Wednesday, October 26, 2016

More about Judas


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/26/2016 9:33 AM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  More about Judas

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Various Verses

            Message of the verses:  This SD will be a bit different as it seems to me that the Spirit of God is directing me to a quote that comes from John MacArthur’s commentary that I did not use a few days ago.  It is my desire to use this quote in this SD and then to talk a bit more about it, for as I read it and actually highlighted it in the commentary I thought that it would be best to go back and look at it in this SD.  We went over the section that this quote appears on 10-23-16.

            “Judas had every opportunity to turn from his sin.  Much of Christ’s teaching applied directly to him, such as the parables of the unjust steward (Luke 16:1-13), and the wedding garment (Matt. 22:11-14); and Jesus’ preaching against the love of money (Matt. 6:19-34), greed (Luke 16:13), and pride (Matt. 23:1-12).  Judas also heard the Lord’s candid declaration of the Twelve, ‘Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?’ (John 6:70), and His warning of the fearful judgment that awaited His betrayer: ‘Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed!  It would have been good for that man if he had not been born’ (Matt. 26:24).  And he had just heard Jesus declare that not all the disciples were spiritually cleansed (v. 10).  But all of that left Judas unmoved.  He resolutely hardened his heart and refused to repent.”

            A few months ago while listening to a sermon on John by John MacArthur he mentioned his new book (at that time) which was on the parables of Jesus.  I purchased the book from his website and have slowly been reading it at night before falling asleep.  When I read this quote from his commentary talking about some of Jesus’ parables having to do with Judas it caught my eye and so I wanted to look at the parables that MacArthur is talking about that have to do with Judas.  For the rest of this part of the SD I will quote those parables.

Parable of the unjust Steward from Luke 16:1-13 “1 Now He was also saying to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions. 2 “And he called him and said to him, ’What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ 3 “The manager said to himself, ’What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg. 4 ’I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the management people will welcome me into their homes.’ 5 “And he summoned each one of his master’s debtors, and he began saying to the first, ’How much do you owe my master?’ 6 “And he said, ’A hundred measures of oil.’ And he said to him, ’Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7 “Then he said to another, ’And how much do you owe?’ And he said, ’A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ’Take your bill, and write eighty.’ 8 “And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light. 9  "And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings. 10 “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. 11 “Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? 12 “And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? 13 “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.’”

Parable of the Wedding Garment Matthew 22:11-14 “11  "But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes, 12  and he said to him, ’Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?’ And the man was speechless. 13 “Then the king said to the servants, ’Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 “For many are called, but few are chosen.’”

            Now as far as the other teaching of Jesus which are not parables that are seen in this quote you can take the time to look them up and see how they apply to Judas, and perhaps some of the may be things that we all need to work on in our walk with the Lord, the differences is that Judas was not a believer even though he had every opportunity to be one, and those of us who are believers know that these things are perhaps problems that we face but they are not part of our being as they were to Judas and to some who are not believers yet.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I desire to listen to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and do the things that He is prompting me to do.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to give me peace about our election.

Memory verse for the week:  (Romans 6:15) “15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Peace” (Romans 5:1).

Today’s Bible question:  “When the wise men sought the place of Jesus’ birth, what Scripture gave them the answer?”

Answer in our next SD.

10/26/2016 10:13 AM

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