The reasons why Jesus chose Judas as one of his twelve disciples, arguing that it was not an oversight but a deliberate act by God. The passage posits that Judas's selection served to fulfill prophecy, particularly concerning his betrayal for thirty pieces of silver, and to prepare the disciples for the reality of false professors within the church. Furthermore, Judas's inclusion demonstrated Christ's omniscience and God's unconventional methods, while also highlighting the inadequacy of the social gospel which relies on environment, education, and good works without a transformed heart. The message concludes by emphasizing that true transformation, evidenced by a changed life, love for God's word and people, a desire to share the faith, and a hatred for sin, is the hallmark of genuine salvation.
Restored with Diffio
Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 2.14 → restored 4.56
I too want to thank Ms. Rupp for singing one of my favorite songs. I'm glad to know she's from Winona Lake. I wonder if you would have happened to have been there in July any between nineteen fifty and nineteen sixty. When Youth for Christ was that? Around between, well usually the first two weeks in July, Youth for Christ International is at Winona Lake. And for forty-five minutes this afternoon, I listened to some music that I taped there. about nineteen fifty-three or fifty-four. In fact, I first heard Bill Carl sing How Great There Are. Do you remember that? In the Billy Sunday Tabernacles that were known to Lake Indiana. He was the first man ever to record how great there are.
And I have very, very fond memories of this place. I never shall forget tonight that my Sunday told Youth for Christ, and if you don't know where Winona Lake is, it's in Indiana, it's near a little town called Warsaw, and it's where Billy Sunday had his home. And my Sunday lived for quite a number of years after Billy Sunday died, and she told Youth for Christ International, if they'd fill the Billy Sunday tabernacle, she'd give them a thousand dollars. Well, that was easy. All they had to do is invite Billy Graham and his team to come for a meeting, and they now only filled it, they had five thousand out in the yard. Those were some great days back in the early fifties.
And just let me traverse a little bit and give you an illustration of how the Lord works. I remember when Billy and his team were there this particular year. It would have been probably the summer of fifty-one, yes, because the hour decision originated. The first broadcast was in Atlanta at Grand Field. Ms. Moss, you'll probably remember that. In October of nineteen fifty, in the following summer, Billy Graham and his team originated our decision from the Billy Sunday Tabernacle. And Billy and his team were there for several days. He was on the board of Youth for Christ back in those days, and he spoke on Sunday afternoon and again Sunday night.
Then they just stayed there for a day or two. And I remember hearing one of the young Youth for Christ directors say on Monday, Oh, wasn't that a one for response last night? Was Billy preaching? And on Monday they announced that, oh, I don't even know who preached. Harry Johnson, Bob Cook, doesn't matter. Anyway, Billy Grell wasn't preaching, see. And this young man just happened to say, kind of on his rest, he said, well, don't suppose we'll have as many forward tonight. Billy's not preaching. You know that hurt me. Because it's not their man. the Holy Spirit through the man. And throughout that day, all day long, my heart was heavy.
Because if for no one else but that young man, I wanted him to know that it wasn't in a man. And as I said, I don't remember who preached. I think it might have been Tar John. I don't know. It doesn't matter. But it was someone that I knew that I knew could preach the word. And I said, Lord, anoint that man to the house. and bring down the power of God upon this meeting because as Mrs. Rupp knows why when Youth for Christ is out there, it's nothing unusual for them to have three or four or five thousand teenagers on those grounds for those two weeks. Many of them unsaved. I said, honor yourself tonight. They had the music and it's worth going to an honor just to hear the music.
You don't need to go just to hear the preaching. Just go hear the music. It's worth going now. They had a few testimonies. And then my brother got up to speak. He preached on the cross. And they gave him patience. And they started coming. And they started coming. And I saw a young man literally run down the aisle. And they didn't have enough counselors. And so they invited all the youth for Christ's records to come back backstage and counsel. And I had the joy of counseling a young boy. And who do you think he was? He was a soldier from Camp Attaberry, Indiana. And he was from Columbia, South Carolina.
