“MOLDED BY THE MASTER-JUDAS: CHRIST CHANGES TRUE BELIEVERS”
MATTHEW 26:14-50
INTRO: 2 C0RINTHIANS 5:17 tells us, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he
is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are
become new.” Christians are brand new people on the inside. The
Holy Spirit gives them new life, and they are not the same any more.
We are not reformed, rehabilitated, or reeducated—we are new
creations, living in vital union with Christ…We are not merely turning
over a new leaf; we are beginning a new life under a new Master (1).
Bob Jones, Jr. once said, “A faith that has not changed your life has
not saved your soul” (2). And Elbert Hubbard said, “If your religion
does not change you, then you should change your religion. -- Elbert
Hubbard. Leadership, Vol. 15, no. 4. There are many “religious”
people in our world today but many of these “religious” people are not
regenerated people. Such was the case with Judas Iscariot. He was
religious but not regenerated.
In his book, Twelve Ordinary Men, John MacArthur writes: “His name
appears last in every biblical list of apostles, except for the list in Acts
1, where it doesn’t appear at all…He is the most colossal failure in all
of human history” (Twelve Ordinary Men. John MacArthur. p. 181).
There are many today who profess to be saved but they do not possess
Eternal life. The expression "face the music" is said to have originated
in Japan. According to the story, one man in the imperial orchestra
couldn't play a note. Being a person of great influence and wealth, he
had demanded that he be given a place in the group because he
wanted to "perform" before the emperor. The conductor agreed to let
him sit in the second row of the orchestra, even though he couldn't
read music. He was given a flute, and when a concert would begin,
he'd raise his instrument, pucker his lips, and move his fingers. He
would go through all the motions of playing, but he never made a
sound. This deception continued for two years. Then a new conductor
took over. He told the orchestra that he wanted to audition each
player personally. One by one they performed in his presence. Then
came the flutist's turn. He was frantic with worry, so he pretended to
be sick. However, the doctor who was ordered to examine him
declared that he was perfectly well. The conductor insisted that the
man appear and demonstrate his skill. Shamefacedly he had to
confess that he was a fake. He was unable to "face the music." In the
realm of Christian service, many professing believers go through the
motions, but they are only pretenders. Someday they will be called
upon to stand before the Judge of heaven and earth, and their
deception will be revealed. God will then separate the "phonies" from
the real Christians. No one will be able to hide in the crowd. Each will
be made to "face the music."
Friend, My question for you to consider today as you listen to the
message is, “Can You Face the music?” Are you a pretender? A
professor? A fake? From the example of Judas we learn five
invaluable lessons:
(1) PROXIMITY TO THE HOLY DOES NOT GUARANTEE SPIRITUALITY
MATTHEW 26:14-16—“Then one of the twelve, called Judas
Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, And said unto them,
What will you give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And
from that time he sought opportunity to betray him.”
*In Judas, we see two things. We see:
A. A MAN THAT WALKED WITH JESUS. For three and one half years he
spent time with Jesus, listened to Jesus, and watched Jesus. He heard
Jesus’ great teachings and saw lives changed by Jesus yet his life was
never changed! In v14 he is called “…One of the twelve”. He was with
the others but he was not one of the others. Charles Spurgeon said,
“As long as the church exists, I suppose she will have traitors among
her number, for if Judas intruded under the watchful eye of the Chief
Shepherd, we may be pretty sure that many a Judas will elude the far
less watchful eyes of the minor shepherds” (3). Even though Judas was
close in distance to Jesus he was not committed in devotion to Jesus.
ILLUS: The Legendary football coach Lou Holtz said, “The kamikaze
pilot who flew 50 missions was involved, but never committed.”
Judas walked with Jesus, talked with Jesus, and listened to Jesus, but
his life teaches us that PROXIMITY TO THE HOLY DOES NOT
GUARANTEE SPIRITUALITY. Judas was A MAN THAT WALKED WITH
JESUS but let us also note that Judas was…
B. A MAN THAT WITNESSED THE WORKS OF JESUS. Judas saw the
miracles. He witnessed the feeding of the five thousand. He watched
Jesus heal, raise the dead, and give sight to the blind, but He never
gave his heart to the Lord. Jesus said of him, “Have not I chosen you
twelve, and one of you is a devil?”(John 6:70). Robertson in his Word
Pictures says, “Jesus does not say that Judas was a devil when he
chose him, but that he is one now. In Joh_13:2, Joh_13:27 John
speaks of the devil entering Judas. How soon the plan to betray Jesus
first entered the heart of Judas we do not know (Joh_12:4). One
wonders if the words of Jesus here did not cut Judas to the quick.”
