“JUDAS – A TRAITOR”
SELECTED SCRIPTURES

I. Introduction
“The same sun which melts wax hardens clay.” It was Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great nineteenth century English preacher, who said that. It has since become “an old cliché” that many of you have heard before. But you may not have heard the rest of the quote. What Spurgeon said was, “The same sun which melts wax hardens clay. And the same gospel which melts some persons to repentance hardens others in their sins.”

Scripture is filled with examples of hardened hearts against God and His Word. Pharaoh repeatedly refused to hear God when He spoke through Moses. Exodus tells us Pharaoh hardened his heart no less than six times before something truly frightening took place.
Exodus 9:12
12 And the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not listen…

I believe that up until that moment Pharaoh still had a chance. I believe that up until that moment He could still have been reached with the truth. He could still humble himself before God and obey the divine command to “Let My people go!” But he refused God once too often. He had gone past the “point of no return,” as it were. It is a stark and sobering thing when we finally come to understand that although God is longsuffering and patient, His patience with unrepentant sinners has its limits. In Exodus God leaves no question that the time came when He cut Pharaoh off from any hope of salvation.
Exodus 10:1, 20, 27
1 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh; for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants…”
20 …the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the sons of Israel go.
27 …the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he was not willing to let them go.
Exodus 11:10
10 …the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the sons of Israel go out of his land.
Exodus 14:8
8 And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt…

There comes a time in every unbeliever’s life when God’s patience has run its course and He shuts the door on them. When that moment comes, the person may be physically alive, but he is irretrievably lost. King Solomon reiterates this truth in Proverbs.
Proverbs 29:1
1 A man who hardens his neck after much reproof will suddenly be broken beyond remedy. (“…destroyed and that without remedy.” KJV)
Fortunately, mercifully, you and I do not know when that moment comes. Only God knows when unbelievers are finally and irretrievably cut off. That’s why you and I are called to pray for the lost. That’s why we like to say, “While there is life, there is hope.”

And from our limited and finite point of view, that is true. But the fact is that God knows better. It is not always true that, “While there is life, there is hope.” There are some men and women alive today who have gone past that point of no return. But again, God mer-cifully keeps that wisdom from us. Personally, I cannot imagine how we would relate to someone whom we knew was hell-bound and had no more opportunity to receive Christ.

But since we neither know who they are nor when they passed that point, we obediently proclaim the gospel to all and leave the results in the hands of God. If those who hear are not beyond hope, we will be blessed because our prayers will have had a role in their sal-vation. If, on the other hand, the ones who hear are beyond hope, if God has already cut them off, we will still be blessed for our faithfulness and obedience to Him.

Our responsibility before God is to tell others the truth and to pray for them. Their responsibility before God is to heed His call and put their faith in Christ.

In Romans Paul warns unbelievers not to take God’s call lightly. He reminds them that judgment will come and His patience will eventually run out.
Romans 2:4-5
4 Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?
5 But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judg-ment of God…

Just as God’s patience ran out with Pharaoh’s stubborn and unrepentant heart, and just as God’s patience will eventually run out with everyone who finally refuses to repent, so too it ran out with the twelfth apostle.

The warmth found in the presence of the Son of God softened the hearts of eleven of the men Jesus chose to be His apostles. But that very same warmth hardened the heart of one of them. And finally, in the end, just as God did with Pharaoh, He hardened Judas’ heart and forever closed the door to salvation.
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II. Text
Judas passed that point of no return when he walked out of the Last Supper. He had rejected Jesus for the final time, and although Judas was physically alive and breathing, walking and talking, he was already a dead man. He was finished. He was cut off. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

I want us to consider five things about this man, Judas Iscariot.
• Who was Judas?
• Why did Jesus choose Judas?
• Why was Judas lost?
• What drove Judas to his act of betrayal?
• What can we learn from Judas’ example?

1. Who was Judas? “Judas” was a common Jewish name in the first century. The apostle sometimes called by the nickname “Thaddaeus” was also named Judas. He is known today as Jude. One of Jesus’ own half-brothers was also named Judas. He is the Jude who wrote the twenty-sixth book of the NT, the one that bears his name.

