For the last two messages at
least, I dealt with, you might call it the subject, I definitely
call it the subject of reprobation, though I didn't do that. I came
upon the side that you study from, then arrived at your subject.
But I dealt with Balaam. I'm not going back to give any
review concerning this man, for most of us were aware of the
the light that we have on him in the New Testament as Peter
gives us light concerning him and Jude, but Peter particularly
so, would have us to understand right in the beginning of his
writing that he is dealing with false prophets. And these false
prophets, by the way, were a prototype, I guess I might say, of the last
days that we are living in. So I hope that, born in our minds,
the Spirit of God taught us as we study this man Balaam's I
made promise, and I'll try to stick with that now this morning,
that I'd come back to another message and study with you the
final character of the New Testament, none other than Judas Iscariot. Judas Iscariot. Before we go
to the study of this particular character, There are other characters
in the Word of God that come under the searchlight in respect
to the subject matter that we're dealing with. I mentioned some
of them, King, Saul, and Ishmael, if you wanted to
pick up that character, you know when you go. But there was another
character in studying last two or three weeks that I picked
up that we had studied before, and it was Abimelech. It was
a person turned over at the twentieth chapter of Genesis 20. As far as I understand from all
the theological works that I've been exposed to and men who preach,
no one ever laid claim to the fact that Abimelech was a believer. He was just a heathen king down
here. And it happened that Abraham and Isaac both fell into that
area, and a certain thing took place concerning that king and
Isaac's wife and Abraham's wife. And it is unusual here. Again,
you get into, we do not dare sanction sin, but yet God in
his infinite wisdom so protects his people that he never lets
the wicked do anything for them. At the end of the way, he'll
tell that crowd, said, now listen, said, you never gave me one drink
of water, you never visited me when I was in prison, not one
time, you didn't do anything, not one thing did you ever do
to the, didn't do the least, the least, to the least of these
little ones of mine. See? Though we're benefited by
these folks. Somebody, I believe White and
I were talking last night, folk living around us, said, well,
a good neighborhood. really is a good neighborhood
in the sense that people are religious. I suppose if they're
saved, everybody else around me is saved, but that's up to
God. But it's just a good neighborhood
to live in. And I say, well, it's a sanctified
neighborhood. Well, that's right. I'm not talking
about salvation. I'm talking about God separating
people just like he did the Israelites down in Goshen, brother. They
were in Egypt. But God saw to it that there
is a particular spot for those people, and I think we should
rejoice in that, that we do have such, even as a people under
this particular nation. So this fellow, Bimelech, something
happened here. I just wanted to give you a nugget
or two that I had studied in the 20th chapter of the book
of Genesis. And Abraham journeyed from Thence
toward the south country, and dwelt between Kadesh and Shurah,
and sojourned in Gerarim. And Abraham said of Sarah, his
wife, she is my sister. And Abimelech, king of Gerar
sent and took Sarah. Now, it's always been argued
whether he told the truth or not, but whether he just handled
the truth recklessly and stretched the truth so far as you could
see through it, just seeing, you know. Well, if you get in
trouble right here, forget about what Abraham did and watch what
his son did. He told a barefaced lie. There
wasn't no sister that he married. So you see, if daddy wants to
tell the truth about something, well, nine times out of ten,
The child will pick it up. If he tells something else about
the child, he'll say, well, it's good enough for me. And listen
to what happened here. And Abimelech, king of Gerar,
sent and took Sarah. And look at the pains that Almighty
God went to to deal with this heathen king, and by the way,
in behalf of Sarah. I mean, Sarah and Abraham. But
God came to Abimelech in a dream by night. He took pains to come
to him in a dream by night and said to him, Behold, I am but
a dead man. I am but a dead man for the woman
which I have taken, for she is a man's wife." In relationship
to that woman, conjugal relationship here. He said, You are a dead
man. I just put the stamp on you, you are dead. And Abimelech
had not come near her. And he said, Lord, wilt thou
slay also a righteous nation? I'm not going into that. Said he not unto me, she is my
sister, and she, even she herself, said he is my brother, in the
integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have
done this thing. They lied to me. They told me
something I didn't know. And God said unto him in a dream,
Yea, I know that thou didst this into integrity of thine heart.
