Voice of the Nazarene 6-7-26

From North Central Ohio, we share with you the Voice of the Mazarine.

A week-by-week venture into the Word of God sponsored by the New Stars Ohio Church of the Mazarine.

We join our pastor, Reverend Ray Listow and the Voice of the Mazarine.

I want to take your attention to the life of a man that we don't hear much about.

Fact of the matter, I did a series about a year or two ago, series about some lead men of the Bible, and totally steered around and didn't deal with him.

Maybe I'll apologize.

I don't know.

Felt like it'd be a negative during a whole positive series.

But I believe there's a profound and incredible lesson to be learned from the life of this man.

He's a man whose name goes down in infamy.

He's the man that betrayed the very son of God.

Say, what lesson could I learn from him?

Well, I promise you there's a great lesson for every child of God to be learned from the life of Judas.

Now, just for background, he's the only disciple that was a non-Galilean.

All of them had grown up around Galilee.

And he was from the hill country.

Maybe he had been a horse trader.

Some theologians think that he belonged to that little small Jewish group that were assassins.

Trying to destroy the Roman Empire.

They would carry a dagger under their garments and take the lives of the officials of the Roman Empire.

I don't know for sure his background.

I do know that he was not related to any of the other disciples.

They were all pretty well, a couple of them were brothers.

They were about all cousins.

I don't know if you know that.

Judas was an outsider, always an outsider.

But no one was more trusted and was given the treasureship than and responsibility than Judas.

What we do know is in Acts chapter 1, verse 17, it said that he was numbered among us and had obtained a part of this ministry.

Acts 1:17

He was a part of our ministry.

All of them felt that way.

Now you can't fall out of a car unless you've been in a car.

So don't go down that trail with me.

You don't fall off of a ladder unless you've been on a ladder.

There was a time in the life of Judas when they all believed in him.

He was a tremendous follower.

But at some point there came a shift in Judas.

Now he continued on in ministry as though nothing ever happened, but he lost heart.

Seemed like his focus got on power and on money, and he was so involved with money that he became a thief, according to John chapter 12, verse 6.

John 12:6

And as you study his life, he begins to mutter and murmur, and sincerity is gone, and integrity is faded, honor is slipping away, and spending money on ministry became a waste to him.

And finally he became so callous that he bartered and bargained and sold the Son of God out for the price of 30 pieces of silver and then committed suicide.

But let me tell you the lesson, and then we're going to read it.

Judas was with the disciples three and a half years.

Everywhere they went, he went.

Where they slept, he slept.

What they ate, he ate.

But at some point, he begins to go from them into another direction, begins to become separated from them.

And he had an incredible act.

Fact of the matter, the disciples, in the three and a half years, never once suspicioned nor suspected that the heart of Judas had turned.

They never saw it coming.

His act was so persuasive and so good that he he fools everybody but Jesus Christ.

Do you know what the lesson is?

If we're not careful, the act can become so powerful that we can pretend to be more than we are.

And we can pretend to be what we are not if we're not careful.

We learned the language, we we we have had contact and it became a part of our life, and we just kind of keep going, but the heart's not in it.

And suddenly the question comes: are you real?

Am I real?

Or are there parts of our life that is an act that's just a good act?

And your act may fool me and you may fool a lot of people, but nobody's act is good enough to fool God.

And the question that I want to ask you, are you and am I real?

Do you know God never called us to be actors or actresses?

And tragically, the greatest act is not on the sound stage there in New York, nor on those movie sets in Hollywood.

Sometimes the greatest acts that ever take place or in churches where people's heart becomes lost, cold, and they just continue on.

And the question is, are we real?

Is this an act in our life?

Now, let's get ready to read the story about Judas here.

And somewhere along the line, Judas ceased to be real.

Look at Mark.

Book of Mark, chapter 14, verse 17.

Mark 14:17

And in the evening, Jesus cometh with the twelve.

They they had what was commonly referred to as the last supper, the Lord's Supper.

And as they sat and did eat, Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, one of you which eateth with me shall betray me.

They began to be sorrowful.

And to say unto him, every one of them now, is it I?

And around the table another said, Is it I?

Now one of the disciples thought it was Judas.

In fact, when Jesus said that, one of you are going to betray me, every one of them said, Is it I?

Judas was so talented by this time.

And he had such a good act.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, they couldn't believe it.

Judas, why, he's been with the group three and a half years.

He's been with us forever.

He was there when the 5,000 were fed, and he passed out the loaves and the fishes with the rest of us.

When Jesus walked on water, he was there.

He was on the boat.

