One of You Shall Betray Me
By Jason Lovelace
Keys for Today:
“Verily, I say unto you, that one
of you shall betray me.”
– Matthew 26.21
“‘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…‘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…He then having received the sop went
immediately out: and it was night.”
– John 13.21, 26~27, 30
“For the time is come that judgment
must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin
at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the
gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved,
where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?”
– I Peter 4.17~18
“‘…be not, as the
hypocrites…’”
– Matthew 6.16 (vv. 2, 5,
similar)
“Verily, I say unto you,
that one of you shall betray me.” – The
words of Jesus Christ. Someone who reads this and calls
him/herself a Christian is going to betray Jesus Christ
today. Someone today will betray
Jesus Christ. How many of us, who call ourselves
Christians betray Christ Jesus in the same fashion as he was
betrayed? How many of us, who say that we are
following the Lord, go out of the church sanctuary, out of
the Sunday School classroom, and/or out of that Bible Study,
and betray Christ with our lives the rest of the week?
In doing so, just how do we appear before an unbelieving
world?
Playing “The Game”
All of us like to play games,
don’t we? We may even have a favorite. From
sports, to board games, to video game entertainment systems,
to childhood games, to puzzles and mind twisters, each of us
have probably played a game at some point in our lives.
What game do you like to play? Did you know that
Christians often play games? Actually, it should be
stated that people who go to church like to play games, and
guess who church people play games with most often?
It’s God. Now this sort of game is similar to chess, where
certain moves are made in order to corner the opposition’s
king and force him into checkmate; it is a lot like the
strategy game Battleship, where two players blindly
fire at one another by calling out coordinates, hoping to
sink the enemy’s fleet; it is like charades, where
contestants are not allowed to speak, and instead are
relegated to using gestures, mime, and sign language in
order to get their message across; and finally it is similar
to the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, or one
of the more recent shooter games on Nintendo Wii or Sony
X-Box, where the player takes on a persona different (often
diametrically so) from reality. The game Christians
and churchgoers like to play is called “Hypocrisy.”
“And The Academy© Award for Best Actor Goes to…”
So how do churchgoers play this
game of Hypocrisy? It involves a lot of strategy,
intrigue, misdirection, and deception. It is, in fact,
really just learning how to be and knowing how to live as an
actor. Certainly, we have all seen how this game
works, right? Bill is a fine, upstanding church going
man. He and his wife, Jane, and their two children,
Bobby and Suzy, have been a part of streetcorner Church
for a number of years. Bob is heavily involved at
church on Sunday, leading a Sunday School class, while Jane
is busy with women’s ministries. Bobby and Suzy are
both regular participants at Youth and Children’s events at
the church. There’s only one problem with this family:
when they leave the doors of the church and head out into
the week, they live no differently than their unchurched
next-door-neighbors. Bill works hard for his
corporation, but is all the while envious about the younger
subordinate who got the promotion over him; is busy
gossiping and slandering his newly promoted co-worker every
chance he gets; and is working out the details for sneaking
some of the company’s money into his own account (that’s
called “embezzlement”). Jane works part-time at a
local grocery store, relishing in the stories of the sexual
exploits of her co-workers. Thinking of her own life
and marriage with Bill to be boring, she’s contemplating an
intimate relationship with a single man across the street.
While Bobby is a good student at the local High School, he’s
also a drug and alcohol abuser. Suzy is a straight “A”
student at her junior high, but is regarded by her peers and
classmates as an uppity snob. Do you see how the game
is played? We play the hypocrite game, acting all good
and well and righteous at church and around our churchgoing
friends. We know the words to say, the Bible verses to
quote, the attitude of (false) humility to carry, and
prayers to pray. We even know how to dress the part
and look our level best when we walk into the doors of the
church. We pay our tithes even so far as being
generous with a little extra offering in the plate each
week. We know where to nod and say “Amen!” during the
pastor’s message. We know how to raise our hands at
just the right moment during the worship and praise time of
singing. We know the names of the hymns, the choruses,
and can even sing them around our church friends verbatim.
