Voice of the Nazarene 4-7-24

I'm coming to you from North Central Ohio, we share with you the voice of the Nazarene. A WEEK BY WEEK venture into the Word of God sponsored by the Bucyrus, Ohio Church of the Nazarene. We join our Pastor Reverend Ray Lasalle and the voice of the Nazarene.

I want to deal with Judas. I pick it up in John chapter six, verse 70, Jesus answered them and said, Have I not chosen you twelve? And one of you is a devil. He spoke of Judas

for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve.

Did it ever occur to you that nothing ever occurred to God?

He's never caught off guard. I'm not talking predestination I'm talking about for knowledge.

Judas was from a region called Iscariot it was up in the hill country. It was up where they did a lot of horse trading and there was dens of thieves. And they were a scheming crowd. He's the only one that was not from the region of Galilee. I have often wondered if he felt like an outsider. For in a sense he was. Let me tell you a story.

There's a little mother that had a beautiful baby. She loved that baby, brought that little baby into the world carried it under her heart for nine months and would carry him in her heart forever. She gave him a beautiful name. She called him Judas. The name Judas means praise, wonderful name. But Judas ruined that name. I pastored here for 31 years now.

I've dedicated a lot of babies yet I've never dedicated one by the name of Judas. It seems as though mothers don't pull that name out very often and label their kid with it. Because Judas Iscariot ruin the name. He became known as Judas, the betrayer. He literally ruined the name, I read something or heard something the other day that that it's best if you had a great, great boss. The next best thing is if you have a terrible, terrible boss, because either way, you're gonna learn a whole lot. And what I want to talk to you about today is the life of Judas. I think that we can learn a whole lot from Judas, we may be able to learn more from Judas than we would after having studied the other 11 apostles.

Some principles from the life of Judas. The first principle, principle number one, Jesus chose Judas but Judas never became serious about choosing Jesus. The scripture says that Judas was one of the 12 that tells me something. It tells me that he had great association. I mean, he hung out with Jesus and the 12. Can't get much better than that, can it? He had tremendous association. Which church do you attend Judas? I go to Jesus Church. Well, who's your pastor? It's Jesus. Who's the deacon board? Peter, James and John. I mean, get real, how much better could it get? So his association was great, he had a great reputation in the early days, somebody said, You can always tell the hypocrites.

Well, I don't believe that. God said, Let the wheat and the tares come up together. You don't need to try to separate and that's God's job. God will judge one day he'll separate the wheat from the tares. Nobody died and left you as judge God did not call you to be the prosecuting attorney. God knows the difference between his sheep and the goats. It's his business. I held revival in Hallsville, Missouri a number of years ago for a pastor by the name of Payne. It was p-a-y-n-e not the other pain. And he was an old farm boy and he loved animals and he had gotten him some goats. And he was staying in the parsonage. He would leave the back door open and those goats would come right on into the parsonage. There was a farmer that attended that church by the name of Charlie Dirk. And he told me he said I got upset at the pastor said, it really begin to eat on me. And he said, I realized I needed to make an apology. He said, I went to him and said, Brother Payne, I want you to forgive me. I've been holding a grudge against you because of you letting those goats get in the parsonage. He said, it seemed like to me you spend more time with the goats than you do your sheep. Brother Payne looked at him and said, Well, my problem is I can't seem to tell the sheep from the goats sometimes. And it made poor old Dirk mad again. But God separates the goats from the sheep and the wheat from the tares. And he'll handle the hypocrites. Do you ever think about this when Jesus and incidentally talking about a good reputation, he had a good one because they chose him to be the treasurer of their group. He carried the money, they trusted him with their money. And did you ever stop to think that when Jesus said one of you are going to betray me, they didn't say it's Judas. Read it again. They said Master and they were sorrowful, they said is that I, could it be me. That's what they said. Nobody suspected Judas.

Let me tell you something. He had a great reputation. He also had a great participation. The Bible says in Matthew 10:1 that he was given gifts, like all the others. And when he had called unto him his 12 disciples, He gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. He had great involvement, great participation. And here's what I have come to understand. Jesus chose Judas. Judas wasn't very serious about choosing Jesus.

Matthew 10:1

But what I want you to see, God chooses everybody. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God chooses everybody. But people have a responsibility whether or not they want to choose God. read that verse again. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Now wait, that who so ever, don't you get caught up in a hyper calvinistic teaching that teaches that some people are predestined to go to heaven while others are predestined to go to hell. No, God has given us a free will. Jesus died for all people and you have a choice.

Judas is like a lot of other people. God has chosen them, but they're not getting very serious about choosing God and serving God. Here's the second thing I learned about from Judas. Judas was a hypocrite. But that didn't effect, the other 11 disciples.