He witnessed that.

He was a part of us.

When Lazarus was raised from the dead, there was Judas watching the scene.

When demons were cast out, demonic forces were faced.

They saw that Judas was there at that same time.

So you're saying he's not real?

Well, he became an accomplished act.

An act can become very powerful, but it's still just an act.

Now go on into the book of John and see how John and his gospel records it.

Chapter 13, verse 21.

He elaborates on this further.

And when he when Jesus said, one of you are going to betray me, Peter, he gets John to ask, ask him, who is it?

He said, one of us, you're up close to him.

Ask him who it is.

And Jesus said, Well, the one that's going to betray me is the one that's going to dip sop with.

And as we're going to read, he dipsop with Judas.

And even after that, the disciples cannot believe it.

Now look at verse 21.

When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit and testified and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you that one of you shall betray me.

Then the disciple looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake.

They doubted it.

Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.

I thought he loved all of us, but John, he's writing this.

He doesn't use his name, but he said, the one that Jesus loved.

You know, like Mama thought I was the best of the two brothers.

And Simon Peter, therefore, beckoned to him that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake.

He then, lying on Jesus' breast, saith unto him, Lord, who is it?

And Jesus answered, He it is to whom I shall give a sop.

And when I have dipped it, and when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.

Then it asked, Who is it?

And Jesus said, I'm going to show you.

Now, verse 27, and after the sop, Satan entered into him, and then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest do quickly.

Now no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him.

For some of them thought, because Judas had the bag, in other words, he was the treasurer.

So anytime you had any business dealings, they had to turn and ask him to loosen the strings and pay the bills and meet the budget and collect money, buy those things that we have need of against the feast, or that he should give something to the poor.

Now Jesus said, I'm going to show you who it is.

And they still can't imagine or believe who it is.

The act fooled the disciples.

May I ask you a question this morning?

How many of you don't want to become an act?

Can I see your hand?

How many of us want to become real?

We want to be real.

That's the cry of my heart.

Now, tragically, the world is full of people and churches with a good act.

And they're not real.

Now I want you to write down three benchmarks that the scripture says that if you're really real, these are going to be the benchmarks that your life needs to measure up.

There's three, at least three things that has to be always happening in your life.

If you're going to not be an act and you're going to be real, here's the benchmarks.

The Bible says if we're going to be real and if I'm going to be genuine, first of all, we have to have a humble spirit.

Humble ourselves in the sight of God.

James 4.10.

No one who is real who is not humbling themselves in God's sight.

When you're no longer willing to humble yourself, you're just acting.

One of the tragedies today is that churches everywhere, their whole goal is to get God to give to them something.

Their goal is to get God to serve them, and they never preach anything about humbling themselves.

And you serve God instead of God serving you.

And the first mark of reality in any of our lives is are we humbling ourselves in God's sight?

Now the command, humble yourself, is written in the continuum.

It means do it and keep doing it.

And you give your heart and your life to Jesus Christ and salvation, but humbling yourself is an experience that keeps happening over and over.

May I just ask you, when's been the last time that you bowed and said, God, search me?

I mean, just walk in behind David, the psalmist, and he said, Search me, O God, and see if there be any wicked way in me.

That's humbling.

And you humble you in the sight of God.

And people whose life is an act have no problem seeing wrong with everybody else.

Have you ever noticed that?

They never see wrong with themselves, but they can tell you what's not right with you, and they can certainly tell you what's not right with me.

But they never allow the finger of God to point back at themselves.

And suddenly the question is, how good are we and how good are you at humbling yourself in God's sight?

God said, if you're going to be real, I want you to humble yourself and keep humble.

Now, the great evangelist Dio Moody, maybe, maybe the greatest evangelist America ever produced.

I don't know.

Did you know how he began his services?

He would always open his services before anybody got up and made announcements or anything.

He would step to the lectrum and he would say to the people, how many of you would just come to the altar and humble yourself before we start the service?

And I want you to get your eyes off of everybody else and get your eyes on you, and you humble yourself in God's presence.

That's pretty good, isn't it?

Now, those of you who are married, have you ever humbled yourself to your spouse?

Are you always right?

Write down the next service, give them plenty of time to think on that one.

Have you ever humbled yourself in front of your own family?

God, we just want our family to be to be clean.

1 John 1 9, it said if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

You say, Well, preacher, I don't know of anything I can humble myself in front of God for.

I'm so perfect, I don't even know if I need to be in church anymore.

I know a lot of folk aren't.

So they must be pretty perfect.

And if that's the way you feel, you're wrong.

