Who Was The Transgressor?

“—but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual things.” 1 Corinthians 2:13

In defense of certain doctrinal truths, one may force an explanation of a difficult subject in order to make all things agree doctrinally, but in the process only create more undoctrinal positions that are incorrect, than what they supposedly keep correct.

Such is the case, I believe, in many arguments concerning Judas Iscariot. Many, in their zeal to argue in behalf of eternal salvation, decree that Judas had to be a lost creature, even when Christ called and ordained him. Some claim infallibility on assuming this position, and charge all other teachings to be heresy.

But I wish to submit that the matter of whether Judas was saved or lost is not so much a position toward Judas, as it is a position regarding Christ, His wisdom, righteousness, redemption, and kingdom.

I shudder to think about reasoning along the lines that Christ would take a lost man (or a demon incarnate, as some propose) and willfully, knowingly set him into a sacred position as an apostle, and empower him to tender with the souls of men (thus placing a stumblingbloc before the lost) and to serve the needs of God’s sheep (thus placing a wolf in sheep’s clothing in the fold of God’s sheep.)

For all this to be done, there would certainly be fault to be found in Christ. Such an act would be an impeachable offense by any leader, to personally place criminals in positions of trust.

When God created Adam, He made him perfect. Before God made him, He knew Adam would sin, so God foreordained salvation through Christ. But God did not create Adam as a sinner. Adam became a sinner by his choice, and the fault is not God’s.

The point: For Christ to have made Judas an apostle when he was a lost creature, would have made the error to be on Christ’s part, the same as it would be if a New Testament Church was to ordain a known “Jezebel” to be their pastor. But when Christ placed Judas in the apostleship, he was qualified to fill it, or the fault would be Christ’s. Judas did what he did by his choice, as Adam did, and the fault was not on Christ’s part. Acts 2:25 tells us Judas fell from his apostleship by his own transgression. He was not placed in the apostleship “in” his transgression through a transgression on Christ’s part. To say that he was, is to imply Christ doesn’t do according to righteousness.

Some say Christ was justified in choosing and ordaining Judas as a lost creature so as to fulfill prophecy. But I ask, who wrote the prophecy? What righteous reason would God have to write a game plan that would include such a horrendous decision as putting a member of the Devil’s squad on His team? God doesn’t operate by the damnable principle, “Let us do evil, that good many come” Romans 3:8. Rather, Christ did just as His Word commands, 1 John 4:1–“try the spirits whether they are of God.” “Have I not chosen you twelve and one of you is a devil”is not telling us that Christ chooses evil men to do His work. But it is explaining that in spite of all God does for men, that some fall for Satan’s wiles and do no more with their opportunities than what Satan would have them to do.

The Bible calls what Judas did a betrayal. Had Judas been Satan’s agent when Christ set him in office, what Judas did then would not have been a betrayal. It would have been no more than Christ tempting Judas to do what Satan wanted him to do and collaborating with Satan’s evil work.

Judas began as a true servant of God would–chosen and ordained of Christ. No Christian can tolerate the deed or person of one who would betray the Lord, and neither could Judas. The sentence he passed upon himself reveals what he thought of the deed and of the person who committed the deed. None of Satan’s servants killed themselves for their part in Christ’s crucifixion.

Judas serves to warn us of how far Satan will go if a Christian allows him to enter their heart (Luke 22:3) 1 Peter 5:8–If Judas had been some devil incarnate being, Satan would not have entered into his heart, he would have already been there as the power of his being.

Some argue that Judas was just one appearance of a Satanic triune being, that appeared on earth before as Cain, then as Judas, and will come again as the anti-christ, and that all three of these are one in the same, “the son of perdition.” WOW!

(1) This would mean reincarnation is a fact. It would mean Satan can also give life and create human beings from his demons. It would mean Satan can incarnate himself into human flesh like Christ did.

(2) It would mean that Satan also has the victory over death, and that at his will, he can raise from the dead those whom he will, if he can have a Cain, Judas, and anti-christ who are all the same “son of perdition.” WOW!

God put a mark on Cain for who and what he was. God’s Word has identified the anti-christ for who he is. Then why would Christ embrace Judas as one of His apostles if he were this satanic, immortal being? Would Christ not then become a partaker of his evil deeds? See 2 John 10-11.

It is incorrect to say a saved person cannot do what the devil wants them to do since they are saved (some argue a saved person would not do what Judas did,) BUT only when a Christian has on the whole armour of God will they withstand in the evil day – Ephesians 6:13.

Some act as if Judas’ sin was so horrible that not even Jesus’ blood could atone for it. So again, this is about Christ and not Judas. For Christ’s blood to be insufficient to atone for some sins would make it insufficient to atone for any. The perfection of Christ’s blood makes it a sufficient covering for all sins. The fact Christ never failed where Judas did fail, makes Christ’s offering a perfect atonement for Judas’ sins and the sins of the whole world. WOW!

SHARING

The Distress Of Nations

As is set forth in Matthew 24 and Luke 21, we are just entering the era of the beginning of sorrows, with commotions and distress of nations. We are at the close of the Gentile age.

Since the days of the apostles, the gospel has reached all nations, but has largely been displaced due to unbelief. One has only to consider how fast this is occurring in our nation to understand how it happened elsewhere.

Our nation was established on “In God We Trust,” thus: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.” Psalm 33:12.However, our nation has drifted into unbelief and we are now changing our gods–unto the forsaking of our only hope of salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ – “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12….”The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” Psalm 9:17

The adopted “Political Correctness” of our nation is anti-christ, unto the exclusion of all references to God and the denial of the authority of God. Consequently, our nation has gone from prosperity into an unsustainable plunge of economic decline. Rather than rejoice as “One Nation Under God,” we now travail as “One nation under debt.” Deuteronomy 28 lays out the tragic reverses from fortune that occur as a nation turns from God.

