Sin

Part 11
Matthew 15 21-28 tells us the famous story of Christ’s casting the devil out of the woman of Canaan’s daughter and it has something in it that is both singular and very surprising. Christ was prophesied as “the light” by Isaiah. “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.” Isaiah 9:2 Here is a “gleam of that light which was to lighten the Gentiles.” Luke 2:32
As God was mocked by the Jew as they played with His affection, though He long endured, He did not endure the contradiction of sinners against Himself. God WILL give up on those who play Him. Keep Him at a distance, stiff-arm Him when He draws you, and you will soon have calloused your heart so there is no appeal left to obey Him!!
This mother was a stranger to the commonwealth of Israel. Providence brought her and Christ together. Had He never taken this journey it is probable that she would have never come to Him. Obedience to Christ has often come when those who would have never sought Him are brought into His presence by a circumstance. The tender-hearted feel the miseries of those that are pieces of themselves! The distress and pain brought about by Satan’s encumbrance drove this woman to the Lord.
She has a strange cry-“Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David”. She does not plead for merit, but for mercy. She has not earned the right, she pleads-mercy. Her plea was turned down. This was entirely different for the Lord. He was always answering before they called and hearing while they were yet speaking! WHY?? The methods of providence may be explained with the key to this story.
While she spoke, He “answered her not”. By ignoring her and drawing away from her, she desired more. The disciples interceded in her behalf; “send her away with a cure, she cries after us, and is troublesome to us.” Yet, Christ did not, He did something stranger—He argued with her, presenting an un-answerable argument. A lesser woman would have given up. It is a great consideration when we consider we are of those who Christ sent someone to tell us the sweet story of salvation and others are not.
What Christ said silenced the disciples (they took His answer as final), she COULD not!! She had nothing to loose. Instead of blaming Christ, or charging Him with unkindness, she seems to respect His answer as righteous. Disappointment in success demands more earnestness when the cause is just!! She was NOT a child of Israel and did NOT deserve His favor, but she represented one who was His!! “If I perish, I perish, was her attitude, she is worthy”. Weak Christians question their right at times to ask for those things they do not feel worthy—such had better mind their prayers to the Father. Throw yourself on the mercy of the court of Heaven. Does Heaven not look upon those “in Christ” who have broken hearts as a Father looks at His children?? I hear people cry “Lord, help me” and they cry in vain, they use it as a byword and in doing this take God’s name in vain!!
“I beg a crumb, Lord, is it not small in comparison to the loaves you have fed to Israel” They, who are conscious of themselves, knowing they deserve nothing, will be thankful for anything, especially when they observe the way the “faithful” treat the Lord—at a great man’s house are not the dogs fed as sure as the children?? Faith honors God most, the greater the faith, the stronger the appeal, the more “power we have with God”!! Unfortunately, the most needful do not assemble, pray, give, or let their light shine—yet, demand the blessings!! “God is not mocked”. Galatians 6:5

Part 12
There was something strange about Judas Iscariot. He had had all the opportunities ever given anyone that preceded him and threw then all away. At the Last Passover Judas had been the successful hypocrite Had the other disciples known what he was about, they would have killed him. He had had in his heart to betray our Lord for reasons all of us speculate to be power and grandeur in the new Kingdom, yet, in the final analysis, Judas was the ultimate hypocrite. His story is the worst of the worst. His name sends cold shudders up and down the back bone when we think of his treachery. Some have suggested that God rejected him and that is why he betrayed Jesus. This makes God human and He is not!! God does not think or act like man, if this were one of us, Judas would have not made it alive to meet the priest that night!! In listing the apostles, the Scriptures always name Peter first and Judas last.
In the Garden when Judas was making his final approach to the Lord, God allowed Judas to kiss Him. Luke 22:47-48 No one but God could have been so kind. It is as if with every step in His direction, Jesus was trying to plead with Judas to think---as if He were crying to him “run, Judas, run, this is far too dreadful for you, the ramifications of your act man can not understand.” Jesus had chosen Judas, and Judas had chosen to be a disciple of Jesus and all the while Jesus knew that Judas “was a devil”. John 6:70-71 John said of Judas, the trusted treasurer, that he was a crook who stole from the apostles’ money gag. John 12:1-6 This was surely something that had not passed the attention of the Master. Judas had never been confronted about it. Was it the stealing that finally got through his last defenses and destroyed him? Some have let the “bottle” do the same thing to them!! Finally, there is nothing left to save!!
At the last Passover, Judas was playing “religious” while having all those thoughts in his head. It seemed as yet he had not completely made up his mind when “Satan entered” him. John 13:26-30 While the other disciples were crying, “Is it I”, Judas was playing the part. If the disciples had cried “Is it Judas? “, would it have shaken him up enough to wake him up?? Matthew 26:21-25 “Of what a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage”, Peter writes. 2 Peter 2:19 I have seen many saints partake of their own destruction by drinking alcohol, missing services, not giving, and not praying—when someone tried to wake them out of their slide to Hell, they turned on them and “rended” their friend. Even when Christ told Judas he was the murderer, it did not seem to shake him!! A saint who has become a child of God can be used by Satan!! Jesus told him; “what thou doest, do quickly”.
“He went to the priest”. As a disciple, he was disloyal to his teacher. He betrayed Jesus for only a few dollars. Notice—he did not go to the Pharisees, he went to the priests. The heart of Judas that had at one time been obedient to the plan of God was now destroying the God he had obeyed!! He had spent three years with Jesus but had not benefited from them. He had failed to admit error in his thinking and could not repent. To be blunt, Judas could not bring himself to allow the plan of God to be successful—he had to stop it, he thought!! There are some who will NOT allow God’s will to be done with their mates or their children—they and the bottle have to have its way!! He could be trusted and when he was finally awakened, he could not regret what he had done; his pride would not allow it. No man was ever warned as was Judas. Jesus had said; “Did I Myself not choose you, yet one of you is a devil”?