SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/14/2024 8:05 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-5 “The Contrast between Guilty Judas
and Innocent Jesus”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
27:3-5
Message of the verses: “Then when Judas,
who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and
returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4 saying,
"I have sinned by betraying innocent blood." But they said,
"What is that to us? See to that yourself!" 5 And he threw the
pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed; and he went away and
hanged himself.”
I continue to quote from John MacArthur’s commentary
and I want you to think about this first paragraph as it has great
meaning. “Had Judas been able to
remember one fault in Jesus, one deficiency or sin, he may have been able to
rationalize his treachery. But even
Jesus’ arch enemy in the human realm could not escape confessing His
innocence. Like the Jewish religious
leaders, the Roman political leaders, the false witnesses, and even the demons,
Judas could find no fault in
Jesus. In His sovereign power, God
caused even His enemies to testify to the Son’s sinless purity.
“Yet
despite his confession, Judas had not changed his mind about who Jesus was or
about his own need for salvation. He had
dimply become aware of the wickedness of what he had done and wanted relief
from the overwhelming guilt that now tormented every part of his being. The money he had wanted so badly not burned
in his hands like a live coal.
“Sin
never brings the satisfaction in promises.
Instead of happiness it brings sorrow, and instead of pleasure it
produces pain. It poisons with a pang
that cannot be relieved apart from God’s forgiving grace.” Once again I remind you of how powerful these
words are, and if there is unconfessed guilt in your live, you must confess
that to the Lord who will willingly forgive you. If you have never invited the Lord Jesus
Christ into your life in order to save you from your sins, then now is the
perfect time to do this. Just talk to
the Lord, something that Judas was unwilling to do, and tell Him that you agree
with what is in His Word, the fact that you were born a sinner because you are
a part of Adams race, and that you sin because you were born a sinner and now
you desire to rid yourself of the guilt that it is causing you in your
life. Just ask the Lord to save you as
you confess the fact that you are a sinner and on your own can do nothing about
it. In doing this the Lord will save
you, so don’t be like Judas who felt guilt but only felt remorse which
certainly did not save him.
Here
is what the chief priests and elders callously replied to Judas when he told
them that he had sinned by betraying innocent blood. They said to him “What is that to us? See to that yourself!” MacArthur goes on: “True to the characterization Jesus had given
of them a few days earlier, the religious leaders of Israel were adept at
laying heavy religious burdens on men’s shoulders, while not lifting a finger
themselves to help relieve those burdens (Matt. 23:4). They had no more concern for Judas than for
Jesus and were as cold-heartedly indifferent of his remorse as they were to
Jesus’ innocence, which, in effect, they had already acknowledged.
“Judas
likely realized he was cursed, because the Mosaic law made clear that ‘cursed
is he who accepts a bribe to strike down an innocent person’ (Deut.
27:25). But because the Sanhedrin had
paid the betrayal bribe, they were hardly in a position to indict and punish
Judas for taking it. If they cared
nothing for justice regarding Jesus, they certainly cared nothing for it
regarding Judas, especially if it would bring their own indictment as well.”
Lord
willing we will finish up this section in the next SD. It has taken longer than I thought that it
would take to go through this section, yet there were things that needed to be
said that I hope and pray that the Lord will use in people’s lives who read
this.
7/14/2024 8:29 AM
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