And he's been running away from God. For three years he's been running from God. And God used that message to bring not only him, but probably a seventy-five or a hundred of the young people to the Lord Jesus. And that was a wonderful blessing to my heart that night. And I'm sure it must have been to many people because unconsciously, so many times people, especially, who don't have a great deal of spiritual discernment, they seem to think, oh, well, it's the man and his instantaneous magnetism and his personality and his power of persuasion. It's not the man. God's Holy Spirit through the man. I want you to turn, please, to Matthew.
Every time I shed a few tears, I remember what John R. Rice said in his book. By the way, if you don't have his little book, The Soul Wonders Fire, you ought to get it. One of the greatest little books on the soul when ever written. He told about when he was a young preacher in Texas, preaching the gospel as an evangelist, and he's an evangelist at heart. He said, every time he preached and given imitation, he had tears streaming down his cheeks. And he said he got to thinking about it and he kind of got embarrassed about it, preaching with tears running down his cheeks. And tears were being, souls were being saved and all.
And he said, now, Lord, just help me to preach without tears, will you? You know, you've got to be careful what you ask the Lord. He'll take it your word. So the Lord, let him preach without tears. He also let him preach without soles. So he went back to his prayer room and he said, Lord, give me back my tears. So the Lord gave me back his tears. It's a wonderful thing to cry sometimes because you're so happy. You know, I'm not a real sentimental person. And I haven't cried really a lot of times in my life because I was sad.
But hardly ever a time comes when I really stop to think about the love of God for me or sinner that I don't shed some tears. I hope that's true in your life. Now, the message tonight, once again, is primarily and basically if you're believers, but if you're here and do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, before this message is over, we're going to tell you how you may know him in a personal way. Matthew chapter twenty-six. We'll begin reading with verse fourteen. Then one of the twelve called Judas Iscariot went unto the chief priest and said unto them, What will you give me, and I will deliver him unto you?
And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silk. And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him. Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus, said unto him, Why wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passover? And he said, Go unto the city to such a man, and say unto him, The master saith, My time is at hand, I will keep the Passover at thy house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them, and they made ready the Passover. Now when the evening was come, he sat down with a twelfth, and as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. And they would see and sorrowful and begin every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I?
You know, I think that's quite significant. I think if that had been us, you know, I think most of us say, I want to be this fellow. I want to be this man. But I think it's quite significant. Every one of them said, Lord, is it I? And he answered and said, He that dipped his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. The Son of Man goeth as it is written of him, but woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It had been good for that man if he had never been born. Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said, Master, is it I? He said unto him, Thou hast said. And as they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it, break it, gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat, this is my body.
He took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them and said, Drank ye all of it. For this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. For I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drank it new with you in my Father's kingdom. And when they had sung on him, they went out unto the Mount of Olives. Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night, for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. But again, but after I am risen again, I will go before you unto Galilee. Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men should be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended.
Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cocked crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. Peter said unto him, Though I should die with you, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples. And that's a real puzzle to many people, why the disciples were so very, very slow and dumb, in one sense, to understand what the real purpose of the Lord Jesus was. And on numerous occasions in all four of the Gospels, he told them what was going to happen. And yet when it did happen, they were all surprised. And people said, how in the world can this be?
How could they be so very, very stupid? Well, I'll tell you why. They did not have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit of God that you and I have. Now, unfortunately, many times when you and I live in this life here, with the Holy Spirit in our lives, we are very, very slow to understand spiritual truth. But these young men have not yet been endured with power of the Holy Spirit. Now tonight, I'd like to talk about a very, very unusual subject, and I dare say that most of the people in this audience have never heard a message on this subject.
Now I'm not going to answer the question that I'm going to ask in its entirety, but I'm going to give you what I think are some of the main reasons why the Lord chose Judas as a disciple. There are a number of probable reasons. Now there are several of them in Scripture. We'll give those first. Then I'm going to give you what I believe are some of the other reasons, probably why the Lord chose Judas. When we get to heaven, we'll know. All right. Number one, the Lord chose Judas to fulfill Scripture.