You're not telling me anything, but I'm going to tell you something.
That's generally the case, you know, when you go to argue a
case with God. You say, Well, I didn't do what I did do. Well,
I know what you did, so I'm just going to tell you what you did.
I'm doing the talking. Listen to this. I also withheld
thee from sinning against me, therefore suffered I suffered
out of thee not to touch her." He did that, didn't he? He sure did, brother. He did
more than that. He simply shut the womb of those
people up there until the excitement was over, brother. God did that
for a bunch of heathens and sent the whole shooting match, if
I understand correctly, to eternity's night. And I'm not sanctioning
sin, but I'm telling you, when time comes for a bimelech, if
you read the story right there, time comes for a bimelech to
offer sacrifice and so on and so forth. He said, I'm sorry
I did this, I didn't mean to do that. God said, well, we've
got one right here, I'm going to pray for you. My soul, let
Abraham pray for him. Well, one reason why I had it,
somebody said, well, why did you have Abraham? A man asked me one time,
well, why did you have a man out of the will of God? You heard
it kind of stated, why did you have Abraham pray for him? I
said, number one, Abimelech couldn't pray. He wasn't no praying man. So
there's so much to that. Look what God does for somebody
like this and say, is that a believer? It looks like he did more for
Abimelech than he did for Abraham. He did it for his own sake, his
own glory, his own good. I'll tell you what, when you
begin to study the word of God, the book gets big on you, and
it doesn't take it long to make you think you don't know too
much. In terms of the 38th division of the psalms, let me get a verse
right here that sort of stuck with me in reading the psalms. I was
picking up Judas, but this didn't have any direct relationship
to Judas. But it did have some relationship,
possibly here, to what we've been studying again this morning.
Here's a God-called man. When you're reading the word
of God, you're liable to read the language of anybody. Somebody
said, well, the Bible is truth and nothing but the truth. And
I beg that person's pardon, it's full of lies. Everything that
Satan ever quotes, anytime he's a quotation from the devil, it's
a lie. And all his children never did anything but lie, so you'd
better watch about the Bible just being truth and nothing
but truth. But when you're reading from an inspired writer who that
is inscribed to, for example, the Psalms or the writings of
David, you're not listening and reading to somebody who was unregenerate
for 40 years and God had him write the Bible and one day decided
it would be better to make a decision. By the way, here's a man A holy
man of old, holy men of old, spanked as they were moved by
God, but they weren't sinless. This is the thing that strikes
me. Now, listen to David here. "'O Lord, rebuke me not in thy
wrath, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. For thy arrows stick fast in
me, and thy hand presses me sore. There is no soundness in my flesh
because of thine anger, neither is there any rest in my bones
because of my sin." Why I'm saying that, this fits in right here.
For mine iniquities are gone over mine head as a heavy burden. They are too heavy for me. But
that's the same writer Brother Gill brought to our attention
this morning. I've seen the same writer from which the quotation
was brought to our attention this morning from Romans 4. Blessed
is the man to whom God will not impute sin. And sin is not imputed. We know that. But listen to how
David feels about himself. "'For mine iniquities are going
over mine head, as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.'"
