One man who gambled away his salvation and legacy as one of the world-shaking disciples of Jesus Christ is Judas Iscariot. Judas was just an ordinary man, the son of one named Simon. He was a genuine chosen and empowered apostle, and he was a successful preacher and healer. To deny that would be a very foolish thing, for the Holy Ghost cannot dwell in an unclean temple! (Matthew 10:1-20; Mk 3:14-19; 6:7-13; Luke 6:12-16; 9:1-10; Acts 1:17) However, John 7:70 teaches us that Jesus “prophesied” one of his disciples was a devil. The word “devil” in this passage of scripture means “adversary” or “false accuser.” Judas wasn’t a literal devil, nor was he possessed at this moment in time because if Judas was already a devil and possessed, then Jesus would’ve never ordained him to be in the ministry because never will the Word speak of an anointed Word from God coming out of impure lips. It would’ve made Jesus’ ministry a mockery if Judas was in complete sin when he was ordained a disciple, and it would’ve completely contradicted the Word. Jesus even ordained him to be one of the 12 disciples, and Jesus did this after God revealed to Him while praying in the mountains who was to be the 12. But greed was in his heart, and his greed went from a thought to an imagination to a stronghold, making flesh his arm rather than his spirit. God knew the very thoughts of his heart, how he knew that they were against him! You never will read where Judas was ever excluded from performing God’s work in his discipleship until greediness led him into complete destruction. In Matthew 10:1-20 and Luke 9:1-10, the Word teaches us that Jesus ordained the 12 disciples and gave them power to go against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of diseases. They were to speak the Word and face opposition in their ministry, for Judas in Acts 1:17 had “obtained part of this ministry.” Satan cannot cast out Satan, and, if Judas had the power to cast out devils, then he wasn’t devil-controlled as Christ’s disciple. Satan can easily influence your flesh, but how can your spirit have any power when it is always consumed by the flesh?

The position that Judas Iscariot had as a disciple was that he was the treasurer, taking care of the money. However, he was also a thief. The disciples would have never wanted the money that supported their ministry to be robbed by their very own. Judas had to have had some form of trust in order to have this position, but greed would be a great struggle for him at this time. The Bible says, “He was a thief, and had the bag, and bore what was put therein.” You can’t have 2 masters, for you either serve God or mammon, and mammon would be his god. God knew the heart of Judas, how he lived and what decisions he’d make in the future, and these decisions would lead to destruction. Just like in John 12:4-6 that Judas wanted to trade the anointing for money, so would he trade Jesus, the Anointed One, for 30 pieces of silver, which totaled $19.20. This was 133 days’ wages of a common laborer at 17 cents a day! When Jesus received His second anointing, Judas preferred that the precious ointment went to waste when it was used for anointing Jesus rather than being sold for 300 pence, which is equal to like $51. Judas stole naturally, robbing the money that supported Christ’s ministry, and spiritually, robbing the anointing and blessings others deserved! You rob people when you step out of God’s perfect will by betraying others! Money cannot buy happiness, and no matter how much Judas controlled the revenue and expenses for Jesus’ ministry, even though he was blinded, believing to make the right decisions, he did evil in the Lord’s sight. You cannot hide sin from God, for Judas’ heart of sin was revealed to God, or else it would’ve never been written in the Word! Judas lived for God for a while, but he went from a disciple to a betrayer. You can be among the other 11 disciples and still be a betrayer of the Son of God! You can say that you are anointed and have power to cast out devils, but what about your relationship in the secret place? It is in the secret place that reveals the secret intents of your heart! If what you do in secret is try to find all the ways that you can to betray God, then your actions will show and be revealed. You can lift your hands in here and say that you love Him, but what do the secret intents of your heart demonstrate? You cannot serve both God and money, for your actions will truly show who you love and serve. 1 Timothy 6:10 says, “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” Before something can take root in the ground, there must first be a seed, and when your words and your thought life is centered around greed, you will form a root of all forms of different evil, from suicide to gambling to abortion. Your greed for the pleasures of this world can make a great effect in your future. That is the primary reason why Satan attacks so many young people in the years of transition from immaturity to maturity, because even though you have the conscience to know to do this or that, you still doing it because it looks entertaining now, but the devil wants to blind you from the after effects in the future. He sugarcoats it to make it look pleasurable now, but it can be the root of death in the future. While you are in the moment, uproot the seed now. While you have the moment, uproot greed now because once sin takes root, your fruit will be embarrassment, regret, and low self-esteem. The only way that it can be covered is by the precious blood of Jesus Christ!

