[0:00] titled The Concealed Couple, talking about Adam and Eve, how they went and hid. They heard the voice of the Lord walking in the cool of the day. They took off and hid, running from God, running from His voice, from His presence.
[0:15] And I made a point and declared a point there that we can learn from, is that when sinners like Adam and Eve or like you and I, when we sin, we're the ones that run from God.
[0:27] We're the ones that go and hide and don't want to be seen, or when the voice of the Lord comes forth calling for us, we're the ones that want to get away. The separation between you and God is caused by you, by the sinner.
[0:40] And so that's something that we saw in Genesis chapter 3, that it's the sinner that leaves the Lord. And since Genesis chapter 3, Adam and Eve are not the only couple or the only people that have fled from God's presence and sought to get away from the Lord.
[0:58] Matter of fact, Jonah rose up to flee from the presence of the Lord. And there's others. We turned to Proverbs chapter 2 that Sunday morning and saw that there's one called an evil man that leaves the paths of uprightness.
[1:13] He's the one that left. He walked away from what was right before God. And in that same chapter, Proverbs chapter 2, there was a strange woman that forsakes the guide of her youth. And it says she forgetteth the covenant of her God.
[1:26] And again, she's the one that forsook him and took off. And then we also turn to Luke 15. I think we turned to it, at least we mentioned the prodigal son. That was a very easy one to remember, that he's the guy that said, Father, you give me the portions.
[1:41] And he took off and he went on his journey to a far country. And he left the father and went and lived a righteous kind of life and spent all of his substance and messed up, got himself into a bad spot, comes back.
[1:55] And there the father still is where he left him. And so the point was, it's the sinner. Now, I want to take a look at somebody in the Bible that walked away from the Lord at a very critical time.
[2:05] And I want to point out some results of his decision to leave Jesus Christ. And not only did this man leave the Lord Jesus Christ, but he also left the disciples of Jesus Christ, that is the followers.
[2:18] We could liken that to the church, to the Christians, to the brothers and sisters. He walks away from it. And we're going to see some results of this here. And so you're in John chapter 13. And at this moment here, Judas Iscariot, our guy, he's already met with the chief priests.
[2:35] He's already, and the elders, he's gone behind the back of Jesus Christ. And he's met with them and covenanted with them that for such and such, for 30 pieces of silver, I'll deliver him unto you.
[2:47] And so they've already got the pact. It's already settled. And so then he's seeking an opportunity to betray him. This is the night, the last night before the crucifixion the next morning.
[3:00] And Judas is there. In verse number one, there's this, or verse number two, I should say, that the supper being ended. So they finished eating together, Jesus Christ and his disciples.
[3:12] And after supper, you see throughout this passage, the Lord washes the feet of the disciples. And when that's finished, then there's another little part here that he references, somebody's about to betray me.
[3:25] And the disciples get, they just get upset. They're broken over this. They hear this, this is bad news. It's grieving their hearts. And they begin asking, who is it?
[3:36] And so Peter tells John, and this is kind of getting up into, this is verse 24 by here. Peter beckons to him that he wants them to ask it, ask him, Lord, who is it?
[3:47] John asks the question and Jesus gives them an indicator of who it would be. And they figure out, oh, it's Judas Iscariot. And as you see that, that's the end of verse 26. So now we'll pick it up.
[4:00] And read just from there down. In verse 27, the Bible says, And after the sop, Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.
[4:13] 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, that Jesus had said unto him, Buy those things that we have need of against the feast, or that he should give something to the poor.
[4:25] He then, having received the sop, notice this phrase, He went immediately out, and it was night. So we're done in John 13. Go back to Luke 22.
[4:36] Judas went out. He's gone. He left. Who made the choice? Judas made the choice. What did he do? He went out. He went out from Jesus Christ's presence.
[4:47] He went out from the presence of the disciples. The meeting, the point of what he was doing with the supper, the foot washing, and then what followed, it wasn't over yet.
[4:58] As a matter of fact, if we carried it on further in John, Christ is about ready to speak chapter after chapter, a discourse to those men, only to those men in that room.
[5:10] That is priceless stuff. But Judas takes off. And probably next week, Lord willing, we'll cover some of those thoughts about what he missed out on. But tonight, we want to see what his decision got him.