The Son of Man goeth as it is written of him. All right. Many times in the Bible, in the New Testament, we read in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, especially in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, this was done that the Scripture might be fulfilled. Now, I was talking with Mrs. Willie a few moments ago, and she reminded me that she is continuing to read this very, very fascinating book, The Late Great Planet Earth. Now, if you have not discovered the thrill of making a study of fulfilled prophecy.
You have something to look forward to. In fact, you should get a hold of it nothing but a good concordance. And study fulfilled prophecy concerns the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a very, very interesting study. And as I've already mentioned from this pulpit several times since Sunday morning, there is a renewed interest today even among unbelievers. in prophecy and in future events. Because of the way things are going in the world today, people's hearts are failing them for fear, and they're wondering, well, what's going to happen out there? Ten years from now, fifteen years from now, twenty years from now.
This was done in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled. And one of the ways, one of the main ways that you and I have of knowing that this is the Word of God is because of the fact that in this Bible, something is prophesied. And years later, we read out the fulfillment in this book. For example, if we did not have the New Testament, we would know just about what the Lord Jesus Christ did during his life because of what we have in the Old Testament scriptures. Let me give you several examples. In Isaiah, now we're not going to turn to these, it takes too long, but in Isaiah nine seven, we read where the Lord Jesus was going to be born of the tribe of Judah.
We read of the fulfillment in Matthew one. In Micah five two, of course, we read that he was going to be born in Bethlehem of Judah. We read of the fulfillment of course in Matthew two. In Isaiah seven fourteen, we read where he was to be born of a virgin. We read of the fulfillment, of course, in Matthew and in several other Gospels. In Psalm forty-one-nine we read where he was going to be betrayed by a friend. We read of the fulfillment in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In Zechariah eleven-twelve we read where he was going to be betrayed for thirty pieces of silver. And we just read that tonight right in Matthew twenty-six.
In the entire chapter of the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah we read about his suffering and his death and his burial. And we read about this, of course, in all four Gospels. And in Psalm sixteen, ten, we read of his resurrection. And we read of this, of course, also in all four Gospels. One of the basic main reasons why we know that this book is inspired is because of the fulfillment of prophecy in the Old Testament. Now, there are a number of reasons why you and I can know that the Bible is inspired. There are three of them that I'm going to mention tonight.
For the sake of time, I won't mention any more. The first is the testimony of the sage, S-P-A-D-E. Now, I don't know much about archaeology, but I have talked with a few people that have delved into it quite extensively. And I've read a few books. There's a book that every one of you ought to have in your library. If you don't already have it, it's called All About the Bible by Sidney Collects. Brother Bob, that's a book you ought to have in your little book book. All About the Bible by Sidney Collects. And there's several chapters in there showing how discovery after discovery after discovery after discovery in what we today call the Holy Land and in Egypt and in Israel and so forth.
Discovery after discovery, instead of taking away from the Scriptures, have substantiated and proven that what we read in the Bible is certainly true. And so every time they make another discovery over there, in one of these places around Dauphin or in Egypt, where they're digging in the ruins of some of these ancient cities, instead of disproving the Bible, every time they make another discovery, it substantiates what we have in the Scriptures. I'm sure that Brother Willie probably knows the name of the two men from England, I believe it was, who set out to disprove the Bible. What were their names, Brother Willie?
