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by Sandy Shaw
We are in Luke Chapter 22. It is the Passover, a most holy and sacred time for every Jew, for every Israeli, and we read that Satan entered Judas Iscariot. He was one of the twelve, one of Jesus men; yet, his heart is open to evil. The enemy of our souls needs only a very narrow gap through which to squeeze, and once he gets in, havoc follows.
Unsurrendered sin takes over. Judas was the man who would never call Jesus LORD. He would call Him, Master and Teacher, but Lord, NO. You can question a man who is only a master. You can disagree with a teacher, but you never argue with the Lord. When Jesus is LORD, there has to be total surrender and obedience.
Judas was playing with fire in more ways than one. We cannot toy with sin and think we can control it. The only one thing we can do with sin is acknowledge it, and confess it, and get it washed away and forgiven, or it might powerfully spring to life.
Verse 4. Judas went to make plans as to how he could betray Jesus. He chose to be in company he should never been in. He was with the wrong crowd. It was not that he fell into wrong company. He chose wrong company, and that is the same today.
We do not fall into wrong company. We choose it. We decide.
Turn to the first Psalm and read of this basic spiritual principle. So often I have been told that so-and-so fell into bad company and that is what went wrong. No. We choose our company, and we need to teach our people that. They need to be made aware of this vital truth.
For Judas it was too late, and they were delighted. No wonder. Now they had somebody to do their dirty work for them, and it was someone on the inside.
Over these next hours Judas became a pathetic tool of hell, and soon he ends up hanging himself. He was leading a double life and it was discovered. He was found out. He appeared to be the same as the other disciples, but he wasn't, and soon it became obvious. Some things you cannot hide.
Oh what some people will do for money, but they do not keep their gains for very long. No, they cannot keep these kinds of riches for very long; just a few hours in this case; maybe a few years in some other cases.
Let this be a solemn warning to each of us. We dare not try to live a double life. We dare not try to play with fire. We will get burned. Make no mistake about that.
Unconfessed sin has a way of exploding, and it can damage us in all kinds of ways, and seldom is it superficial. It certainly was not superficial in the case of Judas.
Alexander 'Sandy' Shaw is pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship in Nairn, Scotland. Nairn is 17 miles east of Inverness - on the Moray Firth Coast - not far from the Loch Ness Monster!
Gifted as a Biblical teacher, Sandy is firmly committed to making sure that his teachings are firmly grounded in the Word.
Sandy has a weekly radio talk which can be heard via the Internet on Saturday at 11:40am, New Orleans time, at wsho.com.
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