[5:23] And so go to Luke 22, and pick it up here at about verse number four. It says, And he went his way. That's him after he left those. This is where he's at at night. At nighttime, he went his way and communed with the chief priests and captains how he might betray him unto them.
[5:40] And they were glad, and covenanted to give him money, and he promised, and sought opportunity to betray him unto them in the absence of the moment. Nope, I went to the wrong passage there. That already took place.
[5:51] Maybe I got my scriptures mixed up. Go to Matthew. Let's do that one. I probably put him in the wrong order. Matthew 27. I'm allowed to do that once in a while. Thank you.
[6:02] Thank you. It would be Matthew 26 that shows that he comes back and has the soldiers with him with the swords, and they arrest him.
[6:23] Now Matthew 27. And look at verse number three. Later on that night after Christ is dead, then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned, and that I have betrayed the innocent blood.
[6:45] And they said, What is that to us? See thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It's not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it's the price of blood.
[7:01] And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field to bury strangers in. And wherefore that field was called, the field of blood unto this day. Let's pray. Father, I ask now that you'll help us as we look at this passage, consider this character, this man, this choice that he made.
[7:18] I pray that you'll help us to make application, real application, in our own hearts, in our own decisions, in our own thoughts. And may we never be guilty of walking away, from the Lord Jesus Christ, and from what he's done, and from his people, and from his work, and from his will.
[7:35] And God, just give us discernment. May your spirit speak to each heart tonight. In Jesus name we ask it. Amen. Amen. So we're going to try to stay here in Matthew, for the time being.
[7:46] And I want to point out four things, that I'm noticing, and picking up that Judas, some results, of him taking off. Now, those, those, we did catch a little glimpse there.
[8:00] Those men, those priests, those elders, those Pharisees, when Judas showed up, they were glad. They were glad to see this guy. And of course, you know why, because he was, he was going to betray the Lord to him.
[8:14] He was, they had him on the hook. And so Judas comes in, they're saying, Judas, Judas. Judas, come on in buddy. Can we get you anything?
[8:26] How's your mom and dad, Judas? How are, how are things at home? We care about you, Judas. This is what, this is what we're feigning ourselves to be, is your friend.
[8:38] You're making the right decision here, Judas. You know that. This is good. This is good, not just for you. It's good for the people. It's good for Jerusalem, the Passover here. I mean, this, this has to be, you're doing a good Judas.
[8:48] You know what, Judas? You're a good man, Judas. I've always thought that about you. And they butter him up. They're glad when he comes. They're happy to see him. But then when he comes back, a few hours later, the next day, Matthew 27, he comes back, and in verse four, he says to these very men, I have sinned, that I have betrayed the innocent blood.
[9:11] And they said, what is that to us? You see it out of that. Get lost, buddy. It's your problem. You go deal with that. They had nothing for him. They weren't glad to see him the second time.
[9:23] And what I want you to see here is what started as, oh, Judas, we're so happy to see you, turned out to be, what is that to us? See thou to that. We don't care that you're condemned. We don't care that you're sorry for what you did.
[9:34] We don't care that you feel guilty for your friend's blood. We don't really give a rip about you at all, Judas. And what did Judas get? What's the result of him walking away from Jesus Christ?
[9:46] Number one is that he encountered company that didn't care for him. Men that said, it's not our problem. You go deal with it. Judas is, he messed up.
[9:57] He's repenting. He repented himself. He threw the money down. I don't want this money. They didn't give a flip. Get out of here, Judas. It's not their problem anymore.
[10:10] Their own Jewish brothers in distress. And do they care? They conversed with him. They invited him in. They covenanted with him.
[10:21] They used him. They ditched him. And they left him to go out and hang himself. And they never batted an eye. That's the company that he encountered.
[10:34] When he walked away from Jesus Christ. He encountered a company that didn't care for him at all. They don't care. They don't care that he's hanging on a rope dead.
[10:49] What is that to us? When you walk away from Jesus Christ, you'll find the same thing. You'll walk away from his followers. You're going to encounter a company that claims to like you.