ILLUS: Judas’ life was a terrible tragedy. He was so gifted and had so
much opportunity, yet he lost it all. Why? Simply because he
turned his back on the Lord Jesus Christ. He went to the chief
priests of this earth and put his fate into their hands instead of
placing his life into the hands of Jesus. He had allowed his
craving for more and more to blind him to the truth about
Jesus—that He was truly the Son of God who demanded
loyalty—even when man cannot understand the events and
happenings that surround Him. Judas simply did not believe
that Jesus was truly God’s Son. Therefore, he did not give his
heart and life to Jesus—not really. He was a follower of Jesus;
he was even one of the first twelve apostles, but he was not a
genuine believer who entrusted his life to Jesus. (Preacher’s
Outline And Sermon Bible. New Testament, Volume 4. Luke
Commentary).
(2) PARTICIPATION IN SIN DOES NOT END IN SATISFACTION
MATTHEW 27:3-5—“Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when
he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and
brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and
elders, Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the
innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? See thou
to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple,
and departed, and went and hanged himself.”
A. SIN PROMISES A REAPING. Galatians 6:7-8a tells us, “Be not
deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall
he also reap. For he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap
corruption..” We reap what we sow. Judas never did really believe that
Christ was the Messiah. He was more interested in money than he was
in the Master. In John 12:3-6 we see an incident in which we see the
true motivation of Judas’ heart. It tells us in vv. 5-6 Judas’ response
to Mary’s anointing of Jesus, “Why was not this ointment sold for three
hundred pence, and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for
the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what
was put therein.” Judas’ motive was impure. The words “had the bag”
mean that Judas was the treasurer of the small band of Jesus’
disciples (John 12:6). However, he was a thief; he had been swindling
some of the money. A gift of 300 denarii would have allowed him the
chance to steal quite a sum. Deep within he was angry at the lost
chance to enrich himself; he was angry at Mary, but even more he was
angry at Jesus for allowing such wastefulness. (Preacher’s Outline And
Sermon Bible. New Testament, Volume 5. John Commentary). God
knows the motives of our heart. Note carefully what Galatians 6:7
says, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man
soweth, that shall he also reap.” We are playing the role of the fool if we
believe we can break God’s law and not suffer the consequences of our
actions. Judas was sowing only to the flesh and thus could only expect
to reap corruption. Someone has said, “The pain of the harvest exceeds
the pleasure of the reaping.”
B. SIN PAYS WAGES. Romans 6:23 tells us, “For the wages of sin is
death…” It tells us of Judas’ fate in Matthew 27:3-5—“Then Judas,
when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself…and he cast
down the pieces in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged
himself.” Judas thought that the money he received from betraying the
Lord would bring him satisfaction, but it only brought him sorrow. He
could not live with guilt of what he had done. MacArthur writes: “He
was sorry, not because he had sinned against Christ, but because his
sin did not satisfy him the way he had hoped” (Twelve Ordinary Men.
John MacArthur. p. 195). The wages of sin truly is death! It tells us
“Then Judas…departed, and went and hanged himself.” “Death does
not relieve guilt; it makes it permanent and intensified beyond
comprehension. As Jesus repeatedly declared, hell is a place of eternal
torment, of “weeping and gnashing of teeth” ( Matt. 8:12 ; 13:42 , 50 ;
22:13 ; 24:51 ; 25:30 ). It is a place of “unquenchable fire, where their
worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched” ( Mark 9:43-44 ).
Judas today cries out in the eternal pain of his undiminished guilt.
(MacArthur, J. F. 1985. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary.
The MacArthur New Testament Commentary. BMH Books: Winona
Lake, IN).
PROXIMITY TO THE HOLY DOES NOT GUARANTEE SPIRITUALITY, PARTICIPATION IN SIN DOES NOT END IN SATISFACTION and thirdly,
(3) PREMATURELY ENDING ONE’S LIFE IS NO WAY OF ESCAPE
MATTHEW 27:3a, 5—“Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when
he saw that he was condemned, repented himself..And he
cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed,
and went and hanged himself.”
A. JUDAS’ DECISION. Judas saw his sin. He saw what his sin had
done. It was seeing Jesus so unjustly condemned that caused Judas
to do what he now did. The money which he so dearly craved now
held little desire for him. Judas declares in v4—“I have sinned in that I
have betrayed the innocent blood..” But Judas got no help from the
chief priests, “And they said, What is that to us? See thou to that.” To
them if Judas had a guilty conscience he was a fool. The Jewish law
demanded that if new testimony was offered after condemnation the
case should again be heard. Perhaps Judas thought his testimony to
the innocence of Christ might, under the circumstances, be heard.