Yes, indeed, we look GOOD at church and around our church
friends.
“But Are within Full of Dead
Men’s Bones…” (Matthew 23.27)
The tragic part of playing this
game is that when we leave the church, when we part company
with our church friends, we look and act no differently than
the rest of the world. We listen to the dirty jokes of
our friends. We go to the theatres and watch the “R”
rated films with all the sex, violence, language, and filth.
We turn on the television and relish as actors, actresses,
talk show hosts, late-night TV, commentators, and pundits
bash, mock, deride, and blaspheme the name of Jesus Christ.
We snicker and laugh at the witty newspaper, magazine, and
other print media articles which make a laughing stock of
Biblical and Godly values and virtues. We turn on
Beyonce’, Jay-Z, P. Diddy, Alan Jackson, George Strait,
Madonna, Lady Gaga, Mariah Carey, Aerosmith, Korn, and a
host of other “musicians” and singers as they croon about
how “good” sex is with someone we aren’t married to; the
wonders of drug use and alcohol abuse; and how liberating it
is to defy Mom and Dad. We go out with our friends and
laugh right along with the dirty jokes or the mocking of
God. Let me ask this: How many of us have – in
our daily lives – sat and laughed at sin? How many of
us have gone home, switched on the TV, and laughed at sin?
How many of us who call on the name of Jesus Christ go to
the movie houses, the dance halls, or the bars and alcohol
joints and have not only partaken of sin, but relished n it?
How many of us have, in the week that just went by, went to
our schools, our places of work, or some other place with
our friends and laughed at some sick, dirty joke, or some
blasphemy of the name of Jesus Christ? To quote a
pastor in the Church of the Nazarene: “Some of you have sat
in your homes and laughed at sin? Shame on you!”
Indeed, shame on us! Jesus stated this very thing in
the Book of Matthew when he spoke out against the Pharisees
and scribes:
“Woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye make clean the
outside of the cup and of the platter, but are within full
of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse
first that which is within the cup and platter, that the
outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are like
unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful
outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones. Even
so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within
ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”
– Matthew 23.25~28
When we play the game of hypocrisy
with God; when we choose to make room for sin and
unrighteousness, we are acting no differently than the
Pharisees and scribes. Actually, if we claim the name
of Jesus Christ and his cleansing power, we are actually
worse than these, and are more akin to someone else
altogether.
The Iscariot Factor
Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot,
had an enviable position: he was one of Jesus’ first
twelve chosen apostles. He walked with Jesus Christ
for three years, saw countless miracles performed at the
hands of the Lord, saw lives changed in front of his very
eyes, saw Jesus cast out devils, demons, and evil spirits,
and heard Jesus preach innumerable sermons, teach countless
lessons, and speak a multitude of parables (and had them
explained to him in detail by the Lord). Judas saw
Jesus raise Lazarus form the dead, cure the ten lepers, and
walk on water. He was there when Jesus fed five
thousand men (and possibly anywhere between five and ten
thousand women and children) with five loaves and two fish,
and when he did it again a week or so later, feeding four
thousand men (again, with as many as another fur to eight
thousand women and children [and likely more in both cases])
with seven loaves and a few small fish (both groups leaving
a total of nineteen baskets of leftovers). Not even
the Children of Israel who saw the ten plagues of Moses some
fifteen centuries before saw the same amount and variety of
miracles of Jesus Christ. And yet…Judas betrayed Jesus
Christ to the Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, the High
Priests, and the Sanhedrin. You see? The reason
Judas betrayed Jesus is because Judas had an idea of what
Christ was, is and should be, and refused to move away form
that idea even at the point of death. Judas had the
idea that Jesus was supposed to be the conqueror Messiah who
would – when he saw the torches, swords, staves, and weapons
of the soldiers coming to take him – use his Godly powers to
free himself and Israel from the hand of the Romans.
