PT-2 "The Betrayal of Judas" (Matt. 10:4b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/8/2021 9:56 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                        Focus:  PT-2 “Betrayal of Judas”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 10:4b

 

            Message of the verse:  “and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Him.”

 

            We have been looking at the betrayal of Judas and the degree of Judas’s betrayal was unique but not its nature.  John MacArthur writes “Through Ezekiel, God rebuked His people for profaning Him ‘for handfuls of barley and fragments of bread’ (Eze. 13:19), and through Amos He charged them with selling ‘the righteous for money and the needy for a pair of sandals’ (Amos 2:6).  Still today man and women will sell out the Lord for whatever they think is worth more.”

 

            Now I promised to give you a poem that is found in MacArthur’s commentary but the poem is by an unknown author that MacArthur got from Herbert Lockyer’s “All the Apostles” book.

 

“It may not be for silver,

It may not be for gold;

But yet by tens of thousands,

The Prince of life is sold.

Sold for a godless friendship;

Sold for a selfish aim;

Sold for a fleeting trifle;

Sold for an empty name.

Sold in the mart of science;

Sold at the shrine of fortune;

 Sold in pleasure’s hour.

Sold for your awful bargain,

None but God’s eye can see.

Pounder my soul the question,

How shall He be sold by thee?

Sold, O God.  What a moment

Stilled his conscience’s voice?

Sold, unto weeping angels

Record the fatal choice.

Sold, but the price accepted

To a living coal shall turn;

With the pangs of a late repentance

Deep in a soul to burn.”

 

            MacArthur concludes this very thought provoking section by writing “Judas sold Jesus for greed.  He was malicious, vengeful, ambitious, and hateful of everything good and righteous.  But above all, he was avaricious. (Materialistic)

            “No man could be more like the devil than a perverted apostle.  And for the same reason, every false teacher who holds the name of Christ stands in special guilt and is worthy of special disdain.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I think about the awesomeness of the forgiveness that I have in Jesus Christ as He took my penalty, my sin in His body on the cross so that I would not end up like Judas.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Live in a way today that I am worthy of the calling that the Lord gave to me.

 

9/8/2021 10:33 AM