[11:00] Claims to want you to be with them. They'll say, Yeah, come on in. Yeah, be with us. Yeah, do this with us. Oh, you're great. You're funny. We like you. And then when it comes down to it, when push comes to shove, they don't give a rip about you.
[11:14] When it comes down to it, what is that to us? When it comes down to it, it's been more than one occasion where I thought you were my friend, but when the police got involved, you threw me under the bus, and you were gone.
[11:27] That's who they really are. That's the world for you. They don't care for you. That's backslidden Christians for you too. They left Jesus Christ. They don't care if you leave Jesus Christ either.
[11:40] And they don't care for you. But the best people in the world, the best people that I've ever met in my life are God-fearing, Bible-believing, born-again Christians.
[11:54] The people that love the Lord Jesus Christ. I've never met anybody better. Yeah, they've got their problems. Yeah, they're hypocrites. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I still think they're better. Better than the world.
[12:06] Better than... I've been blessed by the Lord Jesus Christ to have a family that knows God, that's saved, that's serving Him. That's not everybody's story. But if my family, my flesh and blood walks away from God and the Bible, I'm not going with them.
[12:22] I'll stick with God's people. Some of you found out that the people of God are more and better family to you than your own flesh and blood. And that's a blessing. What Judas encountered when he left the Lord was a company that didn't care for him at all.
[12:37] Why, these people will care for you. God's people will care for you. They'll pray for you. They'll give their money to help you. They'll try to get you out of a bind.
[12:47] They'll take you in. They'll minister to your need. I got stories in my life where it's God's people. It was God using His people to get me out of a mess or to take care of needs that I had in my life.
[12:59] It was the Lord supplying my needs through His people. I don't want to walk away from God and His people because I know out there they won't care for me. They won't care for me.
[13:12] Don't ever walk away from Jesus Christ. You'll get connected to a crowd that will not care for you. They won't care for you like Jesus. You know what some of these songs are in this book? You know why we sing them?
[13:23] Because they're real. We sing, What a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear. They won't bear our griefs. They say, What is that to us? I've got my own problems.
[13:37] But the Lord Jesus Christ and the children of God, they'll help you. We sing this, There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus.
[13:47] No, not one. Not one. Not in this world. Another one we sing is, No one ever cared for me like Jesus.
[13:58] Why would you walk away from somebody who cares for your soul more than anybody else on the planet, in the universe? Why would you walk away from him to people that don't care for you?
[14:12] Because they don't. They might do it with their mouth and they might be glad to see you in a moment, but they don't. Judas encountered company that didn't care for him.
[14:23] There's something else I want you to see. In verse 3, we saw that he showed up, he saw that he was condemned, he repented himself and brought again the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders.
[14:35] And in verse 5, he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed. So he covenants with them for this, he receives it of them, and he has it for a few hours, and then he comes back and tosses it on the ground, and before it's all said and done, he's dead.
[14:54] What did Judas receive? What was the result of him walking away from Christ that night and from Christ's disciples? Number two, he exacted money that he couldn't take with him.
[15:07] The very same day, or I should say, the day after he received the silver, he was dead. Was it worth it?
[15:20] Because that's why he did it. It wasn't for the fame. It was for the money. And he didn't take it with him, did he? First, he encountered a company that didn't care for him.
[15:34] The second thing is, he exacted money that he couldn't take with him. What good did it do to him to hold it for about, oh, 12 hours at the most?
[15:46] What good did 30 pieces of silver do in his hands for 12 hours? He had such a drive to get it. It was just calling him, it was consuming his mind away from Jesus Christ.
[16:03] Money. There's money to be made. And he walked away from Jesus Christ. He walked away from God's people. But that money in his hands wasn't so satisfying.
[16:16] And that money didn't feel as good as he thought it would. You're close here. Look over at Mark chapter 4. Look at Mark chapter 4. It's a parable of the sower and the seed.
[16:30] That money was calling him and consuming him, and yet in his hand, it did not satisfy him. He threw it away. And I want you to see a phrase.
[16:42] I could say it, but I'd rather turn you and let your eyes see it from the Bible and get it in your head and in your heart, Lord willing. In Mark chapter 4, and in verse 18, he's describing what the thorns are that come up and choke the seed.
