. And yet the Lord used it to fulfill
his purpose in bringing Christ to be crucified. He was an apostle. In Acts chapter
1, and I'll read this to you, in Acts chapter 1, verses 15
through 17, this is Peter speaking. And in those days Peter stood
up in the midst of the disciples, and he said, Men and brethren,
this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy
Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which
was God to them that took Jesus. For he was numbered with us,
and had obtained part of this ministry." For a while he took
part of this ministry. Judas no doubt preached. Remember
when the Lord sent them out two by two to preach? Judas was one
of them. He took part of the ministry
alongside the other apostles. He was eyewitness to the miracles
of our Lord. He saw the Lord raise the dead.
This is good evidence that seeing a miracle has never saved anyone. Seeing God heal someone has never
saved anyone. Salvation is God giving you life. It's God saving you, not by some
miracle He's performed in front of you, but it's by God taking
hold of you and saving you and giving you life. Because Judas
saw the miracles. He saw the blind sea. He saw
the lame walk. Lazarus, raised from the dead,
he saw these things. He was eyewitness to these things.
He sat down and ate bread with Christ. He ate bread with me. He listened to our Lord's preach. He listened to Him preach. In
private, He listened to His instructions. He listened to Him pray. In fact, Judas at that time was
a treasurer. That shows you how they trusted
him. He was a treasurer. He held the money bag. That's
what it says over in John 13, 29. He held the money bag. He was the only treasurer. That's who Judas was. He was
an apostle. He was one who took part in the
ministry with the other apostles. Now let's look at what he did.
He betrayed the Lord. He betrayed the Lord. What is
one of the worst things you can call a person? Judas Iscariot. If you want to really call someone
a traitor, or you really want to cut them down, you call them
a Judas Iscariot. He betrayed the Lord. It was
an act of treason. That's what it was. It was an
act of treason. He betrayed the King, the King of glory. He betrayed Him. Now someone's
going to say, Peter denied the Lord. In fact, he denied the
Lord three times. Yes, he did. He did. And that was a horrible thing
that he did. It was horrible. But what Judas did was premeditated. What Peter did, he did out of
fear. What Judas did, he premeditated. He looked for a way to turn him
over. He looked for a way to make money
on Christ. Peter never took money for denying
the Lord, as Judas did. Peter did what he did out of
fear, not out of covetousness. What Judas did came from a wicked
heart. His heart, even though he was
considered an apostle, and even though he had part in
that ministry, and even though he went about and he preached
like they did, his heart was not right with God. I take this
serious standing in this pulpit. Can this happen? Can this really
happen? Well, it did. It did. And it could happen again. You
remember Simon Magus? And he heard the apostles preach.
I believe it was Peter. He heard preach. One of them.
And he made a profession just like the other people that were
there. And he was baptized with the other people that were there.
And then when he saw the apostles laying their hands on people
and they received the Holy Ghost, he offered money to buy it. Peter
said, your heart's not right with God. You're in the gall
of bitterness. He said, your money perish with
you. Judas loved money more than he
loved Christ. If we love anything, more than
we love Jesus Christ, our hearts are not yet right with God. If
I love anything more than I love Christ. And Judas did. He loved money. It just took
the right opportunity to bring it out. That's all it did. It
took the right opportunity to bring out what was really there.
He had the other disciples fooled. I'll show you this here in a
minute. He had them fooled. They thought
he was an outstanding man. But he had a covetous heart. I thought that, and I've seen
this in the past, not here, in the past, but I've seen some
who've left the gospel for a better job, go to a place where the
gospel's not. Not realizing that God has exposed
their heart. God has exposed their heart. What is Christ worth to me? What
is Christ worth to you? The Apostle Paul said this, For
me to live is Christ. That is my life. For me to live. For me, for my existence, my
only existence, he says, is for Jesus Christ. For me to live is Christ. To
die is gain. It's gain. That's the heart of a believer.
You know, Peter, before he denied the Lord, he said, Lord, I'll
die with you. I'll never leave you. I'll never
forsake you. He was gun-ho. He was ready to
fight. The Lord said, well, before the cock
crows in the morning, you'll deny me three times. What's Christ worth to me? It's written in Matthew 16, 26. For what is a man profited, if
he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what
shall a man give in exchange for his soul? What is your soul
worth? You know, we can put a price on somebody else's soul. Judas
put 30 pieces of silver on Christ. But what's your soul worth? You
say, there ain't enough money to buy that. And what have you gained if you
gained the whole world? God's going to do away with it.
God's going to do away with everything. Take everything you own of this
world, the material things of this world, sooner or later it's
gone. It's one of two things, either
it's gone or you're gone. It's one way or the other. That ship's
going to sail. The older I get in the Lord,
the more I think of the Scriptures that say, set your heart on things
above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. And Scriptures like this, what's
the profit if I gain the whole world? So what I get a better
job? So what I make more money, so what I can, then the excuse
would be, I can better my family. You better your family by sitting
them under the gospel. The worst thing you can do to
your family is take them away from the gospel. I'm telling
you the truth. That's the worst thing you can
do. In Philippians 3, Paul tells
us that he counted all things as loss. He named off all those
things that he had achieved, and then he says, I count them
all but loss. All of them, it's just dung. He said, I count them
as dung. I won't put that in our language,
but Paul counted them as dung. J.C. Ryle made this observation. For money, Joseph was sold by
his brethren. For money, Samson was betrayed
to the Philistines. For money, Gehazi deceived Naaman
and lied to Elisha. For money, Ananias and Sapphira
tried to deceive Peter and lied to the Holy Spirit. And for money,
the Son of God was delivered into the hands of wicked men.