That doesn't matter. All right. Anyway, it's made from England. I thought he knew everybody in England. But anyway, these two men were from England. One of them was going to disprove that Jesus Christ was an imposter, that he didn't rise from the dead. They were both intellectual, you know, college men, university men, they were going to work up a paper or a thesis on this. The other one was going to prove that Paul never lived. And so they went to what we call today the Holy Lent. And they were going to be separated from each other for eighteen months. And they were going to study all they could about Jesus Christ and about Paul. And they were going to come back and write that paper and prove that both of them were imposters. So they came back after eighteen months.
and both of them had been genuinely and soundly converted to Christ and spent the rest of their years preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. The testimony of the faith. All right. Now the next one is the testimony of the scriptures themselves. Now you can turn, we'll take time to turn to second Peter. We know this verse by heart. At least I certainly hope you do. If you don't, it's a good one to memorize before you go to bed. Verse twenty one, chapter one, second Peter. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
And the one that we referred to, I think perhaps last night or the night before, from Second Timothy. Chapter three, another one that all of us ought to know. Verse fourteen. But continue thou unto things which thou hast learned and hath been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them, and that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is possible for teaching or doctrine, for approved, for correction, for instruction and righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect or complete, thoroughly punished unto all good works.
And then the last is the testimony not only of the spade and the testimony of the Scriptures, but the testimony of Jesus Christ. In John ten thirty-five he said the Scriptures cannot be broken. And during his earthly ministry the Lord Jesus put his stamp of approval by referring and quoting from each major portion of the Old Testament. At one time or another he quoted from each portion of the Old Testament, yea, some of those portions which are most controversial among the liberals and the mollusks, those are the ones that he sought out. And then he quoted from time and time and time again. He also said that in the future the Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth.
And those of us who love and know this Bible believe that this is the Word of God, that God has seen fit to preserve for us. down through the years. So it's a miracle in its inspiration. It's also a miracle in its compilation. Now just suppose we have an August. And in nineteen seventy-one a farmer comes along and hits a note. And then twenty-five years later a school teacher comes along and hits another note. And a hundred and ten years later a chemical engineer comes along and hits another note. And then twenty-two and a half years later, a doctor comes along and hits another note.
And then twenty-eight years later, a real estate salesman comes along and hits another note. And you keep on going like this over years and years and years. And then after hundreds of years, you put all those notes together on that one organ and you have a beautiful symphony. You say that'd be impossible. Maybe so with the organ and the music, but it's not impossible with the Word of God. Because that's what happened. One thing, God's Son, the story of redemption. From the first inch in Genesis to the last, Amen in Revelation.
There's one main major thing, the story of redemption. A miracle. in its compilation. Not only a miracle in its compilation, but it's a miracle in its preservation. Now that's another thing that you had the book. I'm telling Brother Willie to get in his bookstore. There are about two chapters in there on how the Lord has preserved the Scriptures and how freely it is to read. How men took portions of Scriptures and hid them in their clothing. put them in bales with cotton and straw, and got them into countries where they were not supposed to have them.
In the sixteenth century, when Tingle made his translation of the Bible into English, he was strangled and burned at the stake. And in that same century, all persons found with copies of the Bible translated in English were seized and the Bibles were destroyed. Charles Voltaire, that famous infidel, stood up in Paris, France one day, and very boastfully said, I predict that within a hundred years the Bible will be destroyed and Christianity will be an extinct religion. Twenty-five years later, the very house in which he made the statement was stacked with Bibles from the fellow to the attic, belonging to the Geneva Bible Society.
And the very printing press that he'd used to print his capable little bureau was being used to print, yes, copies of the Bible. Well, the Bibles, I was telling somebody about this just yesterday, maybe at meal time or sometime. The Bibles, like the Irishman's Wall, He built it four feet wide and just three feet high. And somebody says, Pat, why in the world did you build it like that? He says, huh, I built it like that. So if the wind blew it over, it'd be higher the second time than it was the first time. And that's the way it is with the Bible. Some time ago, some coal porters were taking some Bibles back into one of the closed countries.
And they were having to kind of smuggle them in there, you know. And on the way of getting into the country, some robbers from that closed country waylaid them and robbed them. And so everything they had, including all the Bible. And of course they went back into that country that was closed. When they saw what they had, what did they do? They just threw the Bibles away. And all the Bibles got distributed all over the country. It didn't cost them a cent. You can't destroy the Bible. I was talking to our young brother who went to Barrington College about a poem that I heard Dr.