Bible says John 6:7, and he was a devil from the beginning. It didn't keep the other 11 from serving the Lord. You know, every once in a while a star falls from the sky. We call it a falling star. And it attracts a lot of attention creates a lot of excitement. But hearing closely closely, when one star falls from the sky, there are billions on top of billions in the galaxies that never move they remain right where God put them.

John 6:7

Judas was a hypocrite. The Peter wasn't a hypocrite. Judas was a hypocrite. But Andrew wasn't a hypocrite. Judas was a hypocrite but Nathaneal wasn't a hypocrite?

Judas was hypocrite but James wasn't a hypocrite. Somebody said all the preachers are messing up and all the preachers are going bad. You don't know what you're talking about. There are preachers 1000s of preachers that are getting up every Sunday morning and standing behind the sacred desk and preaching the word of God. There are preachers in small churches that get up every Sunday, underpaid, overworked, unappreciated, and they open the Bible and share the unsearchable riches of Christ Jesus. I know there may be a bad apple among law enforcement But there are 1000s of law enforcement officers that put their lives on the line every day, who are underpaid?

Somebody says I'd go to church if it wasn't for the hypocrites, well, you need to get real you go to Walmart. They don't even get dressed when they go. They just walk right out of bed and straight to Walmart and you ought to say it's full of hypocrites, I'm not going there anymore. And if the hypocrite is between you and God that hypocrites a whole lot closer to God than you are then. Pastor, I'd go to your church, if it wasn't for the hypocrites, come on down. What would one more hurt? So, here's the third thing I learned about this man, Judas.

Judas was not interested in lordship. I think I can prove that from Scripture. Matthew 26:21, as they did eat Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you are going to betray me. Notice, they were exceedingly sorrowful, and begin every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I? Now notice the terminology here, They said, Lord, is it me? Is it I? Are you talking about me? And then finally, it comes down to Judas and look at what Judas said.

Matthew 26:21

Then Judas, which betrayed him answered and said, Master, is it i? And of course, Jesus said thou hast said. He never said, Lord is that I, he said, teacher, or rabbi. Not one time and divine writ, do you ever find where Judas called Jesus Lord, he was on the same level with the Pharisees, he would call him a good teacher, or a rabbi. But he didn't quite want to surrender and call him, Lord.

And the secret to victorious life and living has to do with the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Now, I've been doing this all these years. And you know what I find that people really want, they want fire insurance. They want enough Jesus, to keep them out of hell, but not to get the hell out of them. And we need more than fire insurance. We need the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and we need to surrender to His Lordship. You say, Well, I'm addicted to pornography, and I can't do much about it. Yes, you can. You say, Well, I'm, I'm addicted to meth. I've got meth addiction. Drugs have got me and I can't get, you can get victory. You say, Well, there's some sin in my life. And I can't control my anger. Hey, my dad helped me with that. I lost my temper whilst he helped me to find it. I didn't want it after he helped me to find it. It was painful looking for it. You say, Well, preacher, how can I control what's pulling me down?

I don't care what's pulling you down. All you got to do is surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and then greater is He that's in you. He'll help you overcome. We live in a day of sloppy grace. Just live like you want and everybody tells you, you'll go to heaven. Just can't live well, while you're here on Earth. But I ran across this verse. I've looked at it before, but I never quite saw till this week what it said, it's

11. It said that we can overcome, we can be overcomers, we can overcome. We can overcome meth addiction, pornography, temper control, and gossiping. And we can be overcomers. And how do we do that? Well, it list three ways that we can be overcomers, one by the blood of the Lamb, and I never saw this. What is that?

That's cleansing. What can wash away my sin, Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again, Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Were made clean by the blood of Jesus. That cleanses us from all sin, an all unrighteousness. Cleansing, some of us need to remain clean.

There's a cleansing. We talk about a lot of things but God wants to clean your life up, clean our thoughts up and clean our mouth out and clean our heart up. There's a cleansing and we're only going to be able to overcome if we have that cleansing. And I move, secondly, to this truth. We're overcoming by the blood of the lamb and secondly, by the word of their testimony. There's something about confession. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so we need to start confessing how good God is and quit bragging on the devil, and talking about all of our weaknesses and having our dumping of catharsis on everybody. I'm just barely making it, I'm struggling. No, you ought to live victoriously, because you can be an overcomer, through cleansing and through confession. And he listed a third thing, He goes on and they love not their lives unto death, commitment. Commitment. I'm talking about Lordship, I'm talking about giving everything to God, not straddling the fence, but total surrender, when we totally surrender, we can have victory in your life. And you can have victory over that something that's continually pulling you down. And you know what I'm talking about right now. Right, where you're seated, you know, the thing that's robbing you and draining you and spiritually is a negative in your life. Whether it's a caustic eye or a bad attitude or a jealousy or whatever it might be, you can be an overcomer. And a fourth thing I learned about Judas, Judas thought worship was a waste. He didn't like it when others got to worshiping it, he'd find fault with it. If you remember that little lady in the Gospel of John, she came with some expensive perfume, probably from some plant in India. And she poured it out on the feet of her Christ. And then took her hair and begin to dry his feet.