You see? He had an idea of the Lord that was false,
and when his false idea of the Messiah came not to pass,
Judas was bereft of hope. This isn’t too much
different form those of us who play the game. We have
our idea of God, what he should be, and how he should act.
We have some crazy, mixed-up idea that we are, somehow,
fooling God in that he can’t, won’t, or just doesn’t (for
some inexplicable reason) see how we are living. We
think that we can get away with all sorts of sin and
debauchery through the week, all the while, when we come to
church, we think that paying our tithes and offerings,
saying all the right words, doing all the right things, and
singing the right songs in church will somehow make up for
all the rottenness we committed during the week. We
seem to have this idea of God – not too dissimilarly from
Judas – that we can just call on him in our times of
trouble, but ignore him the rest of the week. To many
of us, God is cool only when we think he is cool, when we
want him to be cool, or when the situation calls for us to
think of God as cool. Friends, this is no different
than what Judas believed about God and about Jesus Christ.
Judas believed that he could steal, yet, somehow, his
thieving actions never coming to light and was unknown to
God. Judas thought that Christ would redeem the world
in the way that he wanted, and not in the way that Scripture
spoke. Don’t we do the same thing? Don’t we
carouse with sin and our unbelieving friends and/or family,
yet try to look good for the camera when we come to church?
But there’s a problem with playing this game and following
in the Iscariot Factor.
Really, We Aren’t Fooling Anybody
The truth of playing “the game”
and the Iscariot Factor is that sooner or later, we will be
found out. First and foremost, God already knows what
we’re doing. He sees how we act like a Christian on
Sunday (and perhaps on Wednesday, as well), then live like
the devil the rest of the week. The sad, tragic thing
is so do our loved ones and the people around us every day.
Here is what Paul states concerning this fact:
“Wherefore seeing that we
are encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so
easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that
is set before us…”
– Hebrews 12.1
Did you catch what Paul is saying
here? Friends, if we call on the name of Christ,
whether in truth or in “the game” hypocrisy, we are being
watched. An unbelieving world watches us in every
thing that we do, and every move that we make. Often
we hear this phrase from unbelievers:
“Bah, I don’t need church.
Church is full of hypocrites anyway!”
Why is it that unbelievers say
this most often? Why is this the seemingly number one
phrase from an unbeliever when one is invited to church, or
when the subject to f the need for church attendance arises?
The fact of the matter is, there are too many of us playing
this game, folks, and not only does God know it, but so,
too, does an unbelieving world. When we listen to
Beyonce’ as she sings about wanting it “right now”, does the
world think she’s singing about the gift of the Holy Spirit?
Or is the “it” she’s wanting “right now” something else?
When we groove with 5O Cent as he raps about “Getting’
some”, is he singing about the glory of the Father, or his
own desires? When we sit by and laugh with Comedy
Central as they mock Jesus Christ, what does the unbelieving
world think about our walk with Christ? When we go to
a movie such as any of the Saw Series, and grisly violence
is portrayed in front of our eyes, what do our unbelieving
friends think? When we who call ourselves Believers in
Jesus Christ take in a daily diet of sin and
unrighteousness, relishing in each and every sinful detail,
what should this unbelieving world believe about us?
When we take into account that things in the church are just
as bad – and in many cases, worse – as outside, should we
really be surprised to hear unbelievers saying that the
church is full of hypocrites? Are we not the whited
sepulchers that Christ spoke of? Outwardly, we may
appear to be holy and righteous and
god-fearing-and-following, but the truth is, folks, most of
us are trying to play the shell game of hypocrisy with
Christ and the world, and the glaringly tragic fact is we
are losing and failing in it…and an unbelieving world sees
every false and hypocritical move we are making. We
may look good around our friends and coworkers and
classmates and loved ones, but the sad fact is, we are seen
for what we are: a traitor to the name of Jesus
Christ.