Rather than our nation stand as a beacon of light and hope unto other nations, we are now sinking in the sea of despair of losing our power to even sustain ourselves. On the horizon, clouds of desolation are forming.

There is a STIMULUS PACKAGE that would work wonders for our nation, if it would only be voted in: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14 It will take an act of God to heal and restore our nation. For that to occur, our nation must first return to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith.

AMERICA, COME HOME!

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Falling Short Of Faith

“Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.”
“Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is”
“For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.”
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” – Jeremiah 17:5,7,8,9

Man preaches to his soul that he loves God, that his trust is all in God, that he is walking in the shadow of God’s wings, and then he frets about his security, until he is driven to cheat his fellow man at the market place, hoping to assure himself of success.

Man professes to believe that by forsaking and confessing his sin, that God will forgive him and cleanse him of all unrighteousness. But, then he turns around and refuses to own up to his errors, by being afraid that once his fellow man hears of it, he “will have-something-on-him” to use against him.

So when it comes to reconciliation, honesty, love, trust, and uprightness, man’s own reservations that come from his sinful nature, continually arise to throw him aside and cause him to come short.

When it became necessary for God to divide the nation of Israel into two kingdoms, because of Soloman’s idolatry, God appointed Jeroboam to be king over the ten northern tribes with the promise that if he would hearken to God and walk in all his ways, that God would make his kingdom sure. But after God established Jeroboam in the kingdom, Jeroboam became afraid that if Israel went up to the Lord’s house in Jerusalem, as the Lord commanded, that they would reunite with Judah, and he would lose his kingdom. So he made two golden calves and led Israel into idolatry, and away from the house of the Lord. This brought the curse of the Lord.

God calls for “the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” Romans 12:2b. God’s will and promises work. But it is our pride, stubbornness, fear, dislike of God’s ways, and our depraved determination, that fills us with reservations against what God wants and wills. We then rule against doing what God says, thinking that it is necessary to follow our downwardness, rather than looking upward to God’s righteousness.

In most cases, the need is for conversion unto child-like faith in the Lord. Beware–a person can get beyond this through hardness of heart.

ARE YOU FREE to think, feel, and act as the Word teaches that you should?

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Skeptics

Recently I read these lines:

So many today are saying, “If God is all that the Bible says He is, let Him perform some great miracle for me, then I will believe in Him.”

But God is actually saying, because I am God, believe in me, trust me, and I will do “great and mighty things” for you.

Like the farmer who wrote to a mail order house as follows:
“Please send me one of those gasoline engines you show on page 785, and if it is any good, I will send you a check for it.” He received the following reply from the firm: “Please send us the check, and if it is any good, we will send you the engine.”

God’s Word states: “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Hebrews 11:6

We know the world is fueled by skepticism toward the things of God. “Where is the promise of His coming?” 2 Peter 3:3 People are saying, “If there is a God, why doesn’t He do this, that, or the other.” Or, “If there was a God, He would not allow this to happen, etc.” So man has taken the attitude, “you have to show me first, or I won’t believe.” God only has one answer, “Be not faithless, but believing.”

But what about professed Christians? Many are skeptical about God’s plan and promises: consider tithing, for example. People are suspicious of God’s commands to be faithful. Many have yielded their minds to the idea that compromise is inevitable to exist. Some just know they will eventually have to give in to the demands of the world. So even before they are faced with a real test, they already are skeptical of Matthew 6:33–“Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

What about serving the Lord? Many just know that witnessing is just not for them. “Let somebody else do it…I’m just not cut out for it” is a favorite attitude of many. Many just know how miserable they would be if they were to become “tied down” to certain responsibilities in doing the Lord’s work. Thus, they are skeptics concerning the perfection of God’s will, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Romans 12:2

Thus, we see what the Lord meant when He said, “They draw nigh me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” The skeptic’s song–“O how I love Jesus, as long as He keeps His distance from me.” THE FARTHER AWAY THE BETTER! But what will it be when we meet Him?

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Pressing On

To advance the Lord’s work in the new year, we must be found “pressing on.” Pressing on requires actions of the mind: (1) “forgetting those things which are behind” and (2) “reaching forth unto those things which are before.” (Philippians 3:13)

One’s own state of mind dictates. If a person is for something in their mind, they will be for it in their efforts. If down on something, even the good that is done will be under discredit.

Such was the declaration of our Lord in Matthew 12:30: “He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.” According to Christ’s wisdom, until one is positive minded about their church, they will not promote it, but rather drag it down.

Being positive minded towards the church must prevail throughout the entire church to comply with the Divine requirements, “that there be no schisms in the body” (1 Corinthians 12:25) and “that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (1 Corinthians 1:10)

One’s state of mind is the product of what is in the thinking of that mind. So to begin with, one must necessarily identify what the issues are that are responsible for that state of mind. It would be helpful to make a list, so as to be able to resolve the issues, one by one.

Should a person be upset with their church’s teachings, it would be good to identify which position, the church’s or the individual’s, is the closest to the Bible standard of “all scripture being the basis for doctrine, for reproof, for correction” (2 Timothy 3:16)

Should a person be offended at what someone has done, have you done what the Lord told you to do – go to them, in order to gain thy brother? (Matthew 18:15)

If you hold ill will in your heart towards others, have you obeyed God’s Word in doing good towards them, so as to “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good”? (Romans 12:20)

If you hold a “fault” against someone, have you gone the course of forgiving your brother their trespasses so your heavenly Father can forgive you and make you whole of your own shortcomings? (Matthew 18:35)

If it is just the “whole ball of wax” that you are dissatisfied with, have you tried the “Lord’s ball of wax?” – “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.” (Philippians 4:8-9)

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