[16:59] And he says, And these are they which are sown among thorns, such as hear the word and the cares of this world. And notice this, the deceitfulness of riches and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word and it becometh unfruitful.
[17:13] What about riches? Does our Lord warn us about the deceitfulness of riches? I don't think Judas gave heed to the warning of Jesus Christ when it came to money.
[17:25] What about you? What about you when it comes to money? Ooh, because that'll step on some people's toes.
[17:35] Money now. I mean, you can talk about some stuff, but gotta have it. Gotta work. Gotta pay the bills. Gotta have money.
[17:49] And yet, there's this thing called, that Christ warns us about the deceitfulness of riches. And Judas was deceived, thinking it was gonna be what he wanted, what he needed.
[18:00] And he found out it didn't satisfy him. It didn't work. He wanted to get rid of it. And yet, believers today will leave Jesus Christ for what the Bible calls filthy lucre.
[18:12] They will leave the church. They'll leave God's people in the dust for something they can't take with them. They'll work on the church day. They'll skip church on Sunday and skip church on midweek.
[18:25] And they'll be away from God and away from people while Jesus Christ and his people are meeting in a room. Some people will walk away from that to get their hands on some money.
[18:37] I gotta have it. It's an opportunity and I can't pass it up. Instead of almighty God, it's the almighty dollar that's telling me what to do. And Christians obey.
[18:51] And they leave the Lord and they leave his people because they're getting money. Now, not only can you not take it with you, but I noticed a couple other things about this money that he gets.
[19:03] Look at verse number 6 in Matthew 27. Verse 6 says, The chief priest took the silver pieces and said, It's not lawful for to put them into the treasury because it's the price of blood.
[19:16] So he threw it on the floor of the temple. He cast it down and he takes off. And they gathered it up and they said, Well, it's not lawful like these hypocrites are to worry about the law all of a sudden.
[19:31] But it's not lawful for them to put into the treasury this money because it's the price of blood. So they acknowledged what this was there. But what I want to point out here is that the price of betrayal turned out to be the price of blood.
[19:50] And that's not what Judas was expecting as a man. He doesn't know the crucifixion's coming that night. None of them knew this was coming that night. Even Christ talked about it.
[20:01] He didn't know he was playing this part as a man. Probably just arresting him is all they'll do. But you know what? Everything that's ever happened to this man, Jesus, he's gotten out of.
[20:14] To date, all I've seen him do is get out of it. They come up to him, they're about ready to throw him down off of this hill, and he just walks right through the midst of him. So what could go wrong?
[20:26] What could go wrong if I get 30 pieces of silver out of him and I tell him where he is? I've never seen anybody be able to lay a hand on him and do anything to harm him.
[20:38] It's a business opportunity, and Judas is going to take advantage of it. It's just the price of betrayal, but it turns out to be the price of blood. What could go wrong?
[20:48] Well, Judas, it went wrong, and now you see that Jesus Christ is murdered, and the blood of Israel's deliverer, the Son of God, is on the hands of Judas Iscariot, and he's got 30 pieces of silver in those hands.
[21:04] He's condemned, he's guilty, and he can't fix it, and he wants to get it off of his hands. It's the price of blood now, and he doesn't want to die with the price of blood on his hands.
[21:15] Look at 1 Timothy chapter 6. It's far worse than Judas imagined it was going to be when he got involved going after money.
[21:27] 1 Timothy chapter 6. Here comes a warning that everybody needs to hear because every single one of us have our hands on money in our lives, and we're going to be working for it.
[21:39] We're going to be needing it to survive and to raise kids and have families and pay bills and buy cars and pay off loans and on and on and on.
[21:52] 1 Timothy chapter 6. Notice we'll start in verse number 6 and go to verse 10 where Paul says, but godliness with contentment is great gain.
[22:02] Now the word gain has this, this gain is meaning money. It means material wealth, like, but he's saying great gain is actually something different than that. It's godliness with contentment.
[22:14] That's great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, Judas, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment, let us be there with content.
[22:26] But, but they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.
[22:41] For the love of money, Judas, is the root of all evil which while some have coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
[22:56] But I was just trying to make a buck. Well, Judas, God has a way of bringing about the sorrows. It's built into the sin.