But the chiefs priest were unconcerned with Christ’s innocence they
were only concerned with procuring His death.
B. JUDAS’ DEATH. Judas, seeing his confession was of no avail to
soothe his conscience or alleviate his feeling of guilt, “…cast down the
the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged
himself.” (v5). Considering himself already cursed because of his
treachery and having unrelieved pain from having committed the
greatest crime in human history, he may have reasoned that hanging
was the only escape and a fitting death, knowing that “he who is
hanged is accursed of God” ( Deut. 21:23 ). We cannot know Judas’s
mind, but self-retribution seems a credible explanation for what he
did. If so, he took his own life as an act of ultimate self-punishment, in
a way that was certain to be cursed by God, thereby inflicting upon
himself what his overpowering sense of guilt caused him to believe he
justly deserved. (MacArthur, J. F. 1985. The MacArthur New Testament
Commentary. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary. BMH
Books: Winona Lake, IN). According to Acts 1:18 when Judas
committed suicide, he “falling headlong…burst asunder in the midst,
and all his bowels gushed out.” Matthew gives us the mode of Judas’
death—“hanged himself” and Peter in Acts 1:18 gives us the result.
Whether the rope proved too weak or the limb he suspended himself
on was too weak is unknown, but the result was “all his bowels
gushed out.”
Matthew 26:24 tells us, “it had been good for that man if he had not
been born.” Judas’ attempt to escape the agony of his guilt by hanging
himself only compounded his problem for eternity. “Judas was
already in a hell of his own making. His conscience would not be
silenced…” (4). Today, Judas in hell is living with the gnawing of his
guilty conscience. Over and over in his mind, he hears the words, “I
have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood…”
ILLUS: “It was a hot day—Tuesday, July 20, 1993, in Washington, D.
C.—as Vincent Foster sat in the Rose Garden. That morning
he watched as President Clinton announced his new FBI
director. Foster returned to his White House Counsel’s office
after the ceremony. He took care of some legal business,
then talked with President Clinton, his boyhood friend, for a
few moments. He ate lunch that day at his desk. A little
after one o’ clock, Foster left the office, telling his staff he
would return. He pulled his Honda Accord onto the streets of
Washington, D. C., and drove to a little-visited national park
on a bluff overlooking the Potomac River. He got out, leaving
his suit coat in the car. In his hand was an antique, .38-
caliber revolver. He walked across an open field. Standing
beside a cannon pointing out over the woods, Vincent Foster
took his own life.
When President Clinton heard the news, he called together
his staff to console them on the loss of someone that they all
loved. Then President Clinton said these words: “It would be
wrong to define the life like Vincent Foster’s in terms only of
how it ended.” Clinton is right in one sense. But the fact is
that no matter how much Vincent Foster’s friends, family,
colleagues, and workmates try to put the end of his life out
of their minds, how his life ended will always overshadow his
memory. Because how a life, a ministry, a job, or a relation-
ship ends defines and colors all that goes before it.” (Craig
Brian Larson. “Strong To The Finish.” Preaching Today. Tape
No. 155).
What will always be remembered about Judas is that after his confession, “he
cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.”
In Judas, we see PROXIMITY TO THE HOLY DOES NOT GUARANTEE SPIRITUALITY, PARTICIPATION IN SIN DOES NOT END IN SATISFACTION, PREMATURELY ENDING ONE’S LIFE IS NO WAY OF ESCAPE and…
(4) PENITENT FEELINGS OF REMORSE CANNOT ERASE SIN
MATTHEW 27:3-4—Then Judas, which had betrayed him,
When he saw that he was condemned, repented himself,
and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief
priests and elders, Saying, I have sinned in that I have
betrayed the innocent blood..”
A. REMORSE IS NOT REPENTANCE. The word remorse means “The
keen or hopeless anguish caused by a sense of guilt; distressing
self-reproach” (Funk & Wagnall’s Standard Desk Dictionary. Volume
2. N-Z. p. 563). Judas felt terrible. He felt sorry for what he had
done. But does remorse necessarily mean repentance? NO! "Remorse
is the pain of sin."-Theodore Parker-_Instant Quotation Dictionary_, p.
254. Many today feel sorry because of sin but their sorrow comes
because they get caught. Warren Wiersbe wrote concerning Judas:
“He said, ‘I have sinned’ (v. 4) because he had been caught in the
act, but he did not evidence sincere repentance. He had rejected the
truth and believed a lie, and Satan had taken possession of him
(John 13:3, 27). Judas took his own life because Satan is a murderer
(John 8:44) (5). 2 Corinthians 7:10 tells us, “For godly sorrow worketh
repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world
worketh death.” Judas never truly repented or else he would not have