However much of a warning Judas may be to people of the world, I am
fully persuaded that there are four things which may be said concerning
him.
First: He gives us a lesson as Christians. There were many names given
him. In Matthew the tenth chapter and the fourth verse, and in Mark
the third chapter and the nineteenth verse, we read that he was a
betrayer; in Luke the sixth chapter and the sixteenth verse he was
called a traitor; in John the sixth chapter and the seventieth verse he
is spoken of as a devil, but in John the twelveth chapter and the sixth
verse he is mentioned as a thief. To me however one of the best names
that could be applied to him is that which Paul feared might be given
to him when he said, "Lest when I have preached to others I myself
should be [literally] disapproved" (1 Corinthians 9:27). It is indeed
a solemn thought, that if we are not right with God he will set us
aside, for he cannot use us. I have in mind a minister, who once
thrilled great numbers of people with his message. Under the power of
his preaching hundreds of people came to Christ. There was possibly no
one in the Church with a brighter future. To-day he is set aside, for
God cannot use him. I have in mind a Sunday school superintendent, who
used to be on every platform speaking for Christ, and then yielded to
undue political influence of the worst sort, lost his vision of Christ
and his power in speaking, and to-day is set aside. But of all the
illustrations, I know of nothing which so stirs me as the story of
Judas. He might have been true and faithful and he might have been
with Christ to-day in glory; instead, he is in hell, a self-confessed
murderer, with the clinking of the thirty pieces of silver to condemn
him, and his awful conscience constantly to accuse him. It is indeed
enough to make our faces pale to realize that, whatever we may be
to-day in the service of God, we can be set aside in less than a week,
and God will cease to use us if we have anything of the spirit of Judas.
Second: I learn also from Judas that environment is not enough for the
unregenerate. It is folly to state that a poor lost sinner simply by
changing his environment may have his nature changed. As John G.
Woolley has said, "it is like a man with a stubborn horse saying, 'I
will paint the outside of the barn a nice mild color to influence the
horse within.'"
The well on my place in the country some years ago had in it poisoned
water. It was an attractive well with a house built around about it,
and the neighbors came to me to say that I must under no circumstances
drink from it. What if I had said, "I will decorate the well house
that I may change the water?" It would have been as nonsensical as to
say, "I will change the environment of a man who is wicked by nature,
and thereby make him good." Judas had lived close to Jesus, he had
been with him on the mountain, walked with him by the sea, was
frequently with him, I am sure, in Gethsemane, for we read in John the
eighteenth chapter and the second verse, "And Judas also, which
betrayed him, knew the place: for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with
his disciples." He was also with him at the Supper. But after all
this uplifting, heavenly influence of the Son of God he sold him for
silver and betrayed him with a kiss. Nothing can answer for the sinner
but regeneration. His case is hopeless without that.
Third: Hypocrisy is an awful thing. The text in Galatians is for all
such. "Be not deceived; God is not mocked." Those words in Matthew in
connection with the sermon on the Mount are for such, when men in the
great day shall say, "Have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy
name have cast out Devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?"
Jesus will say, "I never knew you." If we read the commission in
Matthew the tenth chapter the fifth to the twentieth verses inclusive,
we shall understand that these Apostles were sent forth to do a mighty
work, and evidently they did it. Judas had that commission, and he may
have fulfilled it in a sense, but he is lost to-day because he was a
hypocrite. The disciples may not have known his true nature. In John
the thirteenth chapter the twenty-first to the twenty-ninth verses we
read, "When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and
testified and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you
shall betray me. Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of
whom he spake. Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his
disciples, whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him,
that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake. He then lying on
Jesus' breast saith unto him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, He it
is to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped it. And when he had
dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And
after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That
thou doest, do quickly. Now no man at the table knew for what intent
he spake this unto him. For some of them thought, because Judas had
the bag, that Jesus had said unto him, Buy those things that we have
need of against the feast; or that he should give something to the
poor." Which would seem to impress this thought upon us. Oh, may I
say that it is a great sin to be untrue? The only time that Jesus is
severe is not when sinners seek him out, nor when the woman taken in
adultery is driven to him by those who would stone her with stones, nor
with the thief on the Cross, but when he faces hypocrites; he can have
no tenderness for them.
Fourth: I learn from Judas that sin is of slow progress. There may
have been first just a natural ambition. He thought that the Kingdom
of Jesus was to be a great temporal affair, and he desired to be a part
of it. How many men to-day have wrecked their homes and all but lost
their souls, because of unholy ambitions! It may be an ambition for
your family as well as for yourself. Doubtless Jacob had such when he
stopped at Shechem. The result of his tarrying was his heart-breaking
experience with the worse than murder of his daughter. There are souls
to-day in the lost world who were wrecked upon the rock of ambition.
Fifth: He was dishonest. It is a short journey from unholy ambition to
dishonesty. The spirit of God Himself calls him a thief. But,
Sixth: Let it be known that while sin is of slow progress, it is
exceedingly sure. In the twenty-second chapter of Luke and the third
to the sixth verses we read that Satan entered into Judas. It seems to
me as if up to that time he had rather hovered about him, tempting him
with his insinuations, possibly causing him to slip and fall in
occasional sins, but finally he has control and then betrayal, denial
and murder are the results.
I looked the other day into the face of a man who said to me, "Do you
know me?" and I told him I did not, and he said, "I used to be a
Christian worker and influenced thousands to come to Christ. In an
unguarded moment I determined to leave my ministry and to become rich.
My haste for riches was but a snare. I found myself becoming
unscrupulous in my business life and now I am wrecked, certainly for
time--oh," said he, "can it be for eternity? I am separated from my
wife and my children, whom I shall never see again." And rising in an
agony he cried out as I have rarely heard a man cry, "God have mercy
upon me! God have mercy upon me!"