[23:07] You walk away from Christ. You walk away going after money trying to justify a reason, whatever your case. You find a reason. You go make an excuse. You chase after money and you find out the sorrows come with it.
[23:23] The price of betrayal turned out to be the price of blood. And for you, it's just, I need to make a few extra bucks. I need to have this opportunity. I can't pass it up.
[23:33] I'll leave Christ, I'll leave God's people for this weekend so I can go get a few extra bucks and you find out, well, you know, I didn't really anticipate that I'm erring from the faith or that certain sorrows are coming along with this or foolish and hurtful lusts are coming along with this when I should have been in church or I should have been with Christ.
[23:53] You get worse than what you thought you were going to get. And there's something else about the money. In Matthew 27, verse 7, they took counsel and bought with them the potter's field to bury strangers in.
[24:04] The money, which was originally given to God into the treasury, the widows, the sowers that sowed their seed, the farmers, the husbandmen, the common man of Israel gave their tithes and offering to the temple and the priest received it and put it into the treasury and then they counted out 30 pieces of silver and handed it over to Judas and said, go Judas, go lead us to him.
[24:36] And the money, which was originally coming from the treasury, turns out it wasn't ever used for God at all because now they said, no, we can't use it.
[24:47] We can't put it back in the treasury so they take counsel, they buy a field to bury strangers. You know what strangers are? Who they are?
[24:57] They're not Jews. They're Gentiles. They're people that don't belong. They're outcasts. And at times they've got to bury some of them around. Well, they can't do it around Jews.
[25:10] They can't do it in the holy city. So they buy the potter's field over there somewhere. And that's what we'll do with that plot of ground. We'll bury the strangers in, the dogs, keep them without.
[25:22] This money, what I'm pointing out, is not being used for God at all. It once was, when it came out, what Judas chased after never got used for the Lord.
[25:33] And this is what I want to point out is, because Christians are hypocrites, and when they get a, they'll find a reason, oh, preacher, I'll tithe on it. It's just too good of an opportunity.
[25:43] I'll be out of church for three months, but I'll tithe on it and support the work of God. Yeah, sure you will. No, you won't. And by the way, the Lord doesn't want your tithe as much as you want your heart.
[25:54] That's what he wants. And when you depart from the Lord to make money, you won't take it with you. You'll bring on worse things than expected, and it won't be used for his glory.
[26:08] That money you get your hands on will end up being used towards some meaningless, fruitless endeavor, and it won't bring glory to God. It'll be used for some new toy. It'll be used for a trip.
[26:19] It'll be used for a car. It'll be used to spoil yourself because you've worked hard now. You're working all these extra hours. Now you deserve some rest time, and it'll go toward that, or indulge yourself in some carnal experience or pleasure, but God won't get it.
[26:35] Amen. God won't get it. It might go toward some expense that it didn't have to go toward. You might end up getting, seeing those blue and red lights behind you one time and think, well, now I gotta pay that off.
[26:50] on Sunday afternoon when you're coming back from your trip. Yeah, the Lord will find a way. You wanna get real literal?
[27:00] This is kind of a horrible thought, but horrible things can happen when you walk away from Jesus Christ. You might end up burying somebody with that money. That's a horrible thought.
[27:12] When you walk away from Jesus Christ, all bets are off. The Lord will just, he'll say, go ahead. What's out there is for you to receive. And it can be ugly sometimes.
[27:24] And the stories are there. Now we gotta keep moving here. Matthew chapter 27 again. So he encountered a company that didn't care for him. He exacted money that he couldn't take with him.
[27:37] And then third thing I want you to see is that he earned a blot that he can never wash away. In verse 3 it says, then Judas which had betrayed him. That's who it was.
[27:49] Judas which had betrayed him. Can't even call him his real name. Don't even call him Judas Iscariot anymore. Just Judas which had betrayed him. He's gonna carry that one with him forever.
[28:01] Look back at Matthew chapter 10. Matthew writes this gospel after the fact. After all of this took place. Then he sits down and pens it and in Matthew 10 he's writing down the names of the disciples of the Lord.
