Many people have questions about Jesus choosing a man who would later betray Him. They ask questions such as: “How could He choose someone and not save Him?” or “How could He choose a man and then condemn Him to Hell?” This account perplexes many of us in our finite minds. Why would Jesus choose a man who would become the most despised man in history? There are two simple truths that we can learn from the account of Judas: First, God’s sovereign plan will always come to pass. Second, you can have an abundance of knowledge of who Jesus is, and even experience life with Him, and still reject Him.

In order to better understand these truths, let’s look at this account in Mark 3. In verse 13, Jesus called a multitude of disciples to Himself on the mountain. These were people who followed His ministry observing His miracles and listening to His teaching. Then, in verses 14 and 16 it tells us Jesus “appointed twelve.” Jesus specifically chose these twelve men out of the multitude. When He chose the Twelve, there were eleven of them chosen who would believe in Christ and be used by God to establish the church (Ephesians 2:20). Judas was also chosen by Jesus, but not for salvation. Judas was chosen for another purpose. He was chosen as the one who would fulfill the plan of God that was prophesied in the Old Testament. Psalm 41:9 says, “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.” Jesus quoted this verse in John 13:18 referring to Judas who would betray him. Judas was chosen to fulfill the plan of God that was prophesied. God’s plan will always be accomplished.

However, Judas was responsible for his own actions. Judas was not forced into betraying Jesus. He had every opportunity to believe in Christ, but his heart grew harder as He spent time with Jesus. Think about all the things Judas experienced with Jesus. He heard the preaching of Jesus as He called people to repentance and faith. He saw the miracles that Jesus performed, healing people and casting out demons. Judas spent three years with Jesus watching and learning. Judas was even given the opportunity to walk away from Jesus and leave it all behind. In John 6:67, after many of Jesus’ disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore, Jesus turned to the Twelve and said, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” Judas could have left with the crowd at that time, but he chose to stay. He chose Jesus because he wanted the benefits of being with Jesus, but He did not want Jesus to be Lord of his life.

Judas was a hypocrite who said all the right things, but whose heart was far from Jesus. Judas was even able to hide his hypocrisy from all the other apostles. In John 13:21, Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you will betray Me.” Then in verse 22 it says, “The disciples began looking at one another, at a loss to know of which one He was speaking.” They were dumbfounded to think that someone in their group would betray Jesus. Judas knew, but he hid it from all the others.

Judas is a perfect example of one who can sit under amazing biblical teaching, say and do all the right things, and yet still reject Christ. This truth should not shock us. God warns us about this in Hebrews 6:4-6. Paul also warns in 2 Corinthians 13:5, “examine yourselves!” Many of us know someone who has done this very thing—rejected Christ. In my thirteen years of ministry, I have seen men supposedly give their life to Christ and then commit murder. I have seen men write amazing Christian hymns and turn their back on God and His Word. I have even seen pastors who have taught the word of God who have had to step out of ministry because their heart was far from Him. The truth is, there are Judas’ among us today. Paul warns about this in 1 Timothy 4:1, “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.”

Did Jesus choose Judas? Yes. Did Jesus choose Judas for salvation? No. Jesus chose him as the one who would betray Him and fulfill the sovereign plan of God. Judas chose to follow Christ in His ministry and he also chose to betray Him. How do we then reconcile these truths? We don’t. God’s sovereign plan will always be accomplished, and man will always be held responsible for the choices he makes. May this be a reminder and a warning to us. Trust in God’s perfect plan and live in obedience to Him because you will be held accountable for all you do (2 Corinthians 5:10).

The Proverbs, as a literary form, were not written as promises for Christians, or Jews, to claim. Rather, the Proverbs were written as general observations that, when applied, will typically come true. But it must also be noted that they don’t always come true. Therefore, raising your child in the church and teaching them the Bible does not always result in them growing up to be Christians.

“Train up a child in the way he should go” reflects the parental duty, as Christians, to teach them God’s Word and God’s ways from a young age. However, there is another aspect to this verse that is often missed. As JC Ryle says, “Train them in the way they should go, and not in the way that they would [go]” (emphasis added).[1] What Ryle means by this is if you leave a child to himself and you “train” him according to his own desires, he will live that way when he gets old. This is not a good thing. Ryle continues, “Remember children are born with a decided bias toward evil, and therefore if you let them choose for themselves, they are certain to choose wrong.”[2]

The riots we see today are a direct reflection of this modern parenting that has allowed children to choose for themselves. When you turn on the news and see protestors and rioters who have a complete lack of respect for authority, it is because these teenagers and young adults were trained by parents who let them go in the way they wanted to go. This happened either by modern parenting that lacked discipline and allowed the children to make all the choices in the home or by parents who were absent in the home. While these protestors and rioters who are breaking the law are to be held responsible for their own actions, they are a by-product of how their parents “trained” them.