Hypocrisy Leads to (and, Really, Is) Treachery
The fact of the matter is, when
we lead a double life with regards to our walk with Jesus
Christ, sooner or later, we will be found out, and we will
be labeled a traitor. Sooner rather than later, while
we are living this double life of “fun” and sin and
debauchery Monday through Saturday, and playing the game on
Sunday is that there will come a time when our true values
will rise to the surface. The Bible is replete with
verses stating that sooner or later, everything that is
secret about us will be made plain. Possibly the most
glaring statement in the Bible concerning sin is as follows:
“…and be sure your sin will find
you out.”
– Numbers 32.23
Right here, God, through the
prophet Moses, is making it crystal clear that sin can never
be hidden for long, and Christian Friend, be aware that God
will expose you if you are leading a hypocritical life.
The reason is because Hypocrisy leads to treachery.
When the chips are down, and a stand must be taken, where do
the hypocrites usually fall? They fall on the side of
sin. They choose to fall in with the sinful crowd, and
why? It’s usually because falling in with the wrong
side is the path of least resistance. It is the path
of the least amount of physical pain, ridicule from peers,
or seemingly the path of greater rewards. In Germany during the reign of Adolf
Hitler, Germans were offered rewards to turn in Jews and
religious or political dissenters to the authorities.
Often friends and family members would be the ones to do the
betraying. Same said for the time of the Inquisition
in Europe and South America:
those who disagreed with the Roman Catholic Church were more
often than not betrayed and handed over to the State
Authorities. In the old Soviet Union of Russia and the
Communist and Islamic dominated countries of today (yes,
including the so-called “leaning-capitalistic” Mainland
“People’s Republic” of [Red] China), house churches are and
were betrayed by those who were double-dealing and playing
“the game”. A story out of the
Soviet Union (or Red China) goes along this
line:
A house church was meeting
in secret, and a large group of believers had gathered.
It was late at night, and as the service was entering its
most worshipful stage, a sound that all house church members
dread was heard: the jack-booted kicking in of the
door, and soldiers rushing in. In moments, a group of
four soldiers headed by a lieutenant appeared in the house
church, and the four heavily armed soldiers blocked soon all
exits. There was nowhere to escape. With a
bellowing voice, the lieutenant, drawing and cocking his
pistol, said, “We are going to shoot anyone in here who is a
real Christian; anyone wanting to leave now will be free of
repercussions and reprisal by the law, but those who stay
will be shot. You have one minute to decide. Go
now, or take a bullet.” At his words his soldiers also
cocked their AK-47s. Several of the attendees of the
house church got up and left. The Lieutenant spoke
again, “You have one more chance! Anyone else wanting
to leave, go now, for we will shoot all those who remain!”
A few more rose and left. The Lieutenant spoke once
again, “Is there anyone else who wishes to leave these who
will be shot?” Two or three more left. Finally,
a handful of believers were left, and the lieutenant spoke
again, “Are there any others who wish to leave? This
is your last chance to live.” When nobody left, the
lieutenant uncocked and holstered his weapon, the four
soldiers holding their AK-47s doing the same. He spoke
softly, reassuring the house church members, “We, too, are
Believers in Jesus Christ, having come to know the Saviour
some months ago. Brethren, it was necessary for us to
enter this way, because those who are hypocrites or unsound
in their faith will always fall away. They are also
the first to betray you to the authorities. We have
been going to every house church in this area to root out
those who are potential traitors. Now, let us all
worship and praise our Lord together.”
It is the same with us here in
the USA. Just as those who are wishy-washy in their
faith, in places where Christians are criminals, will betray
their friends to the authorities, so too, in the USA will
hypocrites be the first to turn against believers. And
don’t think that persecution and betrayal of Christians
won’t in the “civilized” west and/or Technologically
Advanced nations. Friends, Jesus said it will happen
again:
“But before all these, they
shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering
you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought
before kings and rulers for my name’s sake…And ye shall be
betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and
friends; and they shall cause some of you to be put to
death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s
sake…They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea,
the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that
he doeth God service.”