[28:16] These apostles that Jesus Christ had called. And in verse number 2 you see the names of the 12 apostles are these. The first Simon who's called Peter and Andrew his brother James the son of Zebedee and John his brother and Philip and Bartholomew Thomas and Matthew the publican James the son of Alphaeus and Labaeus whose surname was Thaddeus Simon the Canaanite 11 and Judas Iscariot 12 who also betrayed him.
[28:40] Why did you have to stick that slap in there Matthew did you? Judas Iscariot he's always going to be known as who also betrayed him. When Luke gives the list he says Judas Iscariot which also was the traitor.
[28:56] Here's another one look at John 18 if you can get there real quick John 18 this is when Jesus Christ that night of his betrayal and arrest when he gets to the garden and when John writes about Judas he just can't help but slapping him with this tag in verse number two and Judas also which betrayed him knew the place for Jesus all the time and then verse number five just three verses later that answered him Jesus and asked him Jesus said unto him I am he and Judas also which betrayed him like John come on we know who it is but do you have to keep slapping him do you have to keep bringing it up actually yes he does all the gospel writers repeatedly refer to him and point out that he's the one that betrayed Jesus Christ he got a blot that he can never wash away he got a reputation as a betrayer of Jesus Christ as one that would walk away from him anybody want to name their child
[29:58] Judas I don't think I've ever met one why because the name's no good it's been destroyed it's been tainted it's got a blot it's real and when you depart from Jesus Christ you'll be known as oh you're one of his are you you're one of his a Christian you're a Christian that doesn't love him you're one of his that'll ditch him you'll ditch his followers you won't go to church but I thought you were a Christian but you don't go to church you're leaving them to meet in the room by themselves but you're not there you get a nickname you get a reputation as one that's a traitor the one that betrays him that loves money more than Jesus Christ that loves the world and loves pleasures more than being with his people and you're gonna have a problem because being saved you don't belong in the world and you know it and you feel it but you try to push that down to enjoy it and eventually it just you can't enjoy it you just don't belong you're different on the inside you can run from Christ for a while but eventually you're just miserable and on the other hand if you want to live in your sin you struggle to fit in with God's people because if they're worth anything for Jesus Christ they don't want to be around you walking in sin living in sin they want to help you but if you don't want to help then you can't fellowship because what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness and so you're stuck you have a problem that only those who depart Jesus Christ have and then you end up hanging out with backslidden Christians and justifying your sins and I think this through over my life
[31:56] I've met I've known I've served God with men and women that over time whether it was even as a teenager into my young adult years even in the Bible school even beyond that in the ministry they've walked away from the Lord Jesus Christ and I've met them and I know them and for some of you that you get saved later you don't understand that how could you possibly do that for others you grow up in it and you just get sick of you just want to go do your own thing and you let those voices in this world call you but I think about it and I think about those that have quit the ministry and those that have quit coming to church and those that get divorced and go off and live in adultery and live in sin and I hear their name and I hear I hear a blot on their name when they mention their name I can't just say oh praise the Lord for that it's hard to talk about them it's hard to speak their name without noticing yeah they betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ that's how Matthew is he walked with that brother for three and a half years and then he went and betrayed Jesus Christ he doesn't have anything to say about it because he walked away
[33:06] Mark's the same way John's the same way Luke's the same way he knows Judas Luke was around a good bit so was Mark and they can't help but point it out he betrayed the Lord and so you'll get that same blot on your name you won't fit in out there you won't fit in in here and because of that the fourth thing I see is that Judas ended his life early in Matthew 27 in verse number 4 at the end or verse 5 he says he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple departed and went and hanged himself he encountered company that didn't care about him he exacted money he couldn't take with him he earned a blot he can't wash away and ended up taking his own life ending his life early went and hanged himself now he's got nothing to live for well you did Judas you walked with the way the truth and the life you lived with him you heard his words and then you walked away from him but out there in the world you can't find what you're looking for and the money that you lusted after in the company that you kept then they can't bring satisfaction that can't bring peace to your heart eventually the guilt grows heavier and heavier you depart from