How about that next verse? "'My wounds stink.'" That's not too pleasant when
you go to find that in the Hebrew. "'My wounds stink and are corrupt. But because of my foolishness,
foolishness is sin. See? I am troubled. I am bared down greatly. I go
mourning all the day long." That's the same man whom the New Testament
gives us light on this character, and as David says in the psalm,
blessed is the man to whom God will not impute sin, and still
more blessed is the man to whom God imputes righteousness without
work. And yet here is the testimony of this man. Some would have
you think today, well, this is the Old Testament, and that's
the New Testament. Now, brother, he's quoting from
the Old Testament, quoting the 4th chapter right there. So much
for that. I just thought I'd read that
few verses right there before they came into focus with me
as I studied along the line of trying to discern between the
flesh and the spirit. Have you ever been real honest
with yourself and conscientious with yourself, and you take off
with the thought in mind that this is of the Lord? And before you got through with
this being of the Lord, your good was evil spoken of because
of the fact that you couldn't blame a soul but yourself. Now,
if you're a child of God, you've been down that road, and if you're
a child of God, you'll be down that road again. It's not over
with. So you've got that awful struggle as to trying to live
like the plane with light. Just, I've got to hit this beam
and come in on it, or brother, I'll miss the whole runway. So
that's the awful struggle of the child of God's life, is wrestling
with the fact. I think last Sunday we were talking
at the service, and I made the statement again that the interpretation
of the book of Hebrews is written concerning reprobates. But he
turns right straight around and gives you a warning as a child
of God, and says, lest ye also," see, talking about folk who were
carried away and died in their sin, folk just like we've been
preaching on. So when you begin to look at these characters,
and I don't think I can't do it, in preaching on such characters
as Balaam and Judas and Saul and Abimelech and on you go,
and studying on Wednesday night, too, we picked up Esau and others,
it's impossible for me to do it. It brings me to a place in
preaching on characters like this where I wish I didn't have
to preach on them. I'm honest about it. which I didn't have
to preach on. I'm glad there's other things in the Word of God
that come into focus to preach on." Well, you look at the character
like I'm fixing to deal with this morning, a fellow called
Judas Iscariot, and you say, I would have taken the same position
as these eleven disciples took. I would have swore, if you'll
pardon the expression, on a stack of Bibles that this man is the
same man. Well, you couldn't have taken
any other kind of position. I hardly know where to start
with the character this morning. I picked up from just studying
an outline that you possibly could follow if you wanted to
follow it, and that's always the case with an outline like
this, a person of Judas Iscariot, just studying the man's person. You might even pick up his name,
which is very pliable, it's a good word, it's got some meaning to
it, it's a matter of someone who's consulting and walking
in the paths that we would walk in. Even his name, whoever, Mom
and Daddy, when they named him, whoever named him, I'm sure they
didn't name him with the thought in mind that one day I'd show
what he was. I'm sure of that. I also picked
up a second point, if you were following the homiletic outline,
which I can't preach from too well, And not only his person,
but his profession. And by profession, I mean he
was a professing child of God. And not only that, but on top
of his profession, he had a position that he maintained. And he maintained
that position, I think, to the extent that it filled that position. The Book of Acts is speaking
of the part that Judas had taken. But I don't think that's just
in part. I think he had a certain part. He was numbered among those
twelve. He was one of the twelve. And then last, if you want to
follow it, is his portion. That's what happened to him when
you see his performance bringing him to that particular place
in life. So it's a hard part, and the gentleman tried to put
this man's life together, especially from the testimony that we have.
But I believe that the first time that Judas is said to be
speaking, a quotation from Judas, I think this is the first time
that, excuse me, that's not the first time, it's in the twelfth
chapter of John, where the occasion of the anointing of the Savior
is there. And this is said to be by the
writers, and I think they're right. from the harmony of the
Gospels to find this is the first time we ever hear any utterance
from Judas. Sometimes by a man speaking,
you can determine to some extent and to a great extent which way
he is going, what light he has on his own Christian so-called
experience. But sometimes you can't. False
prophets are said to be the folk like this particular character.
I rather think from Matthew 10, I guess, is where the Lord called
these folk, that Judas had as much power, God granted Judas
as much power as did any of those folk. And they went about casting
out devils. I think Judas could stand at
the end of the way and say, Lord, Lord, didn't we cast out David?
I don't think there is any question as to what he did that. But you
see, that's the whole thing in a nutshell. So here in this 12th
chapter, let's read a few verses and see if we can let the Lord
speak. He knew Judas from the beginning.
He said he was a thief. Then Jesus, six days before the
Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, which had been dead,
whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper,
and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the
table with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment
of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and
wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with
the odor of the ointment. Then said one of his disciples,
Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him, Why
was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence and given
to the poor? Okay, now we're getting somewhere.
Don't read the next verse for a little while. "...Why was not
this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the
poor?" Now, here is a person of Judas. If you don't go farther
in the verse of Scripture there, and look at him, here is a person,
and the first thing, we're taking him now before the veneer comes
off of him, and the first thing you'd notice about Judas here,
and he soon speaks more than he spoke here, but speaking here,
You'd say, well, what's wrong with what this man's saying?