Howard Surrey used to be Providence Bible Institute. I heard him quoted at Moody Founders Week. So many years ago, I hate to tell you, but it was about half as many years as I'm old, I'll tell you that. He was talking about the word of God. I've forgotten everything else he said, but I never forgot this. It's a poem by a man by the name of Conrad. Last eve I paused beside the blacksmith's door and heard the anvil ring the vespers chime. Then looking in upon the floor I saw all hammers worn with beating years of time. How many angles have you had, said I, to wear and battle all those hammers saw? Just one, he said.
Then with twinkling eye, the anvil wears the hammers out, you know. Then I thought of how down through the years those skeptics blows have beat upon the Word of God. Yet in the end, the anvil is unharmed, the hammer is gone." All the levies, praise the Lord. It's a miracle in its preservation. Well, that's not all. Not only a miracle in its inspiration. and a miracle in its compilation, and a miracle in its preservation, but it's a miracle in its transformation. I'm sure that every one of you at one time or another have heard a missionary from Africa or South America or Europe or Indochina or Asia or somewhere, and they've told you or some native somewhere that got a hold of a copy of the Bible and learned to read.
and they begin to read this book. And without any outside teaching or influence, their life was completely transformed. Beloved, this book will transform any and all who will expose themselves to God's holy word. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new.
I think of Johnny Spence. Now, some of you people have heard Johnny Spence. Some of you have not. Johnny Spence was a professional golfer when he was sixteen years of age. He was the youngest class, age pro in America, when he was sixteen years of age. His work required him to miss church and Sunday school on Sunday. He was out on the golf course. He not only got out of the habit of going to church and Sunday school, but he began to mix with the wrong people, and by the time he was twenty-three or four or five years of age, he was living quite a rough, ungodly, unholy, sinful life. He became rather well known as a golf professional and began to follow the pros, you know, as they played in different tournaments.
and it's kind of a hard schedule and so he began to drink as many of them do. In trying to get off of alcohol he got on the drugs. This is quite common. You get down with alcohol and in order to try to get off of alcohol you get on the drugs. And in the last eight years before Johnny Spence found Jesus Christ as his Savior, Johnny Spence spent eighty-eight thousand dollars in these sanatoriums, you know, where they're supposed to deliver you. The only trouble is that most of them don't really try to deliver you because if they got you delivered from alcohol, they couldn't get you money anymore.
So he'd go in there and get a little better and he'd go back out on the road again and the first thing you know, he'd be back down. So in the summer of nineteen hundred and fifty-eight, Johnny Spence was at rock bottom. He was a veteran of World War II, and so they put him in the veteran's hospital. He had lost all hope and all desire to live. He had tried to take his life three or four times, so they had him in the psychiatric ward. There was nothing near his bed or in his room that he could use to hurt himself. In fact, he had a male god, twenty-four hours of the day. He began so bad that they called his mother and said, Ms.
Spence, you better come see Johnny because we don't... We can't find his pulse. We can't find a place to feed him. He won't eat. He won't cooperate. I don't know of anything we can do for him. But about this time, Johnny Spence heard through the chaplain that a friend of his by the name of Emery Harper was coming to give his testimony in the chapel. And Johnny Spence, for the first time in perhaps a number of years, had a little interest in living because he wanted to hear Emery Harper. Because eight years before, Emery Harper, who had been the amateur golf champion of South Carolina, had found Jesus Christ as his Savior in the Bimigram Crusade.
And the night he was saved, Emery Harper and Squidge, his wife, went home and poured nine-fifths of whiskey down the bathtub drain. They dedicated their lives to the Lord. And Emery had tried to witness to Johnny on numerous occasions, but Johnny was always too busy, oh, I'm not interested. But now Johnny was flat on his back and he heard that Emory, his buddy, was coming to give his testimony. Johnny said he prayed to God and asked God for enough strength to get out of that bed. It's a long story. I'm having to convince it. But he got out of that bed under his own power. He got special permission from the doctors and the nurses to make his way over to the chapel.