Because every one of us, every day of our life, need to always be humble in the sight of God.

But when the when the act takes over, we're suddenly comfortable the way we're doing, and suddenly we're not humbling ourselves.

And if we ever get to the point that we're not good at humbling ourselves, we're in trouble.

It's a Bible command.

All through the scripture, God invited his people to come to a place of prayer.

Not just those who've found God, but those who are trying to find God, but we who've been around a while, he's still saying, You need to come and humble yourself.

You ever thought about when we come to an altar and we kneel, we we bend our knees and our backs and our necks?

But it's more than that.

Because eventually the time will come when your knees won't bend.

Hello?

And your back won't bend.

And your neck won't bend.

But it's not about our body, it's about our spirit that we're bringing in humbling.

David in the 51st Psalm, verse 17, he said, the sacrifices of God are a broken heart, a broken and a contrite spirit.

Thou wilt not despise.

And you come before God and say, Search me, put your finger on anything in my life that oughtn't to be there.

Said, preacher, I don't want to do that.

God will put his finger on something.

That's why I don't want to pray that prayer.

He will.

And that's where reality starts when we start recognizing that it's not an act that's anything, but it's our humbling ourselves that becomes everything.

First key, humbling yourself.

Here's the second.

If you want to be real, walk in the spirit.

Walk in the spirit.

Now, Galatians chapter 5, verse 16.

Galatians 5:16

Again I say then, walk in the spirit.

It's written in the continuum, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Now you're going to be doing stuff that you ought not to be doing if you're not walking in the spirit.

You got to choose every day.

I choose at times, am I going to look at Facebook or am I going to pick up a good book and read a good book and educate my mind for a little bit and put good stuff in there, or am I just going to hear what so-and-so thinks they heard somebody else talk?

Whatever.

Nothing but an echo chamber, isn't it?

Moving along.

Column 4, page 9, Paul Harvey, good day.

God said, first of all, humble yourself on my side.

And then he says, walk in the spirit.

And this is so important that God gives us some benchmarks to let us know that we're walking in the spirit.

And if you're walking in the spirit, you're going to bear the fruit of the spirit.

That's the benchmark.

And verse 22, the fruit of the spirit.

Notice it's not fruits.

Doesn't add that S to it.

But it said the fruit, if you're walking, you're going to have every one of these fruits.

Well, I'm good with two of them, no.

Well, I'm better at just about three of them.

No, you're going to have all of them.

And he says that's love and joy and peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.

Against such there's no law.

The kids are thinking, does my dad have gentleness?

What about patience?

He's pretty short on patience.

Temperance.

And he said in verse 25, if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Are these fruits in our life?

Some time ago.

In another life.

We were trying to get ready to go to a meeting.

And uh Jan came in and she said, 15 minutes.

I know, I know, I know, I'm I'm I'm I'm getting ready.

Yeah, but you're you're involved over here if you don't get off of that phone and I said, I'll I'll I'll be there.

Pretty soon she stuck her head back in and said, About seven minutes, we gotta we should have left the house three minutes ago.

I'm I'm coming.

Just give me a moment.

Don't put pressure on me.

I've got to speak it a little bit.

And soon she stuck her head in and said, It's five minutes after.

And I dropped the phone down and I hurried in.

I said, Come on, come on.

You're gonna make me late.

Now don't look at me that way.

You're a guilty-looking bunch.

I'm leading the way here.

And uh we get there and we're running late.

Of course, you walk up on the platform or on the way in.

Hi, howdy, brother.

Hi, hello, sister so-and-so.

Just and I sat down on the platform.

And the Holy Spirit spoke and said, You didn't treat her very good.

You let her have the blame.

And you know when you're living an act, you always kind of blame others.

Have you ever thought about it?

And you know what you need to do?

Do what I did.

I slipped back off the platform and slipped over and sat down next to her, and I said, I'm sorry.

I got impatient.

When you do an act, you know what happens to the fruit of the spirit?

They just evaporate.

All that goodness and gentleness and long-suffering and patience and all that.

Boy, you're all shooting daggers at me now.

When you're a Judas, when you are an act, you want God to help you anyway.

And the Holy Spirit seemed to say, You want me to use you tonight?

Yeah, I kind of had that in mind.

Well, you need to say you're sorry to somebody.

And the only way out of an act is to humble yourself and get back into walking.

In the spirit.

And you'll never walk in the spirit unless you're willing to humble.

And then while I'm on this walk thing, let me just hang on to it for a moment.

He also, the Bible also talks about walk in the light.

Remember that one?