Now, remembering the literary form of Proverbs, are there children acting in lawlessness whose parents trained them to be obedient? Of course! However, the general observation, according to Proverbs 22:6, is that these children were left to choose wrong for themselves because that was their decided bias. Now that they are old, they are not departing from what was instilled in them at a young age.

As we look at the state of our nation today, there would be a lot less rioting in our land if these people were taught obedience as children by their parents. The very fact that there is mass disobedience to authority goes to show how these people were trained as children. They don’t care about obedience and have zero understanding of consequences. However, they will be held accountable for their actions in one way or another, either in front of an earthly judge or at the judgment seat of God.

Ephesians 6:4 says, “Fathers [or parents], do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” Christian parents must remember that it is our duty to train up our children in the ways of the Lord. Not only must we teach them the gospel but teach them to be obedient.

There are only three verses in the New Testament directly addressed to children (four if you include Colossians 3:20 which states the same thing). These three verses are right before Paul addresses the parents in Ephesians 6:4. He says in Ephesians 6:1–3, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth.” Parents, you must teach obedience to your children and it starts with teaching them to obey you. Ultimately, they must obey the gospel and repent from their sin and trust in Jesus Christ, but they must be taught obedience in all other aspects of life as well. Teach them the blessings of obedience and the consequences of disobedience. One day they will stand before God and be held accountable for every deed in this life (Revelation 20:12–13). Remember that how you train your children today will have an impact on their future life on earth and for all of eternity.

[1] J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents (Oxford: Benediction Classics, 2019), 9.

[2] Ibid.

The famous passage in James 1:2 says, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials.” When James uses the word joy, some preachers will tell you that James doesn’t mean that he wants you to be happy. Recently, I heard a pastor in a devotion say, “Joy is an attitude, but happiness is an emotion.” As I began to study the difference between joy and happiness, I came across a book by Randy Alcorn called Happiness. Alcorn does a great job of laying out the argument that there is no difference between joy and happiness. In fact, he argues that the Bible uses those words interchangeably in many places. Here are a few quotes to help clarify:

“In Zephaniah 3:14, God calls upon his people to be glad using four different Hebrew words that convey happiness: ‘Sing aloud [with joy, or rinnah], O daughter of Zion; shout [for joy, or ruah], O Israel! Rejoice [samach] and exalt [alaz] with all your heart.’ The gladness here is over the top—surely a God who isn’t happy would never call his people to such happiness.”[1]

“[Quoting Zephaniah 3:17] ’The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice [sus] over you with gladness [simchah]; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you [gyl] with loud singing [rinnah].’ There’s more happiness, tenderness, and love of God for us in this single verse than we can wrap our minds around . . . We’re accustomed to thinking of God as angry or saddened by us. But here we’re told, four times over, of God’s happiness over us!”[2]

Parents understand this concept of happiness over their children in child rearing. When you train your child to obey, and they do it, it not only brings happiness and joy to your heart, but you can see happiness on the face of your child as well. When my child obeys and I tell him “great job,” his smile isn’t just some kind of inner joy, but he is happy. Speaking of joy and happiness in reference to obedience, Alcorn also says,

“When we seek holiness at the expense of happiness or happiness at the expense of holiness, we lose both the joy of being holy and the happiness birthed by obedience. God commands holiness, knowing that when we follow his plan, we’ll be happy. He also commands happiness, which makes obeying him not only duty, but also pleasure.”[3]

When we seek happiness through sinful measures, of course this is wrong. But God wants us to find joy and happiness in Him. As redeemed people of God, we should be happy people. This doesn’t mean that we will never go through difficulties in life that make us sad or bring pain, but overall, we should be happy in Christ. Don’t think that you must sacrifice happiness in order to live the Christian life. Our churches should be full of happy people who rejoice over the fact that we have been saved from Hell and will spend eternity in Paradise with Christ forever.

[1] Randy Alcorn. Happiness (Carol Stream, Ill: Tyndale House Publications, Inc., 2015), 219.

[2] Ibid, 120.

[3] Ibid, xii.

People all around us are fearful about getting COVID-19. Social distancing has caused us to stand further away from each other in casual conversation. Shoppers at grocery stores are avoiding each other in the aisles. People are even driving alone in their car, with masks over their face, fearful that they will somehow get sick in their own car. There is great fear in our nation.

