SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/3/2021 10:17 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Character of Judas”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
10:4b
Message of the
verse: “and
Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Him.”
I have been putting this last half
of Matthew 10:4 on my Spiritual Diaries for some time now and as I think about
it I wonder how many millions if not billions of people have read this verse
about “the one who betrayed Him.” This
makes me think about this great sin in the eyes of God that Judas
committed. Do we think much about this
great sin that Judas committed, as I believe that just as we can read in “Dante’s
Inferno” Judas is put into the hottest part of hell where Satan will be at. I have to believe that this is true, but I
don’t think that a lot of believers truly understand this and that is because
of not understanding the character of God.
Perhaps we may think that Hitler of Stalin would occupy that part of
hell, but, although they committed many terrible things they did not walk with
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal God who came to earth to die in our place,
the One whom Judas walked with for three years listening to the gospel message,
and yet turned it down, not only turned it down but turned in to the Jewish
authorities Jesus Christ to be crucified.
This is much worse because Judas had that greatest Light along with the
other eleven disciples who followed Jesus.
We have mentioned that none of the
other Apostles had any hint that Judas was the one who would betray Jesus, and
that is because Judas must have been a remarkable hypocrite. Judas had even been selected as the one to
hold the money that was used in the ministry of Christ while on earth. This shows that he must have been perfectly
trusted “For some were supposing, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus
was saying to him, "Buy the things we have need of for the feast"; or
else, that he should give something to the poor” (John 13:29). John MacArthur writes “It is probable that,
like most of the other disciples, he had led a respectable, religious life
before Jesus called him. Perhaps he had
not been an extortioners and a traitor to his own people like Matthew or a
hot-blooded revolutionary and possible assassin like Simon the Zealot, although
his coming from Kerioth of Judea might have obscured his background to the
other disciples, who were Galileans.”
Perhaps Judas guarded his words as
we only see things that he spoke near the end of the three years he was with
Jesus, and in the first thing we see about his true colors is seen when Mary
anointed the body of Jesus with expensive ointment “"Why was this perfume
not sold for three hundred denarii and given to poor people’” (John 12:5). Then verse six explains “Now he said
this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief,
and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it.” We have to remember that John wrote his
gospel account around 60 years after they happened and so we have to understand
that it was the Holy Spirit who gave him insight into what we see in his gospel
account. Now at the time of this incident
John knew nothing about who Judas really was.
MacArthur writes the following
important paragraph “Judas was no more naturally sinful than any other person
ever born. He was made of the same stuff
as the other apostles, which no less common goodness and no more innate sinfulness. But the same sun that melts the wax hardens
the clay, and Judas’s choice not to trust in Jesus became more and more
hardened and fixed as he continued to resist the Lord’s love and Word.”
Lord willing we will conclude this
very important section on the character of Judas in our next SD.
9/3/2021 10:45
AM
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