And Judas spoke up and he said, you know, that could have been sold, and the money given to the poor. I've been around the church long enough people want to criticize why they put these buildings up, they ought to give it to the poor, we ought to feed the poor. Well, Jesus responded, and he said, let her alone against the day of my baron has she kept this for the poor, y there's always some poor.

There's always a hand reaching out, always an open mouth wanting to be fed, and I'm not knocking anybody. But he said, but you will not always have me.

That's John chapter 12, verse seven, he didn't care about the poor. He was stealing from the treasury. He had his hand in the money bag. He didn't think that worship was important. Worship is important before COVID 17% of Christians were in church on Sunday. Maybe we identify with Judas. Maybe we don't think that worship is quite as important as we should. Worship is important.

John 12 · chapter mention

God's house is important and coming to it. And gathering together is important. And I believe that praise is important and hearing and studying the Word of God is important to your life. Bible said Psalm 134 Verse two, lift your hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord.

Let me just say something right here. Praising God and putting your hands in the air is not a Pentecostal thing it is not a charismatic thing, it's a Bible thing. It's a Christian thing.

It's a thing to do. We're just simply honoring him. We're just throwing up our hands, I surrender and you're on the throne, and I'm giving you the praise. And he says in Psalm 95, verse one, oh, come let us sing unto the Lord. You say, Well, I don't have a holy holler. I'll try to get a religious racket going then, just sing he deserves it and more. And then in Psalm 100, verse four, it says, Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name. Then Psalm 150, verse four, praise him with a timbul Praise him with the stringed instruments, all these instruments over here.

Praising with those things, it's the right thing to do. I know some religious organizations and denominations don't even believe in a musical instrument in the church. The Bible does. And we can worship Him with with those things. And then he goes on and then and of course Judas thought worship was a waste but he said all clap your hands, all you people shout unto God with a voice of triumph. But I need to hurry along, so I can get you out for dinner. Here's the fifth thing. The thing you take in place of Jesus you will eventually lose. Judas betrayed Jesus sold him out for 30 pieces of silver. Read it, it's right there in the scripture right there in Matthew 26, throw it up on the screen if you want. Bible said eventually he took those 30 pieces of silver and came back and threw them down at the chief priests feet in Matthew 27. The thing that he took in place of Jesus was a thing that he eventually lost. What I'm trying to say to you what ever you replace Jesus with whoever you replace Jesus with, you'll eventually lose. And here's the sixth thing whatever happens don't let go of Jesus. I say that from my heart as your pastor. Whatever you do, don't let go of Jesus. When they came to arrest Jesus, I want you to see this, but I want to digress just for a moment. Is that okay?

It's okay pastor, thank you.

People ask me sometimes how should I dress? I get that question so much. I didn't know I'd be in the dress business.

But how should I dress pastor well about all the Bible says just modestly. Modestly. Have you figured that one out yet?

Used to take sheep a whole year to grow enough wool to make a woman a skirt, now silk worm could get the job done in an afternoon stroll.

If all you got on is just enough to make a swimsuit for a squirrel, chances are it's not enough. All it says is modestly.

But we're not to draw attention to ourself. Pretty simple, innit? And now I've seen these pastors that lifted a lot of barbells. They like to flex their muscles. Maybe if I had some I'd understand it better.

Don't say Amen, you haven't all service. But here's what I know.

Judas said, I'll kiss him and by that it'll be a sign of who he is. In other words, he didn't stand out in the crowd, he had to be identified. He didn't have any gold rings. He didn't have any golden chains. He didn't have any Rolex watches. He looked like everybody else they to identify him. Now I want you to catch this, please don't miss this. Judas said this, and I want you to get it. Whomsoever I should kiss that same is he, hold fast to him. That's what I want to say to you. Whatever you do, hold fast to him. Don't let go of Jesus. I don't know what's going on in your life. Maybe you've come up short and haven't been keeping the promises you made to God years ago. You say, Well, Pastor I've shamed my family and I've shamed myself and I shamed the church. I digress from the Christian faith so many times I've missed it a fail. I have to a few times, haven't you?

Hello, wake up. Time for coffee.

Haven't you come up short a few times? And I'm just simply saying, no matter how many times you mess up, whatever you do, don't let go of Jesus. And here's the seventh thing. Judas didn't end well. The Bible said that he went out and hanged himself and I've studied this.