Recently, I watched a video of Ray Comfort sharing the gospel with some girls. The girls were laughing at Ray as he lovingly shared the gospel with them. He got through his whole presentation of the gospel and ended with one simple illustration that went like this: “If you were going to jump out of a plane at 10,000 feet, why would you put on a parachute?” One girl answered, “To save our lives.” Ray then responded and said, “And your motivation would be fear. You don’t want to hit the ground at 120 miles per hour on your face.” Then Ray responded with these words of wisdom, “Fear is your friend in that respect, not your enemy.”

While listening to that, it hit me that we are living in a time where fear is on everyone’s mind. We are living in the unknown about a cure for the virus, about when life will go back to normal, and about life itself. Many people live with the question, “Will I get this virus?,” fearful of death. We know this to be true by the way people are living their lives. A friend just told me a story about a couple who has not left their house in five weeks because of fear of getting COVID-19.  

As Christians, we read Bible verses such as 2 Timothy 1:7, “for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control,” and we do well to live a life that is not filled with fear because this spirit of fear is not from God. We turn away from fear and begin to focus on living our lives in faith. This is the right response that Christians need to have when faced with fear. However, we tend to cast-off fear as being a bad thing and forget the purpose of fear in life.

We are living in a time when fear has become our friend. This doesn’t mean that as Christians we live in fear, but we can easily use fear to witness to the unbelieving world. Fear is one of the motivations that God will use to draw people to Himself. There is a reality of eternal damnation in Hell, separated from God forever. This ought to bring more fear to people than COVID-19.

Jonathan Edwards used fear in his famous sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Edwards said,

“O sinner, consider the fearful danger you are in! It is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire if the wrath that you are held over in the hand of that God whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you as against many of the damned in hell. You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder; and you have no interest in any Mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment.”

Sadly, we live in a day where this message is not preached. Many pastors only give a message of health, wealth, and happiness if people will just invite Jesus into their heart. They say things like, “God has a wonderful plan for your life,” or “God wants to fulfill all your hopes and dreams,” or “God wants to give you your best life now.” We need to remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 25:41, “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’” Jesus taught a lot about the reality of Hell. We must use fear and warn people about the reality that they are heading to Hell without Christ.

At this point in an unbeliever’s life, COVID-19 is not what they need to be fearful of. They need to be fearful of God Himself because His wrath is upon them. All who die without faith in Christ will suffer an eternal punishment. Use fear as a friend to help those around you recognize their need for a cure. Not a cure from a virus, but a cure from their sin. As they are currently in a state of fear, use that fear to tell them of the good news of Christ who came to die for sinners and be raised on the third day to give them life. Offer them hope and tell them the good news that Christ gave to turn the sinner’s fear into faith. Jesus said in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” The promise for all who repent of their sin and trust in Christ is eternal peace with Him. As they fear the reality of death, we can use that fear as a friend to offer them the hope of eternal life.

Psalm 115:3 says, "But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases." So often we want to be in control and do things our way. If we had it our way, we would not have this virus spreading throughout the world. But we have no control over it. People young and old are dying from it and all we can do is pray that we are not affected by it. This virus is a good reminder for us that we are not in control.

2. Death is a reality.

Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." We live in a time where people are not exposed to death. We have a healthcare system and doctors who are the best in world. We have access to medicine at pretty much any store we go to. All we want to do is prolong life and we keep death at a distance. The college students who went out on Spring break were a perfect example. Many thought they were too young to get COVID-19, but we are now finding out that people of all ages are getting it. Death is a reality because sin is a reality. This ought to help us put life into perspective and realize what things are really important. The Lord numbers our days, but we don't know when the last day is. We must always be ready.

3. We can't control the future.

Proverbs 27:1 says, "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth." No one thought that in the year 2020 a virus, of all things, would have our nation in such an upheaval. We have the best healthcare in the world, yet one virus has caused our nation to stop. And what will tomorrow bring? No one knows. When will we be able to get out of our homes and back to normal life? No one knows. They keep telling us a date, but that date seems to keep changing. We long to get back to normal life, but what then will the next thing be that stops America? We don't know. However, as believers we know that the future is in God's hands. We know that we have a future inheritance because of what Christ has done for us on the cross (1 Peter 1:3-4). 

4. The effects of sin are far reaching.

Romans 5:12 says, "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, ans so death spread to all men, because all sinned." This virus is a result of sin. The reason we have disease and death in our world is because of sin. As we are finding out daily, all people are susceptible to this virus. No one is immune. And this reminds us of the effects of sin. Not only has death spread to all men because of sin, but the very sin we commit impacts others around us. Unlike the virus, we have a cure for sin. His name is Jesus! We need live lives of obedience to Him and repent of our sin daily. 