Well, you begin to analyze it, and he's honest about this thing.
He's saying this money should be taken and given to the poor.
Not by contrast, if you'll think for just a moment, what an insult
to the Son of God as he stands here, too, and Mary, who anoints
the body of the Lord Jesus Christ unto burial, and Judah standards,
and this should have been given to the poor. That's like Mary
and Martha, when Martha, much cumbered, was serving there.
There wasn't anything wrong with her keeping house. There wasn't anything
wrong with that and other places she took the lead. But the problem
was, by contrast, the Son of God is there, unethical. Mannerism
that she exercised, the Son of God is here. You mean to say,
come in here and help me clean up? There is a contrast between
the two. Well, such is the case here.
Judas, if you just look at his color for just a moment, says,
Oh, but he's ignoring what the money was spent for. Now, listen
to what he said then. This he said not that he cared
for the poor, but because he was a thief and had the bag,
and bare what was put therein. Now, this is a Holy Spirit's
accusation against him here. This he said, not that he cared
for the poor, but because he was a thief and had the bag and
bear what was put therein, and neither did he care for the Lord
Jesus Christ. Beryl, you can add that to that.
This is just it. He was a thief. He had the bag
and bear what was put therein. Listen to what the Lord said.
Then said Jesus, Leave her alone, let her alone, against the day
of my bearing has she kept this. For the poor always you have
with you, but me you have not with you always." See, by contrast,
there's nothing wrong with helping the poor. I think we ought to know what,
really know what, I don't cherish this, like our former manager
at Dusty Road used to say, that he would do this and he would
do that and hope a famine would come, but at the same time he
always wanted to eat well. Well, I'll be real honest about
it, I hope if a famine comes it don't get all of us and visit
other people's gardens and truck patches first. See, that's the
way you feel about it. You actually do. You don't want to go hungry.
You're not courting martyrdom. But by the same token, when you
look at such an occasion as this right here, you'll find out right
quick, right quick, that the poor, you have nothing wrong
with, do good to all men as much as it lies in you. And we take
into our bosom three meals a day, a good place to sleep, and say,
well, you can't help people. I know, but men are not created
equal. I would be one of those folk
who wouldn't know what it was to do with a dollar, whether
I'd feed myself or just waste it or whatnot, if it were not
the fact that God gives me that kind of ability. So the pull
you have with you always, and I said this before, but it fits
in here about missionary enterprises. It is not the true appeal of
the Word of God to appeal to people and say, well now, do
this for the poor in Africa, do this for the poor in China,
do this for the poor in certain places, do this, with the thought
in mind that you won't always have the poor with you. And all
of this idea coming out from our so-called government officials
as to how to handle the poor. See, nothing wrong with taking
into consideration the poor, but you'll always have them with
you. And you've never seen a missionary yet that didn't come back and
tell you the situation was worse than it was when you started.
You're not going to help the situation. I'm not preaching this morning
to change the complexion of this old world. It's getting worse.
Every time I preach, you can say, and somebody said about
the second coming, so why don't the Lord come, then, if he's
sympathetic? He'd be more people go to hell tomorrow than he was
today. Well, sure, that's so. But Judas said that with the
thought in mind that he was blank concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. I have no interest in the death,
burial, and resurrection of the Son of God. And it's said that
he was a thief there. It's the first time that any
word is given concerning him speaking that gives us a little
light on the subject here. That's what the Lord had to say.
Let's look at the 26th chapter of this Gospel of Matthew together. I mentioned it, let's go to it
and see what we can get you. If I don't plan to come back
to this subject, I hope I'm being led to another subject. If I were to take that in the
order that I mentioned to you, I should read from the 10th chapter
of the Gospel of Matthew, turn back to the 10th chapter. Let's
skip that before we go to the 6th chapter, because I must acknowledge
the fact that here is a calling. When you begin to think of Judas,
you're not thinking along what would be called the offscaring
of the folk in Jerusalem at that time. well esteemed by the eleven there,
but Almighty God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, walking
the shore of Galilee, chose this man, along with the twelve, and
he didn't inform anybody why he chose him. Well, my goodness,
suppose you were living in that hour, and the Lord said, come
on, follow me, get rid of your fishing nets, and come on. You
say, what a calling! Of all these folk around here,
I know sometimes you see Peter going back, but after all, it
was a high calling. He chose twelve, and he didn't choose
but twelve at that particular time. He chose those twelve, and he
didn't say, now Peter, you'll stand, and John, you'll fall,
and Judas. No, he didn't do that. He just
chose them irrespective of anything except he called them. And he
called them for a purpose, that's the thing you need to see right
here, so he didn't explain to anybody. Well, they wondered.