All of this for money. Yes, as the Scripture says, the
love of money is the root of all evil, not money in itself. There is no evil in a dollar
bill. That dollar bill can buy drugs
or it can buy food that you need. There's no evil in the dollar
bill. The evil is in the heart using
it. You see, when you love, here's what the love of money is, it's
the love of what it gets you. It's the love of the power, of
power, of position, of prestige, that's what's the love of. That's why the scripture says
the love of it is the root of all evil. Judas went that the Lord proved
what he really was, a covetous man. And he went from an apostle
to an apostate. He never did believe. He preached. He went about with
the other apostles doing as they did. He never did believe the
gospel. He never did believe the Lord
Jesus Christ. Never did. If you'll notice in verse 14
what he did, he went to them. He went to them. They didn't
come to him. They didn't seek him out. They
didn't bribe him. They were just, they were, you
know, back in their place doing what they do. And then here comes
a knock on the door. And he opened the door and there
stands Judas, one of the apostles, one of the inner circles of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And he comes in and he talks
to them. And he wants to know what they
will give him, pay him, what they will pay him if he delivers
Christ over to them. At a time, listen, at a time
when the crowd is not around, when the time that they're alone
and you don't have to worry about the crowd mobbing you, He said,
whenever that time comes, I'll deliver him to you. And they
said, we'll give you 30 pieces of silver, the price of a slave.
And he said, okay. He's cheap. He could be bought
off easy. But as I was reading that, I
imagined Judas was upset over the oil. being wasted. Remember before this happened,
that this woman came in with this alabaster box, and she broke
it, she anointed the Lord's head, and when His disciples saw it,
they had indignation, saying, to what purpose is this waste?
Why are you doing this? It's wasted. This could have
been sold and used and given to the poor. And I guarantee
you, Judas led that instigation. And he was upset about that because
he would have profited by it. Now, let me tell you this, nothing
done for Christ or to Christ is ever a waste. Nothing. But here's the warning, okay?
I've given you this. Here's the warning. A man can hold the highest position
in the church and still be lost. That's the warning. That's the
seriousness of this lesson, of this message. A man can hold
the highest position in a church and still be lost. That's why
the Lord throughout the Scriptures, throughout the Word of God has
given us warnings To take heed, I want you to listen to these
scriptures. I copied them off from the brain here in reading
because it would take too long to turn to all of them. But listen
to these scriptures. Deuteronomy 11, 16. Take heed
to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and you turn
aside and serve other gods and worship them. Can that happen? A believer can be deceived for
a little while if God lets us. If He allows it, it can happen
for a little bit. But the Lord gives us these warnings.
He said, take heed to yourselves. And I'll tell you what, those
who believe, everybody here who believes God will take heed. You will take heed because the
Lord told you to. In Joshua 23, 11, take good heed, therefore,
unto yourselves, that ye love the Lord your God. Take good
heed. Exodus 34, 12, Take heed to thyself,
lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land,
whether thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee. In Matthew 16, 6, then Jesus
said unto them, take heed and beware of the 11 of the Pharisees
and of the Sadducees. Who was he talking to? His disciples
when he said that. He was talking to the Judas and
Peter and the other disciples. In Matthew 24, 4, and Jesus answered
and said unto them, take heed that no man deceive you. 1 Corinthians 10.12, Wherefore
let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. Hebrews
2.1, Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the
things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them
slip, slide away. He's always telling his children
to take heed. And last of all, Hebrews 3.12,
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart
of unbelief, and departing from the living God." Take heed. And every one of God's children
here will take heed, because He said to. If a man can hold the highest
position and still be lost, he can be around for a long time
and still be lost. We preached in thy name. We cast
out devils in thy name. That's what they said in the
Rite of Judgment. They'd already died. These are
the ones that died. They said we preached in thy
name, cast out devils in thy name, done many wonderful works
in thy name. They stayed around to the end. I'll tell you what this makes
me want to do, especially as a pastor, preacher, it makes
me want to hug up to Christ, to flee to the Lord Jesus Christ. When I read this, I feel it. I feel it. The Lord said to them, one of
you will betray Me. And one by one they replied,
And this reveals a work of grace in the ones who had it. They said, is it I? They didn't
point fingers. Is it I? I want you to listen. I want you to remember this.
Always remember this. Apply the message to yourself
first before you apply it to anybody else. Apply it to yourself
first. And it says this statement in
verse 22, "...made them exceeding sorrowful." How does this make
me feel? How does this make me feel? It makes me flee to Christ. It
makes me depend on Him more. And it makes me realize how much I need Him to keep me.