He went on the outside because he didn't want Emory to see him because he was nothing but skin and bones. He went on the outside and he took a seat on the steps right outside the screen door. And Emory gave his testimony and he gave the Gospel. And he told of how God had changed and transformed his life through the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And when he finished his testimony, he said, Now, if there are any of you here that would like for us to pray for you that you might receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, slip your hand up. And he didn't know whose hand it was, but he saw a little thin, emaciated hand right up above the middle bar in that screen door.
And he said to the men who were with him, you stay here and talk to these men, I want to see who that is. And when he opened the door and saw his friend and buddy, Johnny Spence there, they went into a clinch. And Emery Hopper opened up his Stofield Bible. And right there on that shelf, he led Johnny Spence to Jesus Christ. That was on a Wednesday afternoon. On Monday afternoon, they just missed Johnny from the hospital. I met Johnny a month or two later at the Billy Graham Crusade in Charlotte. And the Lord placed the burden upon my heart to spend some time with this man.
Emery Hopper is a wonderful man and he knows how to lead people to the Lord, but he's just too busy to spend time with it. And so the Lord laid it upon my heart and it was my privilege for the next five or six or seven months to spend two or three nights a week, an hour or two at the time, getting Johnny into the Word of God. Johnny spent since that time has been mightily used to the Lord to bring many, many hundreds of people to the Lord Jesus Christ because of the power of the grace of God and the power of the Word of God. I want to tell you, a friend of mine, one of the greatest methods of evangelism in the world is to get people to read this book.
You know, whenever I meet a person, and I've never known them before, I like to know, how do you find the Lord? It's always a thrill. If I have a good one, that doesn't thrill me. I hope the Lord just takes me right on it, but it won't be worth two cents. How do you find the Lord? Because everybody finds the Lord a little different. And you know, you'd be amazed how many people have told me, well, Brother Few, there wasn't anybody preaching. It wasn't on the radio. It wasn't on television. I was just reading the book, and the Lord brought me to himself. I bet I've met fifty people that have found the Lord just reading the Bible. It's a miracle in transformation. I've got a number of other others down here.
I wish I had time, but I don't have time to tell you about Dr. White. and Bill Carl. I wish I could tell you Bill Carl's testimony. But I must tell you these other reasons probably why the Lord chose Judas. Another reason why the Lord probably chose Judas was to prepare and to condition his disciples so that they would know that all down through the ages there would be those who would look like Christians, act like Christians, talk like Christians, smell like Christians, and do everything else like Christians, but they have a form of godliness but not know the Lord.
The man who stands in this pulpit tonight was considered before his conversion to be a model young man. Why, if anybody's going to be do well, chocolate will do well, fine Christian home, Find parents, a student, young man, moral, upright, well thought of. If anybody does well, it'll be chocolate. Oh, he's certainly a Christian. If anybody's a Christian, it's chocolate. There was only one man who I was chocolate. I was lost. You know why I was lost?
Because I didn't know I was lost. I didn't know Jesus Christ. I didn't know that I was a sinner. I didn't know that I couldn't be saved by not shining my shoes on Sunday and not reading the paper on Sunday and not playing ball on Sunday and not working on Sunday and by not doing bed and by not sealing. I didn't know that joining a church and being baptized when I was seven years of age wouldn't save me. So finally that night I spoke about a moment, a night or two ago, that afternoon that man told me sharply, the only way you'll ever get to heaven is by receiving the free gift of God as it is in Christ Jesus.
And he read me Ephesians two, eight and nine and didn't even know it was in the Bible. Never had heard of it. He said, salvation is a gift, sharply. You can't work it. You can't earn it. You can't pay for it. You can't merit it. The only way you can ever be saved, Shockley, is to receive God's free gift as it is in Christ Jesus. That's the way I was saved. And if you're saved, that's the way you were saved. And you know the amazing thing about it? Did you know that there are a lot of preachers that aren't saved? Thousands of them. I know of a man that was a Navy chaplain back during World War II, and there was a boy in the Navy that they put in jail because he was such a wonderful witness.
