Jul 12
28
“Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priest and said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him (Jesus) unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.” (Matthew 26:14-15)
Ever since he “betrayed innocent blood” (Matthew 27:3-4), selling the Lord Jesus to the highest bidder, the name Judas has been a byword, symbolic of the worst form of treachery and deceit known to man. However, though he stands out in history as unique and his crime the most sinister, his sin is still among us.
The man who identifies with and/or supports, in any way, preachers, churches, and ministers which, in their preaching, deliver Christ into the hands of His enemies to do with Him as they will: auctioning Him off to the sinful crowd: selling Him out as a price agreeable to fallen man’s sinful will – that man is a Judas!
Any preacher or pastor, who, to get his people to be faithful, frightens them with the hounds of hell, drives them with the whip of the law, or bribes them with promises of exalted positions and great rewards in heaven – that preacher or pastor is a Judas!
Is the Lord Jesus Christ such an ugly, unattractive, undesirable Husband, that His bride will not love nor serve Him unless she is driven or bribed? What a dishonoring thought! What a blasphemous thought! Those who truly know the Lord Jesus, love Him, desire to honor and serve Him, do these things as willing and thankful servants, constrained by the knowledge of His great love for them, and the love which they have for Him (2 Cor. 5:14, I John 4:19).
To all who know Him, Christ is “Altogether lovely” and desired above any other, and all else.
Jack Shanks
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Betraying Christ with a kiss
Judas betrayed his Master with a KISS! He came to the Lord with evil in his heart, the price of a compromise in his hand, religious devils at his side, and said, “Hail Master”, as he planted a KISS on the Lord’s cheek!
This is how most apostates and compromisers operate: they betray the Son of God and the Gospel of grace WITH A KISS. They talk of love, humility, morality, and sugar and spice while they sell out to the religious world and betray the Sovereign Son of God. Men watch their pretended affection and hear their words, “Hail Master”, spoken so softly, smoothly, humbly, and sweetly, and they say, “Can such devout people be ENEMIES of the Lord?”
Do not be deceived; sometimes the most devout looking, religious people can be the most hypocritical in the world. Do not be deceived by their kisses. LISTEN TO THEIR GOSPEL! Peter, bearing the sword, had more grace than Judas, who came with a kiss. –Henry Mahan.
—
An apostolic face and a Judas heart
(Letters of J. C. Philpot)
Many think that a minister is exempt from such
coldness, deadness, and barrenness, as private
Christians feel. And the hypocritical looks and
words of many of Satan’s ministers favor this
delusion. Holiness is so much on their tongues,
and on their faces, that their deluded hearers
necessarily conclude that it is in their hearts.
But, alas! nothing is easier or more common,
than an apostolic face and a Judas heart.
Most pictures that I have seen of the “Last Supper”
represent Judas with a ferocious countenance. Had
painters drawn a holy, meek-looking face, I believe
they would have given a truer resemblance.
Many pass for angels in the pulpit, who if the truth
were known, would be seen to be devils and beasts
in heart, lip, and life at home.
“How terrible it will be for you teachers of religious
law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! You are so careful
to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside
you are filthy–full of greed and self-indulgence! You try
to look like upright people outwardly, but inside your
hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.”
Matthew 23:25, 28
—0
He is full—infinitely full!
“The only begotten of the Father—full of grace and truth.” John 1:14
Ah! He is full of grace. Had He not been—I would never have been saved. He drew me when I struggled to escape from His grace; and when at last I came all trembling like a condemned culprit to His mercy-seat, He said, ‘Your sins which are many—are all forgiven—be of good cheer!’
And He is full of truth. Not one of His promises has failed. I bear witness that . . .
never any servant had such a master as I have;
never any brother had such a kinsman as He has been to me;
never any spouse had such a husband as Christ has been to my soul;
never any sinner had a better Savior;
never any mourner had a better comforter than Christ has been to my heart.
I desire none beside Him!
In life—He is my life.
In death—He shall be the death of death.
In poverty—Christ is my riches.
In sickness—He makes my bed.
In darkness—He is my star.
In brightness—He is my sun.
He is my manna in this wilderness.
He shall be Heavenly manna when I come to the Heavenly Canaan.
Jesus is to me—all grace and no wrath; all truth and no falsehood. And of grace and truth, He is full—infinitely full! Charles Spurgeon.
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Cain, Esau, Saul, Ahab, Judas
(J. C. Philpot)
“Godly sorrow brings repentance that
leads to salvation and leaves no regret,
but worldly sorrow brings death.”
2 Cor. 7:10
These two kinds of repentance are to be carefully
distinguished from each other; though they are often
sadly confounded. Cain, Esau, Saul, Ahab, Judas, all
repented. But their repentance was the remorse of
natural conscience, not the godly sorrow of a broken
heart and a contrite spirit. They trembled before God
as an angry Judge, but were not melted into contrition
before Him as a forgiving Father.
They neither hated their sins nor forsook them.
They neither loved holiness nor sought it.
Cain went out from the presence of the Lord.
Esau plotted Jacob’s death.
Saul consulted the witch of Endor.
Ahab put honest Micaiah into prison.
Judas hanged himself.