Judas betrayed the Lord, Simon Peter denied The Lord. You can read about both of them in chapter 22. One betrayed the Lord the other denied the Lord.

The only difference is one came back and said I'm sorry and the other didn't. One repented the other really didn't. And I want to challenge us be like, Simon Peter not like Judas. And I want you to know that Judas ended up in the wrong place. The Bible says in Acts one, verse 25, he went to his own place. And if I could, I'd like to throw a phrase like a log across your path if you're going in the wrong direction. I hope this little phrase will keep you out of hell. It reads Judas by transgression fell, Acts 1:25.

Acts 1:25

Didn't say he made a mistake.

Calvin tries to throw every mistake in along with sin, but a mistake is not a transgression.

They put erasers on pencils for mistakes. A transgression is willfully breaking the known will and Law of God. That's a transgression, knowing what you're doing. To him that knoweth to do. You break the known Will of God, you're transgressing. It didn't matter that he ran with the right crowd, it didn't matter that he had rubbed shoulders with the very best. It didn't even matter that he had preachers credentials. It doesn't matter that he had a part of the apostleship. What did matter is that he transgressed. The Bible said that he fell, you can't fall unless you've had a standing. At some point he became a follower. And at some point later, he quit following.

I don't know what turned him off. I'm not gonna write a book about it. I don't know if he got his eye on the money. I don't know if because he came from Iscariot, and he was not a Galilean and was never pulled in. I don't know if it bothered him that Peter, James and John were always included in the inner circle he never got in. I don't know. I don't know if he got hurt. I didn't know what drove him away. I don't know what caused him to make the conclusion. But at some point, he lost heart. And he lost interest. And he quit following the bible said by transgression, he fell. He fell while he was kissing the cheek of Jesus. He failed standing right next to the very divine Son of God. He fell while hearing the great sermon from the greatest preacher than ever lived. The Bible said he fell. I'm not gonna rewrite the Bible. I'm just telling you what it says,

25, He fell. You say well pastor, It's impossible. But you need to talk to some angels.

Jude talks about it in the sixth verse of his little book. He said, he talked about these angels that kept not their first estate. But he said, left their habitation are reserved under the chains of darkness to that great day. They were in heaven and failed. And we as man are made a little lower than angels.

And here's a higher order than we are in a holy heaven and fell, read about it sometime.

Knock that around in your theological thinking it take that to the university and ask them what they think about it next time. Don't tell me you can't fall by transgression.

Judas fell, and he went to the wrong place. He went to hell.

We're living in a time when there's no one hears any conversation or discussion about hell. But we're reading today in the Bible it said he went to his own place, went to hell. I'll give you a story. And I'm done.

My first wife and I were called to Brazil, Indiana to pastor.

Brazil, Indiana was the place of my birth. Fact of the matter across the street from the church, there was the hospital, Clay County Hospital where I was born. My biological dad lived in that town. I was not raised by him. I'm not sure. And I know I'm on live stream right now.

But I'm not sure it was a good fit for a boy to be raised in the environment that home or house, whatever you call it. He didn't raise me. I'd probably not be in a pulpit if I had grown up in that house. While pastoring there we kind of connected a little the last time I saw him. Jan and I my first wife went over to the house. He was dying. And Jan leaned over and said to him, she said, Would you like to pray? He looked up at her and he said, Why would I want to do that? She said because you need to give your heart to Jesus Christ, if you want to go to heaven. She said you don't want to go to hell do you? And he looked up and he said I'll let you know in a day or two. He died the next morning. I don't know if they've criss crossed paths. But I believe Judas is there racking his hands over 30 pieces of silver. I wish I hadn't have sold my master. I wish I had hadn't betrayed the kingdom. I think about so many that I've known through the years and I've been an evangelist, 23 years and a pastor now for 31, 32, 33, 30, 34 years.

Well, I have to count anymore, been here so long, I don't remember doing anything else.

And all these years, I run into people that used to go to church but somehow got turned away and turned off and lost interest.

They're no longer following.

They came to the point when they made a choice. God chose them but they're no longer seriously thinking about choosing him. I don't know where you're at the morning. Can you imagine being one of the 12? Can you imagine setting at a campfire and looking into the eyes of deity, the very Son of God. Your whole future salvation hangs on that one that you're looking at and you're turning away from him.

Judas had a choice. We're free moral agents. God never takes away from us the ability to choose. Never. You'll always have that one thing about you.

You can make a choice. You can choose to serve or not to serve, to follow or not to follow,to live for or live without.

Thanks for being a part of the voice of the Nazarene. Visit us every Sunday at 9am with BNC's Pastor Ray LaSalle. For more information regarding BNC, visit Bucyrus nazarene.org.