– Luke 21.12, 16 ~17; John
16.2
This is the result of hypocrisy:
black, wretched treachery. This is partly the reason
the Bible so pointedly speaks out against hypocrisy.
There is a great warning to those who choose the route of
hypocrisy and betrayal.
The Dangers of Treachery (It’s
Never Just About the Traitor)
Nobody trusts a traitor.
The trust and the respect lost from betrayal can never truly
be regained. Benedict Arnold can attest to this fact.
After winning miraculous victories in the American
Revolution for George Washington and the Thirteen Colonies,
Benedict Arnold turned and betrayed the nascent United
States. Following the defeat of the British in 1781
and the end of the war in 1783, Arnold was, obviously,
unwelcome in the New USA. Moving to Britain, he wasn’t
received as the heroic general who turned form rebellion to
serve the King and Crown, but instead was scorned as not
only the general who’d defeated the king’s redcoats at
Saratoga, but was also shunned as being a turncoat.
Arnold died in obscurity in Britain and to this day remains
the supremest of enigmas in the United States, his monument
at the Saratoga Battlefield being vacant. After
betraying and murdering his overlord Oda Nobunaga, Japanese
Daimyo Akechi Mitsuhide – hoping to capitalize on the
assumed chaos that would reign among Oda’s loyal
subordinates – was defeated three days later by Toyotomi
Hideyoshi. While fleeing the battlefield, Akechi was
impaled by a farmer whose only weapon was a bamboo spear.
Today in Japan, you may hear “Mitsuhide-no mikka tenka”,
which means “the three-day reign of Mitsuhide”, a term of
scorn and derision. In China during the time of the
Three Kingdoms, a brilliant general named Lu Bu won many
battles for his superior Zhao Dong, going even so far as
defeating – in single combat – the three heroes of the
northern kingdom, Yan Liu, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei. The
problem with General Lu was he later murdered his overlord
Zhao, and was later beheaded by the Southern Warlord, Cao
Cao. Judas Iscariot was in a similar place, and is
forever known – even by those who regard the Bible as fable
and Christianity as a farce – as the supremest of traitors.
The name “Judas” became such a tainted name that even Jesus’
earthly brother changed his name to Jude, other disciples
and followers of the Bible being named Judas going by other
names as well. If these were the only reasons for
treachery being dangerous to the traitor, it would be bad
enough, but treachery often involved others. Not only
was Benedict Arnold despised in the USA, but so was his
family; Akechi Mitsuhide wasn’t alone in his destruction,
his entire household was also brought down by the hideyoshi
Dynasty; General Lu wasn’t singular in his demise, as the
sons who accompanied him also felt the blade of the
executioner’s sword. The same it is and will be for
any of us who play “the game”.
Traitors, Players of “The
Game”, and Us
Think of someone you know that is
wishy-washy, a habitual liar and not true to his word,
and/or known for backstabbing his or her friends. What
thoughts come to your mind when you think of this person?
Are they good, or are they not so good? Are you close
to this person or these people, or do you keep as far away
form them as possible? Do you place much stock and/or
faith in their word and words? Now lets look at our
own lives: where have we been treacherous? Where
are we betraying the Lord? Really, friends and
brethren, if we are calling ourselves Christians, Believers
in and Followers of Jesus Christ, how are we doing?
How are we living? Honestly, let’s ask ourselves:
how many of us were as excited about spending time with the
Lord as we are about the new Twilight movie
Eclipse? Which have we done more of this week:
did we gossip and defame someone or did we speak the truth
in love of Jesus Christ to our neighbor? Think about
it: did we listen more to Beyonce, crooning and crying about
how she “wants it right now”, or did we listen to music that
is wholesome and uplifting of the virtues of sexual purity?
Did we rap along with Fifty-Cent, Eminem, and Jay-Z about
“Gettin’ Some”, reducing women to mere objects for illicit
pleasure, or did we raise our hearts and hands to God in
worship and praise of his Holiness, Love, and Glory?