How different from this forced and false repentance
of a reprobate, is the repentance of a child of God;
that true repentance for sin, that godly sorrow, that
holy mourning which flows from the Spirit’s gracious
operations!
Godly sorrow does not spring from a sense of the
wrath of God in a broken law, but from His mercy
in a blessed gospel; from a view by faith of the
sufferings of Christ in the garden and on the cross;
from a manifestation of pardoning love; and is always
attended with self-loathing and self-abhorrence; with
deep and unreserved confession of sin and forsaking
it; with most hearty, sincere and earnest petitions to
be kept from all evil; and a holy longing to live to the
praise and glory of God.
—
DIVINE TREASURES
“How precious also are Your thoughts unto me, O God!”
And they shall be Mine, says the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son that serves him. Malachi 3:17
The preceding context tells us of “a book of remembrance” that was “written before Him, for those who feared the Lord, and who thought upon His name.” That book of remembrance was a record of the believer’s “thoughts” towards God. We have here the wondrous counterpart—God’s thoughts towards the believer. Two beautiful pictures of earth and heaven! On earth, His children are gathered together, speaking “often one to another”—of the great and glorious Being they delight to serve. In heaven, He who sees in secret, “hearkens”—and thus records His own gracious thoughts respecting them in the book of life—”They shall be Mine in that day when I make up My jewels,” (margin, “My precious treasure.”)
With what eager thoughts—ardent aspirations—do men look forward to the attainment of some cherished hope or prize or treasure, for which, as the case may be, they have wisely or unwisely toiled. The money-seeker for the day when he shall collect and store his coveted heaps. The historian for the day when his hoarded facts—his lettered wisdom—shall be compiled into a volume. The architect for the hour when the last plank of scaffolding shall be removed from the building on which he expects his renown to rest. The sculptor for the last touch being put on the breathing marble, that he may set it among the finished works of his studio.
The great God, here as elsewhere, is represented as anticipating with complacent joy and satisfaction the day of “the consummation of all things”—the day on which the top stone of His temple shall be brought forth with shouting—when the now compiling volume of remembrance shall be finished—when the now filling treasure-box shall be complete; and He shall display His jewels before an admiring and adoring world. And what does He say is to form, amid these lustrous jewels, His most prized treasure, that on which His eye seems most lovingly and fondly to rest? “They,” says He, “they,” (My believing people, the trembling band that feared Me and spoke of Me on earth,) “they” on that day “shall be Mine!”
Oh most precious, most wondrous thought of God! Can it be that He can think of treasuring me—a poor, unworthy, contemptible piece of clay, in His treasure-box now, and at last of setting me a jewel in His crown? Yes! What has He given for that jewel? Estimate its worth by the purchase-price—”You were not redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.”
And, as if this one exquisite figure were not enough, He adds, “And I will spare them as a man spares his own son that serves him.” Jewels are precious; but what are they compared to a loved and dutiful son? If jewels were in a burning house, a man would rush to save them. But if the alternative lay between saving them and a precious child, would he for a moment hesitate? I will spare my believing people, says God, as a man would rush, heedless of the flames, to rescue his darling son. When the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, not a hair of their heads shall perish. I will save them with a great salvation. They are Mine now—Mine, justified in Christ, Mine, adopted into My family; Mine they shall be—acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment; yes, Mine forever and ever!
All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be My children. Rev. 21:7
July 27—Morning—Proverbs 22:19
“That thy trust may be in the Lord, I have made known to thee this day, even to thee.”—Prov. xxii. 19.
My soul, mark for thy morning meditation, what is here said. Observe, in the first place, the general knowledge the Lord hath given of his saving truth and mercies in Christ Jesus, and which becomes a sufficient warrant and authority for all the world to believe in Christ, and to accept of Christ, to the salvation of the soul. Christ in the word is the Father’s authority for every sinner to believe the record God hath given of his Son; and the rejection of this command will be the condemning sin to every one who despises this plan of salvation, because he hath heard and then turned his back upon this love of God in Christ Jesus the Lord. My soul, ponder over this view of the subject, and then turn to another sweet and distinguishing property of God’s revelation which he makes by his blessed Spirit, in the particular apprehension of it. And this is done in every heart that is made willing in the day of God’s power, when the same grace which reveals Christ in the word, reveals Christ also in the heart, the hope of glory. Here the verse of the morning is confirmed in what God saith, that in order to every child of God putting his trust in the Lord, he hath made known to thee, even to thee, this day. Observe, my soul, the personal application of the divine truth. God, by his Spirit, makes it known to thee. It comes like a letter sent down from heaven. Who is it for? Read the direction. It is for thee, my soul. Thus faith takes home the contents to the heart, and finding how exactly every thing in Jesus and his salvation suits his own case and circumstances, he lives upon it, feeds upon it, takes it for his portion, trusts in God for the truth of it, and rejoiceth evermore. My
soul, hast thou marked these distinct things? and dost thou know how to distinguish rightly between general proclamations of mercy, and special, personal enjoyments of it? Oh then, live up to the full enjoyment of God’s rich mercy in Christ; accept Christ, and use Christ, daily, hourly, to the glory of Father, Son, and Spirit; as the redemption by Christ was intended; and bless God more and more for his unspeakable gift. Robert Hawker poor man’s morning and evening devotions.