That's the only way they could quiet him up, they thought, you know, put him in jail. He's preaching everywhere and went, giving our tracks, and finally they got some charges on him, you know, and put him in jail. Well, it was a chaplain's duty, you know, to go visit these prisoners, you know. And so every time this unpaid chaplain comes visiting, this boy was preached to his chaplain. And you know what? He led him to the Lord. Miracle in its transformation. He chose Jesus because he wanted his disciples to know that people all down through the years would profess to know Christ, but not possess him.
John Wesley. came all the way across the ocean to preach to the Indians, to the people in Georgia. The Lord knows they need it. And then he went back to Olive Gate and he heard that man reading, Luther's preface to Romans about being justified solely by the grace of God. And he said he felt his heart strangely warm. Why? Because the Holy Spirit was getting through to him that salvation was a gift and not the works of marriage. Jesus never for one moment fooled the Lord Jesus.
Neither would you. And you may be here tonight. You may talk like a Christian. You may act like a Christian. You may know all the vocabulary. You may know all the right cliches and the right words. And you might know just the one to say this and one to say that. And so far as everybody else knows, you may be a Christian. But deep in your heart, if you've never been born of the Spirit of God, and God's Spirit dwells within your life, you know in your heart whether you've been saved or not. You may fool your friends, your relatives, preachers, but there's one person you can't fool.
That's the Lord. He knows your heart. Another reason why he chose Judas, I believe, was to prove that Christ knows all. He knows all you do. He knows all you think. He knows all your desire. He knows all your plans. He knows all you want. And another reason still is because I believe he might have done it to show us that God doesn't always do the things the way we would do them. Now they've been left up to us. Not a single one of us would have chosen Judas. In fact, I expect that we've been choosing Jesus as disciples. We probably wouldn't have picked one half of them. God does not do things the way we would do them.
I know of a young lady. She went to a Bible college. Well, I might as well went to the one in Columbia. Very fine young lady. And she said, The Lord had called us a mission field. And she graduated and she wasn't making any plans to go to the field and somebody asked her why. She says, well, I believe that the Lord wants to give me a husband before I go to the mission field. She said, well, that's all right if the Lord's got one for you, but there are a lot of ladies out on the field that the Lord didn't give a husband to. And she said, well, I believe the Lord wants me to have a husband. So three years later, She married a man, fifteen years her senior, but she didn't go to the mission field.
And today she's on the shelf. God doesn't do things the way you and I would do them. And last but not least, the Lord might have well have chosen Judas to prove to us the inadequacy of the social gospel. And what is the social gospel? Well, it has three basic tenets. The do-gooders and the social gospelers say that what the world needs is a good environment.
Well, now, you just had a real wonderful environment for about three years. He ate and he slept and he traveled and he worked with a king or king and the Lord of lords. And the do-gooders and the social gospelists say that what we need is good education, good teaching. We just need to teach people. People do wrong because they are ignorant. We just need to inform people and get them educated and then everything will be all right. It doesn't work. Just have an educated criminal. until you've had the heart change. Now Judas had some wonderful teaching. Oh, I wish I could have been there.
I wish I could have heard him talk around the mouth. But Judas was there. He heard every one of those wonderful, beautiful sermons. But he didn't do him any good. And then the third tenet of the social gospel is what we need is not only good environment and good teaching and good education, but what we need is to go out and do good works. And he assisted his master in doing a lot of wonderful works. But there was one basic ingredient missing. And I believe this with all my heart.
was never really changed. He never was made into a new creature. And because he was never made into a new creature, he could do what he did. And friend of mine, as I bring this message to a close tonight, let me tell you one thing. If you have been made into a new creature, and if you have been born of the Spirit of God, there are certain clear-cut evidences that should be true in your life. One of them is, if you have been born of the Spirit of God, there will be a change in your life.