They wondered, naturally, is anything about us different from
anybody else other than the fact that we've been called of the
lonely Galilean here and we believe him to be the Son of God? They
accepted that, for Peter, in the 6th chapter of the Gospel
of John, don't turn there, in the closing verses, as a spokesman
for that crowd, still believed that Judas was a sound believer.
He said, we are sure, we're all sure that Dr. Christ, a professional
of true faith that he had exercised, and the Lord corrected him. He
said, Peter, you're wrong. He said, you didn't know what
I know. Judas is a thief. Look here where they're called.
And when he had called unto him, or to his self, his 12 disciples,
I stand to be corrected. I interrupt in the rest of your
precinct, and you subject to interrupting when I'm in precinct,
and I just go to it." Fine, if you want to ask a question. If
the tape goes out to questions not coming in with clear answers,
well, that won't hurt us. You can't hear too well back
there, that's the only thing about a tape. I wish we had a system where
you could have just as good a hearing from back there somewhere as
you could up here at times. But he called unto himself twelve
disciples. And if there is any reason in
these verses of scripture to believe that he did not give
Judas the same kind of power that he gave the rest of them,
well, put your hand up. And he gave them, and the subject
is twelve of them, and he gave them power against unclean spirits. Judas, do you have that kind
of power? You better bet I do. Unclean spirits, to cast them
out. And to heal all manner of sickness
and all manner of disease? Except one disease, brethren,
that's no forgiveness. They couldn't do nothing for
Jesus. Now, you can pray for a man. Scripture says as believers
we can pray for one another. If a man is sick, ask him why
he is sick. problem that you have in life.
Why does this problem come upon you? Somebody says, that's fetishism
and asceticism, and you've fallen into a trap right here. But listen,
the scripture teaches us beyond any question that if we would
judge ourselves, we would not be judged, but when we are judged,
we are chastened of the Lord. He plainly tells you those kinds
of things. Well, now, here is a group of people called the
Twelve Apostles, and they all have the same kind of power as
I see it, and then he gives the name of them. We'll read the
1st verse again. When he called unto him his twelve disciples,
he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, to
heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. I would
say that the 7th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, and about
that 14th and 21st verse, will be the pattern. of Judas at the
judgment bar? Did not I cast out the devil?
Did not I prophesy? Did I not do many marvelous works
in thy name? That's not the problem, brother,
I never knew you." Now, that's sad, isn't it? I don't preach
on a subject like that. I know that I love who God loves. I know that. But at the same
time, brother, it's something beloved of God. It's something
to be loved of God. And like I was emphasizing this
morning while you were teaching, he has assumed responsibility
of us. And regardless of what comes or what goes, if God in
Christ gave himself for us, he'll never let us go. Otherwise, we
would go. We head that way. And it appears
to us like we're headed that way for good a time. But not
so. Not so. That's the assurance
that we have. We're here. Someone said in reading after
The character Judas said that the Lord did not refuse Judas taking the money,
but he did refuse him taking his sheep. He cared for his sheep. He stuck with his sheep. You
see what I mean? All right, in this 26th chapter of the book
of Matthew, let's go just a little farther right here. You see the
Lord's Supper. You see the Garden of Gethsemane,
and then you begin to see near that 45th verse there, and that's
where we'll start. Then cometh he his disciples,
and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest. Behold,
the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the
hand of sinners. One hour is over, and another
hour went into it. I see the scriptures there. Rise
up, let it be going. He is at hand that doth betray
me. And while he yet spake, lo, Judas,
one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with
swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people."