5. We can't trust in man.

Psalm 118:8 says, "It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man." There is nothing that man can do to heal the hundreds of thousands of people with the virus. People are dying every day because there is no cure yet. This is not to take away from the doctors and nurses who are risking their lives to treat the sick. We are grateful for them and all they are doing to help the helpless. However, our trust is not in doctors. Our trust must be in God alone. He is in control and we must look to Him to our help and our protector. 

6. People are hurting and need hope.

Jesus says in Matthew 11:28, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." Every night on the news, there are people who are weeping over the death of loved ones. People are hurting and in fear. There is fear amongst citizens and nurses who are afraid of getting the virus. One nurse quit her job because of fear of getting the virus. These people are broken and need someone to comfort them. We know where they can find that comfort. We have that hope that they so desperately need. We can point them to Jesus who said He will give them rest for their souls. We can show love and comfort to those who are in fear by pointing them to the One who died for sinners, rose from the grave, and offers the hope of eternal life.  

7. Jesus is the only answer.

Jesus said in John 14:6, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." As we know, the wages of our sin is death. Death is a reality with or without a virus. Everyone of us is headed to the grave because of our sin and after that comes judgment. You will either spend eternity apart from God in hell or with Him in heaven. The only way to have eternal life with God in heaven is through faith in His Son, Jesus who came to this earth, lived a perfect life, died to pay for sin, and rose again to conquer sin and death. All other ways lead to eternal damnation in hell. Turn from your sin and place your trust in Jesus alone for the forgiveness of your sin. When you do this, you will receive the free gift of eternal salvation (Eph. 2:8). Jesus is the only answer!

Sometimes, as Christians living under the New Covenant, we think the Old Testament does not apply to our modern lives. We look at it as more of a history book rather than God's inspired Word. But the Old Testament has much to teach us as New Testament Christians. Romans 15:4 says, "For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope." As we study the Old Testament and follow Israel's path, we see how they quickly began to turn away from God and His blessings and worship idols instead. 

The prophet Hosea ministered around 755-710 BC and had much to say to the northern kingdom (Israel). He began to prophesy during the latter part of the reign of Jeroboam II. At this time, Israel was experiencing much economic and political success. God had blessed them with great material prosperity. However, the nation was also growing in spiritual apostasy and moral corruption. After Jeroboam II's death, Israel declined rapidly. This would eventually lead to the invasion of Assyria and Israel's exile from the land. 

In Hosea 10:1-2 the prophet writes,

"Israel is a luxuriant vine;
He produces fruit for himself.
The more his fruit,
The more altars he made;
The richer his land,
The better he made the sacred pillars.
Their heart is faithless;
Now they must bear their guilt.
The Lord will break down their altars
And destroy their sacred pillars."

God gave great blessing to Israel in the land. Instead of using this blessing to glorify God, they used it to build altars of idol worship. Their hearts were drawn away from God and they committed spiritual adultery. God even had Hosea marry a prostitute named Gomer, which was a picture of Israel's spiritual immorality. How quickly Israel turned the blessing of God into their own idol worship. 

What Can America Learn?

In America today, there is great material prosperity. We have experienced great economic success and have much to be thankful for. In many ways, we are in a situation much like Israel was in. But how have we used our prosperity? Have we used it to bring God glory or have we used it to create idols for ourselves? We claim to be "one nation under God" and have the slogan "In God We Trust" on our dollar bills, but do we believe that? Do we trust in God or do we trust in our wealth?

Sadly, over the past few weeks, we have seen what can happen when our trust is in riches. We have seen how quickly our material prosperity can be turned upside down. Many of the shelves in our supermarkets are empty. Toilet paper has become a coveted commodity as people fight over it in the aisles. In the wealthiest nation in world, a simple flu-like virus has shut down the economy and put millions of Americans out of work. In a recent quote by Hulk Hogan, famed wrestler and actor from the 1980's, he spoke about how God has taken away everything we worship: athletes, muscians, actors, and money. What is a nation to do when their idols are taken away?

The Christian's Lesson

As believers, we need to learn from Israel and heed the warning in front of us. We need to make sure that we are not taking the blessings from God and making idols for ourselves. If we have done that, it is time to repent. We must put our trust in God and in Him alone. We must make sure that we use the blessings of God to bring Him glory. 

As we look around and see many people in our nation who are desperate and looking for answers, we need to be people who have anchored our hope in Christ. We also need to point them to the One who came to offer them hope and the free gift of eternal life. While our own people are fearful and seeking answers, we need to be a people who share the good news of the greatest hope. Point them to Jesus, who came to die for sinners, was buried, and rose again on the third day, so that all who place their faith in Him can have the greatest blessing of all—eternal life.