Did we watch The Family Guy, Comedy Central,
South Park, or How I Met Your Mother, and
laugh along as they mocked the Name of Jesus Christ, or did
we stand up and defend him? Please understand that
this is not to say Christians cannot have fun: Christ
came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly
(John 10.10). However, the abundant life that Christ
speaks of is one that is in step with him. When
Christians play the hypocrisy game and give in to commission
of sin, we are – in effect – showing the world that we’re
playing a game of double-dealing: Again, the words of
Jesus Christ:
“Beware of false prophets,
which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are
ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits.
Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a
corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree
cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree
bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth
good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”
– Matthew 7.15 ~20
“No man can serve two
masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the
other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the
other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
– Matthew 6.24 (Luke 16.13
similar)
“Every kingdom divided
against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided
against a house falleth.”
– Luke 11.17 (Matthew 12.25
and Mark 3.24~25 similar)
“I know thy works, that
thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold
or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither
cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”
– Revelation 3.14 ~15
Here also are the words of
Christ, again, through his followers:
“For do I now persuade men,
or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet
pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.”
– Galatians 1.10
“A double minded man is
unstable in all his ways.”
– James 1.8
“Therewith bless we God,
even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made
after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth
proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these
things ought not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth
at the same time sweet water and bitter? Can the fig
tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? Either a vine,
figs? So can no fountain both yield salt water and
fresh.”
– James 3.9 ~12
“Ye adulterers and
adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world
is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a
friend of the world is the enemy of God.”
– James 4.4
“Draw nigh unto God, and he
will draw nigh unto you. Cleanse your hands, ye
sinners: and purify your hearts, ye double minded.”
– James 4.8
“Love not the world,
neither the things that are in the world. If any man
love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
– I John 5.15
You see? When we show the
world – as followers of Jesus Christ – that we are really no
different than those without Christ we are betraying Jesus
Christ. There are many in the world today, many
Christian believers, who believe that there is no problem
with having a beer or other alcoholic drink with their
unbelieving friends. A large number of Christians
think that this makes them somehow “more accessible” to the
world (in a way, they are correct, but not in the way that
they believe) and to their lost friends. However,
people see alcohol is as an instrument of and for
drunkenness. The lost of this world, when they see
someone who has professed Christ in their lives and
testified to his change go out and drink alcohol at a bar,
do they really think that the Christian(s) doing so are more
accessible…or do they label them “hypocrites”? When an
unbeliever sees a Christian watch a movie or TV show where
Jesus Christ’s name is blasphemed and mocked, does that
unbeliever really see that believer as someone who is truly
bound to Christ, or do they see a charlatan? And when
a professing follower of Jesus Christ lauds and listens to
on a regular basis such singers as Beyonce’ or Aerosmith or
any other musicians or groups that mock Biblical,
Judeo-Christian, and/or Traditional values, does the
watching world take their testimony and believe, or do they
continue on their way, heading for an eternity in hell
simply because the walk didn’t match the talk? You
see? Sooner or later, our backs will be against the
wall, and we will have to choose. Will we choose
Christ, and take the ridicule, derision, and persecution
that will result from such a choice? Or will we betray
the Lord, and run with the crowd? Not only is there
loss of trust in this world with regards to betrayal, but
there is also the loss of eternal life…and not just for the
traitor. Those watching who are in sin’s darkness will
take what we have lived, and said, balance them, and discard
anything we testify to concerning Jesus Christ if our lives
do not match what we preach (see Romans chapter 2).