See, who is with him are you now? He is showing his color
here. And while he had spake, lo, Judas
one of the twelve came, and with him a great multitude with swords
and spades, from the chief priests and the elders of the people.
Now he that betrayeth him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever
I shall kiss, that same as he hold me fast." Someone said, A kisser does not kiss the same
way a candy kisser. They're not real. A kiss in the scripture is not
necessarily a matter of showing your affection by a whole lot.
It was old Joab, I believe it was, there in the Old Testament,
one of those writers, while speaking to what he thought he'd make
a man think was a friend to a friend, he had the javelin under his
coat. That may not have been the one that's over there in
2 Samuel or somewhere where we could study. But anyhow, a kiss
through the scripture shows many times that that doesn't necessarily
mean affection. Now, Judas kissed the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, he that betrayed him gave
them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, the same as he,
hold him fast. And forthwith he came to Jesus
and said, Hail, Master, and kissed him. Hail, Master! You call him Master. You call
me Master and Lord, and so it is. But you also are a betrayer. Hail, Master," and kissed him.
And that's what the Lord said to him. This certainly is sarcastic
and derogatory with cover, when he said, And Jesus saith unto
him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? He had acted as a friend. Of
course, the Son of God knew who he was all the time. And Jesus
said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they,
and laid hands on Jesus, and took him. And on we go. There
is no use to study that further in respect to Judas' actions,
for there they are. Here is one who had the same
power as the rest of them had, and had insight into who the
Lord Jesus Christ was, and that through his trickery we'll see
to it that you get the right person, so I'll just kiss him. I suppose if you were to study
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but Matthew, Mark, and Luke give
the particular occasion of the supper and of the Garden of Gethsemane
and of the Lord Jesus Christ being betrayed. If you were to
study them, I'll study them, you're not going to get too much
more information from those three writers than we just gave. They
don't give any more information other than just one saying one
little thing and another one saying something else, to the
extent that they that they give us the light that is needed for
us from this particular viewpoint. But there is something here that
I brought to your attention more times than one in that 26th chapter
that I think we all should look at again. And that's found in verse 25,
I believe it is. Let's go back just a little way.
This is before the betrayal here. Now, the first day, verse 17,
the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples
came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare
for thee to eat the Passover? And he said, Go into the city
to such a man, and say unto him, The Master saith, My time is
at hand, I will keep the Passover at thy house, and with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus
had appointed them, and they made ready the Passover. Now,
when the evening was come, he sat down with the twelve. I don't
think there is any question about Judas observing supper. And as
they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you
shall betray me. And they were exceeding sorrowful,
and began," look at the language here, and they were exceeding
sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord,
is it I? Ever one of them. They began,
it didn't say who left out anybody. They began to say, Lord, is it
I? I really believe that they wondered,
did this awful sin that was committed by Judas, was it theirs to commit?
I don't think they were just asking for a man or a thing.
They said, is it I? He said, somebody is going to
betray me. Is it I? And listen to the next verse
here. And he answered and said, He
that hath dipped his hand with me in the beast, The same shall
betray me," which is pretty much a general statement, I think.
You've got to have more light here in just a moment. The Son
of Man goeth as it is written of him, but woe unto that man
by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It had been good for that man
if he had not been born." Now, that's not much encouragement
to a believing child of God who asks the question, Am I that
person? Do you see what I'm saying? It's just that searching. They
were saying, in essence, Now, one of you is going to betray
me. I'm not going to tell you which one it is. And I believe they wholeheartedly
ask a question, one of us, is it I who shall by my actions
set forth the fact that it would be better for me if I had never
been born? Now, if it's better for a person to have never been
born, that person is sure not going to heaven, he's going to
hell. That's the kind of question to ask. What's the searching
language? Well, they've all asked. No,
they haven't. Wait a minute, just let them
ask. Look at the next verse. Now, go back and pick the feathers
off of those verses for a little while and look at it. Verse 22,
And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them,
and when every one of them had had their asking, then Judas,
then Judas Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said,
Master, is it I? He put a little taint to it they
didn't put. They said, is it I? He said, Master, is it I?