Ironically, Judas means “Jehovah leads.” What a paradox that is! Judas was not led by God. First and foremost, he was led by the desires of his own flesh. In the end, he was led by Satan himself. “Iscariot” is not a surname at all. It simply means that Judas was “a man from the town of Kerioth.”

We know nothing of his family except that his father’s name was Simon. That was also a very common Jewish name. In fact, two of the other apostles shared it. There was Simon the fisherman, whom Jesus renamed Peter, and there was Simon the Zealot.

So in the beginning, there is nothing remarkable, unusual, or the least bit striking about Judas. He looks, sounds, and acts just like the other eleven apostles. Does that give you pause? It should! Unbelievers and false teachers are sometimes difficult to detect. Just because some people look, sound, and act like believers, it doesn’t necessarily prove that they are. This is one reason why God gives His Church the gift of spiritual discernment.

We can only know those who are not truly Christians by what they produce. This is so important. The most heinous and dangerous attacks against the Church of Jesus Christ today are coming from within. Think about it. All the attacks of the Pharisees combined did less harm to Jesus than did the one attack, the betrayal, from within His own circle. How we need to discern who our true brothers and sisters in Christ really are!
*Matthew 7:15-20 (Jesus finishing the Sermon on the Mount.)
15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
16 “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they?
17 “Even so, every good tree bears good fruit; but the bad tree bears bad fruit.
18 “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.
19 “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20 “So then, you will know them by their fruits.”
The Apostle Paul speaks of such men in his second letter to the church at Corinth.
*2 Corinthians 11:13-15
13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
15 Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their deeds.

So Judas was there. He was a false apostle and a deceitful worker who was disguised as an apostle of Christ. He was inconspicuous. He looked, sounded, and acted just like the others. The eleven suspected nothing, but of course Jesus knew exactly who Judas was and He chose him anyway. The question is why?

2. Why did Jesus choose Judas? Just as the other eleven had been, Judas was a follower of Jesus. He was one of thousands who were attracted to Jesus and were always trailing after him. Jesus chose Judas from that crowd of followers. In that regard Judas was just another disciple. He was seeing, he was listening, he was learning, and he was interested.

Later, when Jesus called for total commitment to Himself many of the “hangers-on” decided they weren’t ready for that and left Him. But the eleven and Judas stayed with Him. And Scripture makes it perfectly clear that Jesus knew exactly what He was doing when He let Judas stay with Him.
*John 6:64-71 (Jesus speaking)
64 “But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him.
65 And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you that no one can come to Me, unless it has been granted him from the Father.”

So Judas stayed. He appeared to be a believer. And God the Father allowed it.
66 As a result of this (Jesus’ call for commitment) many of His disciples with-drew, and were not walking with Him anymore.
67 Jesus said therefore to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?”
68 Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.
69 “And we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God (the Messiah, the Christ).”
70 Jesus answered them, “Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?”
71 Now He meant Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray Him.

So why did Jesus choose Judas?
Jesus chose Judas because God the Son knew God the Father’s plan and God the Son would carry it out. Of that there is no question. It is no more complicated than that. From Judas’s perspective, he chose to follow Jesus. But we know that from God’s per-spective, Judas was chosen. We say that we chose to believe, but we know that God chose us before time began. For you and I this is a paradox that will never be fully recon-ciled in the mind of man. But rest assured – it is fully reconciled in the mind of God.

Listen, Jesus chose Judas to fulfill prophecy and complete God’s plan of redemption for all who would trust in Christ. Psalms is filled with prophecies about the Jewish Messiah. In two of them David speaks of being betrayed by his friend Ahithophel.
*Psalm 41:9
9 Even my close friend, in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.

*Psalm 55:12-14, 21
12 For it is not an enemy who reproaches me, then I could bear it; nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me, then I could hide myself from him.
13 But it is you, a man my equal, my companion and my familiar friend.
14 We who had sweet fellowship together, walked in the house of God in the throng.
21 His speech was smoother than butter, but his heart was war; his words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords.

It takes little imagination to see that these prophecies are fulfilled in Judas Iscariot. When all is said and done, the best answer, the biblical answer, as to why Jesus chose Judas, is that Scripture prophesied it, and Jesus would fulfill Scripture. When He was hanging on the cross, one of the last things the Lord said was, “It is finished.”