Now, I don't care how good and how moral and how self-respecting you were before you profess faith in Christ, if you've really been born again of the Spirit of God, there will be a change. And you'll know it. Your neighbors will know it. Your husband or your wife will know it. Your children will know it. And your relatives will know it. And everyone who deals with you will know that you're different. because the Holy Spirit of God cannot come and take up residence in a life without changing it. Not only will there be a change in your life, but there will be a love in your heart for the Word of God.
I do not believe that it's humanly possible for an individual to know Christ as Savior and Lord without loving God's Word. No, will you love God's Word, but you will love God's people. I well remember the man that led me to Christ, a wicket who, before, he pointed me to the Savior. He was working on me and praying for me and encouraging me. And, of course, I profess to be a Christian all these years, you know. And he took me to a place at the University of Georgia, at least in Athens, by the name of the Georgia Bible Institute. They had some old man there by the name of William R.
Newell preaching, you know, I never had heard of him. Real dry, you know, real deep and dry. And about ten days later, oh yeah, and this George Robinson, these people popping up, you know, like popcorn, telling them about what Jesus meant to them. Talking about Jesus coming back and all that, you know, whoo, I didn't feel good at all in that place. I was glad to get out. And ten days later, I found the Lord. And you know, the first place I want to go to was where those fanatics were. That's right. And I've been a fanatic ever since. I'm a fan of Jesus.
And I love to talk about the Lord. And I love to talk about His return. And I love to talk about His words. And I love the reason. I love God's people. I don't like to draw any distinctions in any lines. The only name that I like to use is the name of Jesus and the name Christian. And I meet people on trains and I meet people on planes and I meet them on buses and I meet them on street corners and I meet them in restaurants and I meet them in hotels. And they say, what are you? I say, I'm a Christian. They say, well, I'm a Christian too. And anything I have is theirs and anything they have is mine because we're brothers in the Lord. That's one of the main ways I know I'm saved.
is because of the love that I have to people that love and know my Lord. Oh, that's something you just don't have the words to describe it. I not only love God's people, but I love to talk to the Lord. I love to communicate with Him. I love to pray with the Lord's people, but brother and sisters, you know what I'm talking about. There are times when you just want to be with the Lord and no one else. And then I love to share my Lord with other people since I found him. That's one of the ways I know I'm saved, because I want to share him with someone else.
I want to tell people that I meet in stores and wherever I go about my Savior, because, you see, I happen to be in love with him. And when you're in love with somebody, you want to tell other people about him. Last but not least. The way you can know whether you're saved or not is if you've been saved. Not only will these things that I mentioned be true, but you will have a hatred for sin. You'll have a hatred for sin. Because you see, beloved, God is righteous. And God hates unrighteousness.
And God hates sinning. And because God hates sin, if God indwells your heart and life, likewise, you will hate sin. Now, how do you stand against that test? Has there been a change in your life? Do you love God's word? Do you love God's people? Do you love to pray, talk to God? Do you love to share your testimony with others? And do you hate sin? If these are not true in your life, they can be true before you leave this room tonight. Shall we pray?
Our Father and our God, we thank thee now for the Lord Jesus and we thank you for your word. We thank you for inspiring your word. We thank you for compiling your word. We thank you for preserving your word. We thank thee for using it to transform lives. And we thank thee that at least for the large majority of us here tonight, thy word has had a transforming effect upon our lives. We pray that if it happens to be a man or woman here tonight that knows about Jesus, perhaps they know all the phraseology and all the words and all the cliches.
But deep in their hearts they've never been transformed by the grace of God. We pray that you might speak to their hearts. Help them to know that a form of godliness and a form of religion and righteousness is not sufficient. But they need to be born of the Spirit of God by simple faith in the living Jesus Christ. May this be true. In Jesus' name, amen.