He called him Master. Master, is it I? He said unto
him, you're doing the talking. He had a pretty well covered
brother, I think, and had those disciples pretty well confused
as to who they were. Turn to the first chapter of
Acts, and let's see where we get to in the next few moments. You're seeing something of the
person of Judas and his profession in being called, and this is
coming down here now to a portion of that man's calling that fit
into this group of people called these apostles here. I think
I might say something right here. If you are with me now in the
first chapter of Acts, you've got a spokesman again called
Peter. You've got a spokesman called Peter. If the calculations
are correct concerning most Bible scholars, it's a little hard
for me to just set it right down today, but from the death and burial
of the Lord Jesus Christ until Pentecost was 40 days. It hadn't been but about a month
or so, not over 5 or 6 weeks, since Peter had also denied his
Lord. Now you mean to tell me that
God has chosen Peter, a man who would like to forget that forever,
get that off his mind. You mean to tell me that God
has chosen Peter to give what I would call a shocking description
of the death of Judas. And what he did, yes, that's
right, that's right. What shall he do about it? He'll
give you just exactly what God calls for, and it's Peter who
is standing up in verse 15. We'll touch on this as we can
here for a moment and look at it. Some of the things are nuggets
there. In those days, Peter stood up
in the midst of the disciples. Peter stood up in the midst of
the disciples. and said," the number of the
names together were about 120, "'Men and brethren, this scripture
must needs have been fulfilled.'" Look what he's laying down here
to start with, brother. This is of a divine origin. This is a counsel of God, all
eternity laid out in the Old Testament scriptures, of course,
is what they had then, only having the Old. have been fulfilled, which the
Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas,
which was guide to them that took him." There are several
things in that verse of Scripture. that you need to study. I sure
don't have time to study with you this morning. But this word,
guide, right here, is a good word to study. You'll find it
again in the 2nd chapter of Romans in the 19th verse. Those scriptures you should be
able to pick them up yourself. He's talking about the Jew, "...and
knoweth God's will, and approves the things which are more excellent,
being instructed out of the law, and art confident that thou thyself
art a guide of the blind, a light to them which walketh in darkness."
And all the while you're walking in darkness yourself, is what
the context says there. He's a guide. It's not the same
word that the eunuch said to Philip. understand except some man guide
me." It's closely associated with that word, but one of them
is to teach and the other is to guide, just guide you into
that particular vicinity where the Son of God was. So guide
them to Jesus, for he was numbered with us, going right back to
what we just read a few moments ago with the 12 being called
for. He was numbered with us! And
not only was he numbered with those twelve as they saw him
numbered, but he was numbered in eternity. His number turned
up, brethren. If you'll pardon the expression,
his number turned up. His number turned up. He was
numbered with us and had obtained part of this ministry. I alluded
to it, and had obtained part of this ministry. I don't think
the Scripture is saying at all that Judas died short of finishing
his ordained ministry that God sent him out there to do. It
certainly didn't. That's not what he's saying. He said that
portion of the ministry that could be contributed to Judas
is what he finished. He was one of the twelve. That's
one-twelfth of it there. That's what he's saying. For
he was numbered with us, and obtained part of this ministry."
I'm saying the description that Peter gives here is not like
the description back there in the Gospels, that's what I'm
saying. He's forced under God the Holy Spirit to tell a detailed
account of what he did. Now, this man, he was numbered
with us and obtained part of this ministry. Now, this man
purchased a field with the reward of iniquity. This man purchased a field with
the reward of iniquity, and falling headlong, he burst asunder in
the midst, and all his bowels gushed out." Time has caught
me, but you really need to study this verse here with the light
that you get from the gospel, for some of the writers seem
to think that this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity,
and that this field is the field where he was buried. I don't think so. What is the
reward of iniquity? And this man purchased a field
with the reward of iniquity. They're talking about some other
piece of money he had rather than the 30 pieces of silver.
Well, he didn't purchase that field. Here he didn't purchase
that with the 30 pieces of silver. He just got back, you remember?