I need Him to keep me. I don't want to be lifted up
like Peter was and say, I'd never do that. I would never leave
you. I would never deny you. I would
never forsake you. Instead, we say this, Lord, if
you don't keep me, I'll perish. Lord, if you don't keep me, I'll
leave. I know I will. Listen to this. Lord, if you leave me alone,
I'll leave you alone. If you leave me alone, I'll leave
you alone. It says in 2 Corinthians 13.5,
Examine yourselves. How? By the Word of God. By the
Word of God. Don't examine yourself by how
you feel. By the Word of God. Prove your own selves. By the
Word of God. Know ye not your own selves,
how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? Now Judas in verse 25 asked,
Is it I? When he asked this, I don't believe
at all that he was sorrowful, exceeding sorrowful. He just
wanted to know if the Lord had found him out. He wasn't sorrowful. And the
Lord replied, Thou hast said, or Thou hast rightly said. You
are the one. You're the one. The interesting thing here, as
I've been studying this this week, when the Lord said, Thou hast
rightly said, the other disciples still didn't get it. They still
didn't get it. Look over in John 13. This shows you the character
that Judas had in their presence. Look in verse 21. I'm going to
read a few verses here. When Jesus had thus said the
things he had been speaking of, and testified and said, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. You'll
notice it says here, When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled
in spirit. He was troubled. He was affected by it. Then the
disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom He spake. Who
could it be? Who in this room would betray
Him? They couldn't think of one person.
Now listen, they could not think of one person in that room that
would do that. Not even Judas. Now there was
leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus loved,
and this was John. Simon Peter therefore beckoned
to him that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake.
He then lying on Jesus' breast said unto him, Lord, who is it?
Jesus answered, He it is to whom I shall give a sop. When I have
dipped it, and when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas
Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after the sop, Satan entered
into him, then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest do quickly. Now no man at the table knew
for what intent he spake this unto him. For some of them thought,
because Judas had the bag, that Jesus had said unto him, Buy
those things that we have need of against the feast, or that
he should give something to the poor. They still didn't get it. And when I read this, It just
dawned on me that Judas had to be this, I think, mild-mannered
person, this outwardly very moral person, kind. They didn't suspect him at all.
Even when the Lord said, the one who dips with the sop, I'll
give it to him. And they still didn't get it.
They still didn't see Judas. He was the last person, to me,
here, he's the last person they would have thought of. That's why the Word of God tells
us, judge not by appearance, but a righteous judgment. Now, in verse 47, I'll wind this
down. Judas comes with the enemy of
Christ. And brethren, we are the company
we keep. We are the company we keep. He gets with them and he
comes. And here in verse 48, the sign
of betrayal is this, a kiss. A kiss. This shows something of his character.
He was so mild, his character was above reproach, and he said,
the one I kiss. A hypocrite is one who comes
with a kiss. Believe me, he's not like Peter
who drew that sword. Remember when they came, Peter
drew the sword, he cut off one of the guy's ears. Peter was
going to fight for the Lord, but he betrayed him with a kiss. And you'll notice his hypocrisy
in verse 49. And his whole life, his whole life is one of hypocrisy. He says, Hell, Master, I mean, he just,
isn't that, you're talking about a slap in the face, and then
walked up and kissed him. Well, to close, what can we learn
from this? And this is serious. This is
why, you know, as I started to do, I started to go to the Lord's
table that he was giving in here, and I thought, no, you can't
pass this over. You cannot pass this over. Because
there are some things to be learned from it. First of all, never take your
relationship with Christ for granted. And never judge by appearance.
Never judge by appearance. Only the Lord really knoweth
them that are His. He can see the heart. He sees
the heart. And I pray for myself, and I
pray for you, Lord, give me a heart. David said in Psalm 51, Give
me a clean heart and a right spirit. He said, Create within
me a clean heart and a right spirit. And then always, always seek
to grow in grace and in knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
let me close with reading to you out of 2 Peter. Turn over
to 2 Peter chapter 1. Now Simon Peter, a servant and
apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious
faith with us through the righteousness of God and of our Savior Jesus
Christ, grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge
of God and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine power
hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness
through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory
and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that is in the world through
lust, and beside this giving all diligence." Now get this,
giving all diligence. Add to your faith virtue, to
virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance
patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness,
and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you
and abound, They make you, that ye shall neither be barren nor
unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he
that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off,
and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins, that
he claims to be purged from. Wherefore, the rather brethren,
give diligence, give diligence to this, make it diligent, give
diligence to make your calling and election sure, And it's in
that order, make your calling sure. Has God called me? Has
God called me by His grace? Has God called me to Jesus Christ?
Is Jesus Christ my life? Is He my life? That's the evidence
of God's calling. Who do you love? Peter, he said,
Peter, do you love me? He said, Lord, you know all things. You know I love you. That's what
you make first. Has God called you? If you make
that first and sure, then the rest follows. Then your election
is sure. God chose you. For if you do
these things, listen, you shall never fall. For so an interest
shall be ministered unto you abundantly and to the everlasting
kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.