Text: “The heart is deceitful about all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I the Lord (Jehovah) search the heart, I try (test) the reins, even to give every man/woman according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his/her doings.”
Jeremiah 17:9-10.
“Yea, Mine own familiar friend (Judas Iscariot), in whom I trusted, which did eat of My bread, hath lifted up his heel against Me.”
Psalm 41:9.
Good morning, enlightened Christian! The Lord God, in His mercy and matchless grace, has visited your sin-stained heart and mine; He has poured in His Eternal light; and dispelled the darkness of sin, Satan and self forever. Hallelujah! What a Saviour we serve! What a Redeemer King we have in King Jesus Christ! Glory to the Lamb!
“Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily; and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward.” (Isaiah 58:8)
“Arise, shine; for thy Light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold (look!), the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee.” (Isaiah 60:1-2)
The depths of your unbelief and mine were dark indeed, dear friend. But how much darker was the heart of ‘the son of perdition’, Judas Iscariot, that he should see with his own eyes the promised Messiah; witness with his own eyes the Supernatural power of Christ’s ministry; taste, touch, and handle of the Holy One Himself - and yet still betray Him? Oh the horror of such darkness!
“While I (Christ Jesus) was with them (the disciples) in the world, I kept them in Thy Name (The Father’s Name); those that Thou gavest Me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition (Judas); that the Scriptures might be fulfilled.” (John 17:12)
The Scripture being fulfilled was the prophetic Scripture contained in our secondary text for today above: “Yea, Mine own familiar friend (Judas Iscariot), in whom I trusted, which did eat of My bread, hath lifted up his heel against Me.” (Psalm 41:9)
In our Bible passage selected for today’s study, we are brought to Bethany, to the house of Martha, Mary, and their now resurrected brother, Lazarus. There we see, sat at a table with Jesus, the man Lazarus whom He had raised from the very dead - they and others were engaged in eating a meal!
There could be no iota of a doubt left in anyone’s mind that Jesus had performed a Supernatural act that only the promised Messiah Himself - God of very God - could perform! This was an open celebration of the Presence of Messiah God Almighty in bodily form, sat at the table with one whom He had raised from the darkness of death! Is it any wonder that Mary took her precious ointment and anointed Christ’s head? Hallelujah! What a Saviour!
“…And the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.” (V.3) All could even smell the Presence of the Living Lord God for themselves!
But what was the response of the traitor Judas to such Spiritual evidence? Would the unregenerate man repent of his sins and ask Christ to save him? No! His black heart was focused primarily on more selfish, earthly, matters.
“Then said one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, which should betray Him, ‘Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor.?’” (Vs.4-5)
The motive of Judas sounds very practical and ‘Christian’, does it not? But the next verse of Scripture tells the real truth and the motivation of his heart.
“This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag (common funds bag), and bare what was put therein.” (V.6)
Judas Iscariot, the ‘treasurer’ of the twelve disciples ministry if you like, had his heart set on stealing for personal gain, while outwardly seeming to serve Christ Jesus and His earthly ministry. What a low life of a man! What darkness and depth of total unbelief! He is well named ‘the son of perdition’.
The one thing that differentiated Judas from Christian believers was his complete absence of God-given faith. He could not believe, because God, in His Sovereign will as God, had not seen fit to give faith to him. His ordained lot in this life was to betray Christ Jesus. (Jude 4) (Ephesians 2:8-9)
Thought: Let’s you and I learn from Iscariot’s example, and cease from betraying - in any lesser degree - our Saviour, Christ Jesus.