Revival WILL NOT
Come If We Are Playing The Game
It’s as simple as this, folks:
if we are playing the game week after week, revival will not
come. God will not honor a person, a church, or
Christian group if all we do is play games with him with our
lives. Instead, there will come the test, as Jesus
speaks of in his parable of the sower, and many of us, if we
are not truly founded and rooted in Christ, will fall away,
turn coat, and betray those nearest us who believe right
along with the Lord Christ himself. We may think that
we’re getting away with something. We may think that
we’re clever. We may think that our friends will be
hoodwinked and that our believing friends will accept us as
genuine, and that our worldly friends will bring us into
their circles because we don’t preach to them. Sooner
or later, however (rather, sooner than later), the truth of
our lives will come out, and when it does, we will be seen
by both the brethren of Christ and the unbelieving world as
tricksters, charlatans, and untrustworthy. Until we
get this thing straightened out; until we make the decision
to walk with the Lord wholeheartedly, we cannot and will not
experience revival. You see? God will not use us
if there’s sin in our lives. God won’t allow sin to
remain in his presence, and more we try top play the game,
the worse it will be for us. Eventually, there will
come a day – the day – when we will have to choose.
This writer’s own life is testament to that. He was
saved and came to know Christ as Saviour when he was seven
years old. When he was fourteen, he was sanctified,
and at the age of eighteen was baptized. However, when
he was a high school senior, the Lord called him to
missions, and he said “No.” For three years, this
writer tried to play “the game”. While trying to live
the Christian life, he was running from doing God’s will,
and rejecting Jesus’ call to missions. He’d go to
church on Sunday, and Wednesday, and during revival times,
but all the while, during those three years, he was choosing
to do has he wanted, as he pleased. Finally, the day
came when this writer hit rock bottom. There was a car
accident; there were two knee surgeries; there were months
of rehabilitation; there was a period of almost a year,
altogether, of walking on crutches; there were dark nights
of excruciating pain due to the injuries suffered form the
accident. Doesn’t sound like a fun-filled, enjoyable
life, does it? Trust these words that this period of
time of life was the lowest this writer had ever experienced
before or since. But there came a day where God
revealed his will a second time, and when he did, this
writer said, “Yes!” Ever since then, ever since the
time that playing “the game” ended, life has taken a
dramatic turn! No, things haven’t been all pleasant,
serene meadows full of colorful flowers and cool sunny days,
but it must be said that life has been a lot better than it
could’ve been. It can be said, and must be said, actually,
that God has totally and truly blessed this writer’s life.
Friends, revival cannot and will not happen until we get
straight with the Lord. So long as we toy with him,
revival won’t happen. God doesn’t play games!
Either we are with him 100%, or we are totally against him:
there is no middle ground! We cannot be 80% for him,
and 20% against; we cannot even be 99.9999% for him and
0.0001% against. Its black and white with God:
For or Against. Where do you stand?
The Bottom Line – There’s
Judas…But There’s Also Peter and Paul
Did you know that there was
another who betrayed Christ on the night he was arrested?
Did you know that the Apostle we venerate to be the highest,
Peter son of John, was also a traitor? Check out the
closing chapters of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke,
and you’ll read how not only did Peter betray Christ, but
was told that he’d do it from Jesus himself! Why,
then, do we remember Judas with derision and scorn, but
Peter we venerate as the one who we meet at the gates of
Heaven? Why is Judas’ name the last popular in
history, but the name of Peter as common as water? The
reason is because – though Peter gravely sinned in his
betrayal – Peter returned and repented of his act of playing
“the game”. While Judas was casting his blood money of
thirty pieces of silver at the feet of the priests and
proceeding to hang himself, Peter was weeping and
remorseful, seeking redemption…and as a result, Peter was
fully restored (see John 21). Paul the Apostle, as
well, was a persecutor of the Church, yet he, too, is known
as the greatest writer in the New Testament, and actually
wrote more books n the Bible than anyone else. He also
was the first foreign missionary. How is it that Paul
– who forced people to betray others and Christ, hauled them
to jail, and approved of their executions (see Acts 7) –
could become such a staunch believer in Jesus, while Judas
turned and killed himself? It’s simple: Paul (as
Peter) repented, asked for Jesus’ forgiveness, and turned
from his sin – including that of playing “the game”.