[34:25] God's crowd you don't fit in with the world your life gets miserable it's not what you thought it would be because apart from Jesus Christ there's no substance out there there's nothing worth living for out there there's nothing of value out there because any purpose and any fulfillment are in the Lord Jesus Christ and in your connection to him the wages of sin is death and if you live after the flesh ye shall die and Judas ended his life early now I want to conclude with one passage in John chapter 6 flip over to John 6 and we're about done and I want to conclude this thought whereas Judas and many others walked away there was others that couldn't walk away because they had a reason to stay and John chapter 6 verse 66 from that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him what a terrible thing but it's been going on for as long as this has so no surprise to see it happen more today
[35:42] I've seen it over my lifetime from my youth until today so it's sad but it's nothing new but look at what Peter says here when Christ turns to them in verse 67 then said Jesus unto the twelve wilt thou wilt ye also go away and here comes Peter then Peter Simon Peter answered him Lord to whom shall we go thou hast the words of eternal life now a point I want you to consider is this resonates with me with what Peter says is when you experience what the words of eternal life can do for your life when you get a hold of it not many Christians really really really get a hold of it not many of them fall in love with the words with the holy words of this book and they haven't tasted how they can how these words can purify them and comfort them and pick them up and how the words of a book in their hand can give them hope and can help them to see beyond their sorrows and their pain and their struggles and the words can calm them down and the words can answer their questions and they can fill them with peace and strength and joy these words they'll keep you from leaving
[37:07] Jesus Christ if you get them in you they'll keep you from walking away from Christ Peter's like where am I gonna go when you've got the words and he didn't say you've got the miracles and you've got the joy he said you've got the words and that's what you need and Christian tonight if you don't love the words sooner or later sooner or later things are gonna line up and you're gonna walk away but the words will keep you close well Judas ended his life early Peter wasn't going anywhere Peter was no saint he's not Saint Peter like they say he was no saint but he recognized he wasn't going anywhere he had the words of eternal life and I hope to God that you get a hold of these words if there's one thing I can do from this pulpit it is try to instill in you and try to promote and exalt the words of God because I know what they've done for me
[38:10] I know how this holy book has changed me on the inside and because of that it's given me some boldness that it was never inside of me and it's an authority that I can I can put my entire being behind I don't have to worry about my wisdom I don't have to worry if I'm smart enough to declare because I know I got something that's higher than me and I can put it out you got a problem with something you don't like something I'll just give you this if you don't like this I don't care I can't help you I can't help you because the words are important and I hope that you get a taste for it fall in love with your Bible don't leave Jesus Christ let's pray let's be done Father please take the thoughts tonight and strengthen us may it be a warning to one or to many may it be an encouragement to others Lord we're so glad that we that you found us almost said that we found you but that you came and got us we're thankful that we've had our eyes opened to what the words have done and cleaned us up and saved our souls thankful to be saved in a good church with many or few
[39:28] Lord these are the best people there is in the world and I'm thankful to be here tonight I pray God that you'll that what was said would get inside and that that this example of what Judas did would be ever in front of our hearts as we're tempted to give up or tempted to quit or get distracted with money get distracted with the world and with their supposed pleasures and with their their calling enticing give us the wisdom and the eyes that have the the discernment and knowledge to say no and to stay with you and Lord help us to fall in love with the words that will strengthen us and I pray that you'll use this tonight and be with those that are not able to be with us because they're sick not feeling well or having to deal with some other issues that they didn't anticipate we just ask you to be with them and again we pray for brother Tony Ibarra pray that you'll strengthen him and allow him to continue to recover slowly but surely gaining strength and if you be your will get him back in the pulpit soon we pray these things in Christ's name
[40:38] Amen before you're dismissed I did want to announce that brother Gary Ketchum went to preach this past Sunday over at it's called Anchor Baptist Church I was calling it by its old name but he preached this Sunday for brother Ibarra who had a heart attack or several of them and he's recovering I talked to him a few days ago he sounded great in my opinion he was laughing with me we were talking and he seems like he's doing well I told him I'd come and visit him in about another week or so when he's feeling up to it and so I think brother Rich if he's feeling up to it he's supposed to be over there preaching so maybe pray for Rich to get well and pray that he's able to get over there and minister to them this Sunday in