Naturally that meant His earthly life was over. But it meant far more than that. It meant that everything the Father had sent Him to earth to do was accomplished. The entire work of redemption was complete. Jesus had fulfilled every prophecy. Among those fulfilled prophecies was the choosing of the one who would betray Him. That leads us to the third question.

3. Why was Judas lost? Judas was lost for the same reason he was chosen. The Scrip-tures prophesied it, and Scripture must be fulfilled. Jesus acknowledged and reiterated this in His prayer before He went to the cross.
John 17:12 (He is speaking about the apostles.)
12 “While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them, and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.”

Do you remember what Jesus said about God’s words?
Matthew 5:18
18 “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law, until all is accomplished.”

Mark 13:31
31 “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.”

The age-old argument between man’s right to choose, his so-called free will, and God’s right to predestine those of His choosing to salvation, comes to the fore in Judas. But as we have said repeatedly over the years here at LBC, God’s sovereignty in the affairs of men trumps man’s free will every time. It must be so or you and I would not be here worshipping a sovereign God, would we?

Listen, God has given us everything we have. He has given us our capabilities, our talents, our freedoms, and our limitations. They all came from God. What did you and I give Him? He is the potter. We are the clay. It is not the other way around.

But if God chooses not to choose someone, we tend to question His “fairness,” all the while refusing to acknowledge that fairness is a human concept. Our ideas of fairness have nothing to do with God’s absolute holiness and righteousness. (repeat) Yet we are bothered by the fact that, to our way of thinking, Judas was chosen for destruction. Such is man’s view of things. In fact, man’s view of this is so perverted that in the rock-opera “Jesus Christ – Superstar,” Judas gets more sympathy than Jesus! But listen to God.
*Isaiah 29:16
16 You turn things around! Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay, that what is made should say to its maker, “He did not make me…?”

*Isaiah 45:9
9 “Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker – an earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’”

*Isaiah 46:8-10
8 “Remember this, and be assured; recall it to mind, you transgressors.
9 “Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me,
10 declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ‘My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure…’”

What can anyone say to that? God does what He does, and nothing He does can be any-thing other than perfect, righteous, and holy. It is only when we get that into our heads and our hearts that we can once and for all set aside any thought that God is somehow “unfair.” With regard to Judas, or anyone else who is lost and remains in his sin, the same Charles Spurgeon, whom I quoted to open this morning, also said this.
“But there are some who say, ‘It is hard for God to choose some and leave others.’ Now, I will ask you one question. Is there any of you here this morning who wishes to be holy, who wishes to be regenerate, to leave off sin and walk in holiness? “Yes, there is,” says someone, “I do.” Then God has elected you. But another says, “No; I don’t want to be holy; I don’t want to give up my lusts and my vices.” Why should you grumble, then, that God has not elected you to it? If you desire it, He has chosen you to it. If you do not, what right have you to say that God ought to have given you what you do not wish for?”

Judas was chosen to follow Jesus for a specific purpose. He was not chosen to be one of God’s elect because he never wanted to be. All he wanted from Jesus is what he could get from Him. In the end, that was thirty pieces of silver. Neither Judas nor you nor I have any grounds to complain that God is not fair.

My prayer for all of us this morning is that we will simply acknowledge that in the providence of Almighty God He predetermined all of it and yet Judas was responsible for the outcome. Such is the wisdom and power of our sovereign and holy God.

And please don’t miss this. Jesus gave Judas every opportunity not to fulfill God’s plan for him. Judas had countless chances to humble himself before the Lord. The man knew Jesus personally. He lived with Jesus for three years. He walked with Him. He talked with Him. He heard Jesus teach. Yet he consciously and deliberately rejected everything he knew about the Lord for his own personal gain. But with all of that some people still say God is not “fair” in His divine condemnation of Judas.

