And Judas Iscariot | Page 5

The well on my place in the country some years ago had in it poisoned
water. It was an attractive well with a house built around about it, and
the neighbors came to me to say that I must under no circumstances
drink from it. What if I had said, "I will decorate the well house that I
may change the water?" It would have been as nonsensical as to say, "I
will change the environment of a man who is wicked by nature, and
thereby make him good." Judas had lived close to Jesus, he had been
with him on the mountain, walked with him by the sea, was frequently
with him, I am sure, in Gethsemane, for we read in John the eighteenth
chapter and the second verse, "And Judas also, which betrayed him,
knew the place: for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with his disciples."
He was also with him at the Supper. But after all this uplifting,
heavenly influence of the Son of God he sold him for silver and
betrayed him with a kiss. Nothing can answer for the sinner but
regeneration. His case is hopeless without that.
Third: Hypocrisy is an awful thing. The text in Galatians is for all such.
"Be not deceived; God is not mocked." Those words in Matthew in
connection with the sermon on the Mount are for such, when men in
the great day shall say, "Have we not prophesied in thy name? and in

thy name have cast out Devils? and in thy name done many wonderful
works?" Jesus will say, "I never knew you." If we read the commission
in Matthew the tenth chapter the fifth to the twentieth verses inclusive,
we shall understand that these Apostles were sent forth to do a mighty
work, and evidently they did it. Judas had that commission, and he may
have fulfilled it in a sense, but he is lost to-day because he was a
hypocrite. The disciples may not have known his true nature. In John
the thirteenth chapter the twenty-first to the twenty-ninth verses we
read, "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 disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake.
Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom
Jesus loved. 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? Jesus answered, 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. 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." Which would seem to
impress this thought upon us. Oh, may I say that it is a great sin to be
untrue? The only time that Jesus is severe is not when sinners seek him
out, nor when the woman taken in adultery is driven to him by those
who would stone her with stones, nor with the thief on the Cross, but
when he faces hypocrites; he can have no tenderness for them.
Fourth: I learn from Judas that sin is of slow progress. There may have
been first just a natural ambition. He thought that the Kingdom of Jesus
was to be a great temporal affair, and he desired to be a part of it. How
many men to-day have wrecked their homes and all but lost their souls,
because of unholy ambitions! It may be an ambition for your family as
well as for yourself. Doubtless Jacob had such when he stopped at
Shechem. The result of his tarrying was his heart-breaking experience
with the worse than murder of his daughter. There are souls to-day in
the lost world who were wrecked upon the rock of ambition.

Fifth: He was dishonest. It is a short journey from unholy ambition to
dishonesty. The spirit of God Himself calls him a thief. But,
Sixth: Let it be known that while sin is of slow progress, it is
exceedingly sure. In the twenty-second chapter of Luke and the third to
the sixth verses we read that Satan entered into Judas. It seems to me as
if up to that time he had rather hovered about him, tempting him