John 1 9, 1 John 1 9.

But if we walk in the light as he's in the light, we have fellowship one with another, the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us from all sin.

And you know there's no ifs on God's part.

All the ifs are on man's part.

If you walk in the light, if you abide in me.

Fact about it in verse 6 of John 15, he said, If a man abide not in me, he's cast forth as a branch and is withered, and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they're burned.

Not the branches.

Said, if any man doesn't abide in me.

And then he talks of another place, walk circumspectly, Ephesians 5.15, not as fools, but as wise.

And the word circumspectly comes from that word circumference.

360 degrees, the whole world's looking on our lives, the kids at home, your mama, your spouse, your neighbors, the people you work with, everybody's watching, you better walk the talk, walk circumspectly.

And then in the third epistle of John, he said to walk in truth.

And he uses that word truth five times in the first four verses.

Walk in truth, thy word is truth.

So first of all, humble yourself.

Secondly, he's talking about walking in the spirit.

And friend, if you don't see any fruit in my life, can I give you the right to tell me?

Tell me.

Because we're going to pass this way one time.

And if we're going to be a spirit-filled, spirit-walking audience, we want to walk into heaven, let's hold each other accountable.

And God give me the grace to take it well.

There's no such thing as a reputable Christian who's not walking in the Spirit.

If I'm not real, then I, thirdly, I'm not to grieve the Holy Spirit, Ephesians 4.30.

And I've got to not quince.

It says, quench not the Holy Spirit.

1 Thessalonians 5.19.

Now grieving the Spirit means to hurt him or to inflict pain or to stress him.

It means to cause discomfort.

And the day you got saved, wonderful things begin to happen.

Your sins were forgiven.

Hell's no longer on your map.

Heaven is becoming your destination and direction.

And you're not going there as a visitor, you're going there as family.

But more than that, the day you got saved, the Holy Spirit took up residence residency with you.

He wants to abide with you.

And he's saying, now why are you treating him that way?

Can I just throw a thought at you?

Yes, thank you.

Why is it that we're really kind of outside people, but we marry somebody and we become more impatient with them.

And we don't mind telling them our mind, but we wouldn't dare do that out yonder.

And why would we treat the Holy Spirit that way too?

Be careful.

But can you imagine what's going to be like to say, well, Holy Spirit, I and we treat him and don't listen to him.

And you know what God says?

Stop it.

Quit not.

Don't stop the effect of the Holy Spirit.

Now we build a fire when we want heat, but when we want to put the fire out, we put dirt on it.

We we smother it.

And what are you saying here?

When the Holy Spirit begins to talk to you, don't hush his voice.

Don't smother out what he's trying to say.

And I'm simply saying, when's the last time you came to church and just said, God, talk to me?

What is it you want to show me?

I want to hear from you.

I don't want to leave the same way that I came in.

And anytime you go to church, don't leave like you came.

If you're confronted by the Word of God, your life ought to be changed.

And God says, I want you to be real.

I was somewhere here a while back, and I got there late, knocked on the door, and was invited in.

Well, they didn't want to see me particularly.

There was a football game on.

Do you know some people really like that?

At my age, I'm not even sure what a football is.

But they were really into it, and ladies came in and brought some Pepsi's or something, and about that time the cheerleaders came in on.

I don't know what they were cheerleading.

They were just wearing nearly nothing and twisting and jiving.

And the guys were more interested in the cheerleading than they were the football.

And something inside of me said, you know what, you don't need to remain here.

You need to slip out.

And what I'm saying is, if anything comes on that I wouldn't want my wife to catch me watching, why would I want the Holy Spirit to catch me doing anything that would hurt him?

For he dwelleth in you.

Judas, somewhere the light went out.

Somewhere he got started down the wrong trail.

Somehow he got off the beaten path.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they all thought they knew him.

They'd been together forever.

And Judas, you fooled everybody.

But you didn't fool God.

And the bottom line is none of us fool the Lord.

Now I want to encourage you, don't have a good act, be real.

Humble yourself at the sight of God.

Got to walk in the Spirit.

Whatever we do, don't grieve or quench the Spirit.

How many of you have children?

Did you know that children are God's little spies?

And I'm closing.

I just want to remind you.

Nobody can see an act any quicker than family.

And they can tell when it's not real.

Nothing breaks a spirit's heart anymore for us to pretend what we're not.

Let's pray.

Thanks for being a part of the Voice of the Nazarene.

Visit us every Sunday at 9 a.m.

with BNC's pastor Ray Listalle.

For more information regarding BNC, visit USIRSNazarene.org.