Even at the Last Supper Jesus reached out to Judas one final time.
*John 13:21b-26
21b “Truly, truly I say to you, that one of you will betray Me.”
22 The disciples began looking at one another, at a loss to know of which one He was speaking.
23 There was reclining on Jesus’ breast one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved.
24 Simon Peter therefore gestured to him, and said to him, “Tell us who it is of whom He is speaking.”
25 He, leaning back thus on Jesus’ breast, said to Him, “Lord, who is it?”
26 Jesus therefore answered, “That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him.” So when He had dipped the morsel, he took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.

In the culture of the day it was common for the host at a meal to offer the guest of honor the first morsel of food. In this case the morsel would have been dipped in a jam-like mixture of fruit and nuts and handed to Judas. So Jesus loved Judas, and treated him with deference and honor right up until the end.
4. What drove Judas to his act of betrayal? He was only interested in what this world had to offer him. He was a materialist and as such, he slowly developed a profound hatred for Jesus. After all, Jesus was anything but a materialist. The things of this world had no hold on Him. But they certainly did on Judas. In John 12 Lazarus’ sister Mary anointed Jesus’ feet with expensive ointment. Judas was angry and argued that it should have been sold so the money could be used to feed the poor. But Scripture tells us what was in really in Judas’ heart.
John 12:6
6 Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box (he was the apostles’ treasurer), he used to pilfer what was put into it.

In this one incident we see the true character of the man. And yet, Jesus reached out to him one final time at the Last Supper. And Judas rejected Jesus one final time. If Satan was not yet sure he had Judas, by that time, he was sure.
*John 13:27, 30
27 And after the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Jesus therefore said to him, “What you do, do quickly.”
30 And so after receiving the morsel (Judas) went out immediately…

There are many cases of demon possession in the Bible, but there is no other case where Satan himself literally possesses a lost soul. For Judas it was over. He was as good as dead. He had willingly sunk to a lower level than any human being before or since. He had betrayed innocent blood as no one else ever had or ever could. He had already nego-tiated the price. Over five hundred years earlier Zechariah prophesied that the price would be thirty pieces of silver. And so another prophecy was fulfilled to the letter.

Later that night, in a supreme act of hypocrisy, Judas identified and thus betrayed Jesus by kissing Him, an outward act of love that was inwardly filled with hate. So Judas sold Jesus and he sold the other eleven apostles as well. Beyond that it might be said that he sold his own soul. And with the money he got he didn’t buy the so-called good things of this world for himself. He bought hell.
Matthew 27:3-5
3 Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that (Jesus) 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 sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself.

What a worthless life! What a disgraceful end! Judas died as he had lived – shamed before men and God.
And just so there is no misunderstanding, Judas was not forgiven for his sin. His sorrow did not lead to spiritual repentance.

Repentant believers deal with their consciences in a spiritual manner. They turn to God for forgiveness of sin. But, true to his character, Judas didn’t do that. He wasn’t sorry for what he had done. He was sorry because it didn’t work out for his benefit. So he took the unbeliever’s way out and committed suicide.
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III. Conclusion
5. What can we learn from Judas’ example?
• In Judas we can see the ultimate example of lost opportunity and wasted privilege. You can be in the presence of God’s Word, God’s truth, and God’s people for years. You can be given chance after chance to repent and believe, but you can still refuse God’s call on your heart and be lost.

• In Judas we can see the ultimate example of greed, worldly materialism, and the love of money. He was a man of this world, totally oblivious to the riches in heaven. He failed to understand that, in Christ, the whole of creation and all of eternity could be his.

• In Judas we can see the ultimate example of hypocrisy. We must always exercise diligence and spiritual discernment because there will always be those who hide in the presence of Christ but are filled with Satan.

• In Judas we can see God’s patience and His willingness to reach out to lost sinners right up until the last moment when He says, “Enough!” And in Judas we can see the horrifying truth that when that moment comes, all hope is forever lost.

• Finally, in Judas we can see that God’s perfect and sovereign will cannot be thwarted by men or by all the powers of hell itself. God’s Word will be fulfilled – every last detail.

So we end where we began with that quote from Charles Haddon Spurgeon. “The same sun which melts wax hardens clay. And the same gospel which melts some persons to repentance hardens others in their sins.”

My prayer for each of you here this morning is that the warmth of the Son of God has not hardened your heart, but has melted it, and you have come to love Him above all else.

~ Pray ~