Friends, there’s always a choice. Just as we have
Judas the ultimate betrayer, we have also Peter and Paul –
likely the two greatest apostles in the Bible. The
same can be said for the rest of the Bible and those whose
stories are found in it: two thieves on either side of
Jesus – one believing, the other rejecting; the first two
anointed kings of Israel, Saul and David – Saul rejected the
Lord, David clung to him with all his heart; two of the
cities that the Children of Israel encountered in their
conquest of Canaan Jericho and Gibeon – Jericho was
destroyed for their unbelief, Gibeon was saved; Abraham’s
sons Ishmael and Isaac, and Isaac’s two sons, Esau and Jacob
– Ishmael and Esau rejected the Lord, and later became
enemies of Israel while Isaac and Jacob are known for being
forefathers of Israel right along with Abraham; and there is
the Rich young ruler and the centurion – the rich young
ruler rejected Jesus because he couldn’t give up his riches,
but the Centurion believed Jesus and trusted in him despite
his position in the Roman army. It’s the same today
with us. We know, and we see, people every day who are
trying to play “the game” and thinking that they’re getting
away with fooling God when the fact of the matter is they
are just fooling themselves.
Conclusion – The Hand or The
Sop?
Judas didn’t have to go out into
the darkness of sin, and the blackness of an eternity
without Christ. In our Scripture Keys, we read that
Jesus held out the sop for him, and when Judas took it,
Satan entered into him. All the while, Christ was
waiting, hoping even, that Judas wouldn’t make such a
horrendous choice as he really did make. The same it
is for us. We are offered Christ’s hand of forgiveness
and the sop of treachery. Which one will we take?
Which one will you take? Friends, if you’re living the
life of playing “the game” with God, understand that you are
taking the sop of sin. You are on the road to betrayal
of the Lord! If you call yourself “Christian” but run
with Satan, you must understand that the day will come when
the chips are down, and you will have to make a decision…and
very likely – as Judas Iscariot – you will take the sop
instead of the hand. You will go out into the night of
sin, the blackness of a Christless eternity, and the
hopelessness of separation from God. You may try to
fool yourself that you’re all right, and you may even
convince yourself that your friends – and even God – believe
you, but the truth of the matter is that you will lose your
soul. Matthew 25 speaks of this. There are those
who – after having played “the game” for their entire lives
here on earth – will say to Jesus on the last day that they
did things, worked great wonders, and did mighty acts, all
in Christ’s name, only to be ushered out of his presence
eternally. Does this description fit you? Are
there areas of your life that you’ve not turned over to God?
Are you living for Jesus on Sunday and Wednesday, but the
rest of the week slander his name, and run with the devil?
Friends, it doesn’t have to be that way. You don’t
have to take the sop of treachery. You can resist the
devil and overcome the temptation to play “the game”.
The decision is up to you: will you take Christ’s hand
of forgiveness, turn to him, repent of your sin, and walk
with him in Spirit and in Truth (see John 6)? Or will
you take the sop of treachery, and walk out into the night
and darkness, relishing in your thirty pieces of silver (and
don’t we often betray Christ for so much less? Don’t
we betray him for a few minutes of abruptly ended pleasure?
Don’t we betray him for the pat on the back from people
who’d just as soon pick your pocket? Don’t we turn on Christ
merely for television entertainment and movie enjoyment?
It doesn’t have to be this way…)? Let’s Pray…
Prayer –
Father in heaven, we praise you today. We love you,
and we want to follow you. Help us Lord: some of
us here today are playing the game. We’re trying to
please our friends all the while trying to please you.
We are living like the devil five or six days of the week,
but act like we’re following you when we come to church.
Forgive us, Lord, in Jesus’ Name. Forgive us for
acting all holy and just on certain days, or when we are
around certain people, but betraying you, stabbing you in
the back the rest of the week, and when we are around
friends we deem “cool”. We want revival, O Lord, and
we want it to start inside of us, for that’s where you tell
us that all things begin: in the heart. Cleanse
our hearts, Father, we ask, and we pray, in Jesus’ Precious
Name, Amen.
Verse to Remember:
“No man can serve two
masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the
other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the
other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
– Matthew 6.24