Let's go a little further. Now this man purchased a field
with the reward of, and some seem to think, and I agree with
them, that what is being purchased here was part of his unjust,
thievery way of doing business all along. Now this man purchased
a field with the reward of iniquity, and falling headlong he burst
asunder, And falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst,
and all his bowels gushed out." I think this is literal as to
what he did. He simply burst asunder, the manner in
which he killed himself. "...and it was known unto all
the dwellers of Jerusalem, insomuch as that field is called in their
proper tongue a salima." That is to say, the field of blood.
For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation
be desolate, and let no man dwell therein, and let his office of
bishopric let another take. Wherefore, these men which accompanied
us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,
beginning from the baptism of John, and to the same day he
was taken up from our midst, must one be ordained to be a
witness with us of his resurrection. And of course, they pointed to
right here, and picked this from my thighs, and you seldom ever
hear of him anymore, for he fits in as the Twelve. That's an ordained
order here of God just simply setting him in there and putting
him in a position to fill the place that Judas had occupied. What was wrong with Judas? What
called Judas to do this? What harm had the Son of God
done to Judas? He had picked him, he had chosen
him, he had put him among the twelve right there. I tell you
what, that passage over in 1 Timothy 6, 10 still remains. We hate
to face these things, but they're there, and we must face them.
I said something to someone some time back about this particular
passage of Scripture, and they said, well, that just can't be
the problem with everything, ever! ever a problem that we
have, well, it remains that indirectly so it is a problem with all the
problems that we have. In 1 Timothy, chapter 6 and verse
10, is that verse of scripture there that we want to look at
for just a moment to see if we can settle it with our closing
remarks here about what happened to Judah, practically speaking,
what happened to him. verse 10 of 1 Timothy 6, we'll
come down through there speaking of teaching others and teaching
them otherwise and why we should consent to wholesome words, even
the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and on we come to it. Well, it goes back to verse 9,
"...but they that will be rich fall into temptation and the
snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men
in destruction and perdition." And Judas is called the son of
perdition. It fits so well here. Verse 10, "...for the love of
money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after,
they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through
with many sorrows." I picked up a closing remark from one
of the writers that I followed, and this particular occasion
here in the book of Acts where Peter is speaking, he said that
he was one with us, he was chosen with us, he was part of us, and
the Lord Jesus Christ said himself that Judas went to his own place,
that he might go to his own place. And this man made a statement
I thought was good. His own place. He said he didn't mean to say
that in eternity he'd fill the gap with the 11 again, he'd be
one of the 12. He said that wasn't what he's
saying there. He's saying that while with those 12, he did not
fit in. His own place, the place that
he was put in, placed in for a time, was not a fitting place
for this man Judas. Didn't fit. He didn't fit. But
he said that he might go to his own place, the place where he
was going. I thought this terrible, but so. The place where he is
going would be a fitting place for him. Why? He got eternity ahead of him
with thieves and robbers. and liars and all those folk
who go to that awful place called the Lake of Fire. I thought the
man really kept to stone right where when he said, here's Judas,
he said he's heading to a place where he'll fit in. So he didn't
fit the bill, other than the fact that he was numbered with
the twelve and that for the purpose of doing the very job that he
did, and you can say nothing more and nothing less than what
his way was ordained, just as much as the rest of the twelve.
So when you look at such a thing as reprobation, you mustn't fight
it, you must accept it, and just scream out to God and thank God
for the fact that you're not among those folks, that he chose
you for keeps. He said, in John 17, pray. He said, I haven't lost any of
them except one, that son of perdition, that the scriptures
might be fulfilled and that the eternal counsel of God might
be fulfilled. So when you're looking at the
reprobates, you're looking at them from the standpoint of the
fact, well, I thought that man was a believer. I thought he was a believer.
They esteemed Judas. They put him in a position that
to them they thought he was fitting in properly for that position.
Along with that, he appeared to be. They didn't know him.
The Lord knew him. He said from the very beginning,
I knew he would be a champion. Well, we come back this evening
again at 4.30 for our evening service. Brother Lane will be
speaking. We always have a few things for
those of us who represent the group around here in the official
capacity of representing them that we need to discuss. We did
have a request for a letter from one of the folk who had come
our way for a short time. We need to look at that and see
what to do about it and other things as well. So drop back
here as we have the opportunity to do so again this evening as
we meet together. Let's stand.