Psalms 55:12-14 says, “For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him: But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.” This scripture teaches us that it wasn’t an enemy that reproached Christ, but it was one of His own, one He was well acquainted with! Psalms 41:9 says, “Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.” The phrase “lifted up his heel against me” refers to when a horse turns and kicks him that feeds him! Judas did as a horse would do, kick the one that fed Him. Jesus fed Him spiritual and natural bread, and yet Judas kicked Him through several acts of betrayal! Judas’ little sins piled up to a stronghold that would lead to one of the greatest sins in the world, gambling with and betraying the Savior of the world, and yet people do it everyday! Judas’ greed and desired for gain in the world overcame his need and desire for of God! “What does it profit for a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?!” Judas would betray Jesus with a kiss, a false sense of love, and for 30 pieces of silver! Exodus 21:32 teaches us that this was a price for a slave. Jesus made himself a slave to sin, sacrificing His own life so that He would be the redemption for sin! The Bible teaches us that Satan had already put the little seed in Judas’ mind and heart to go against Jesus, but his evil deed couldn’t be accomplished until after he became possessed. When Satan entered into Judas, he went to get the chief scribes and a great multitude with swords and staves to take Jesus. When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, Judas told His multitude that whoever he kissed that He would be the one he was delivering unto them. After Judas kissed Jesus, Jesus asked him, “Friend (my comrade and companion), for what reason are you here?” Jesus knew exactly what Judas was doing, but even after Judas embraced Him and showed Him a false love, Jesus would have forgiven him if he would have just accepted it! And when they came to Jesus “they went backwards and fell to the ground.” They were submitted to being destroyed by Jesus, and Jesus could’ve done so, but He didn’t come to send vengeance upon the rebels, but to save that which was lost!

John 13:18 says, “I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me.” At the Lord’s supper, all of Jesus’ disciples were present, and as they were already eating the Passover, Jesus took the bread, blessed it, brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take eat; this is my body.” Simply put: Don’t be the Judas of the table! Do not eat with God one minute and then betray him the next. It does not good to have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof. God is not fooled by a mask or persona of relationship. He knows what you hold, and if it is counterfeit, it will not stand through the fire! You will be no better than the sons of Sceva, of whom Satan said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?” Live a life where even the devil knows your name!

Just like the prodigal son came to himself, just like when David came to himself through Nathan concerning his sins with Bathsheba, and just like Peter came to himself on the sins of denying Jesus Christ, Judas came to himself. God will always provide you with the moment of “It is time to wake up and realize what you are doing!” Tonight is your wake up call to allow the blood of Jesus to mark you forever! Judas came to himself and realized what he had done, but instead of going to the Father and even the source he betrayed, he went to the chief priests. Zechariah 11:13 says, “And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord!” People cannot save you, but our High Priest, Jesus Christ can transform your life forever. This is poker, not go-fish! Once you are dealt a hand, you either hold them or fold them. You cannot change cards once they are dealt to you. You cannot replay a hand once it it is over. You cannot go back and redo your past and make a different decision, but you have to learn from them and move forward. Judas was given the opportunity to gamble Christ away, and he did, losing the worth of his salvation. He wanted to replay the hand, but he gambled everything he had away! Do not gamble all of your salvation for a pair of deuces, or, in other words, for a little greed. Play what you know will work!

The chief priests did not accept his 30 pieces of silver because it was blood money. So, he threw it down in the temple because he thought all hope was lost for him, and instead of becoming one of God’s greatest warriors and calling on God for forgiveness, he killed himself, believing he was just too far from God to be forgiven. He murdered his own soul, which led him to Hell! (Zech 11:13) I have come to tell you that the devil is a liar and the father of it, and that there is hope for you. His name is Jesus. He is that someone out there!

It was prophesied that concerning Judas, “And his bishoprick let another take!” He was once saved, but died lost as the son of perdition because of his own choice. You have the right to make your own decisions, but you never allowed to escape the consequences of those decisions that you make. (Acts 1:15-20; Psalms 69:25-28; 109:8-15) It is not God’s will that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. It was not God’s will for Judas to make hell his home, but at the same time, God knew the decisions Judas would make, which makes it easy to prophesy concerning the matter. But all he needed to do was make the decision to repent and step out of regret and into God’s perfect will! Even though Judas had his own DNA, he was replaced by a man named Matthias as one of the 12 disciples of Jesus Christ. Don’t be replaced tonight! Don’t abort the plan of God for your life! God has a plan for your life. God doesn’t regret putting breath into your body. People believe that because Christ said of Judas that it would be better if they were never born to say the same thing of them, but you must realize the work that Judas performed. He chose to go against the sovereign God, and he chose every decision that he made. God doesn’t make anybody do anything, but you have a freewill that can make your life either profitable or profitless. Choose this day whom ye will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!

One of the Greek words for hell in the New Testament in referring to the eternal torment, pains, and sorrows of hell and the Lake of Fire is “geenna,” which comes from a Hebrew origin meaning, “The Valley of Lamentation!” In OT times, a place existed in the South of Jerusalem where the Jews offered the children to Molech, and it was known as the Valley of Hinnom, or the Valley of Tophet. In later times, it served as a receptacle of all sorts of putrefying matter and all that defiled the holy city, and so became the representative or image of the everlasting punishment, especially on account of its perpetual fires. It was this fact that the words of Christ refer to when He mentions “the unquenchable fire!” When Judas went to hang himself in Gehinnom, he was actually stating that he felt as worthless as the trash in Gehinnom, that he was so undeserving of God’s forgiveness that he might as well make his home in the unquenchable fire that the Savior of the world had at one point talked about! But no matter what you have done, God’s grace is sufficient and willing to forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness! Even though you have sinned so many times and as Paul called himself “the chief of sinners,” you can be like Paul and allow the blood of Jesus Christ to wash over your life. You don’t have to dwell in the valley of Lamentation, weeping and gnashing of teeth, but you can accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and allow your weeping to turn into joy, for the joy of the Lord is our strength! Get away from that valley and kneel down before the Creator of the Universe, and the God of mercy and grace will forgive you and give you a new start. “Forget those things which are behind, and look forward to those things which are ahead!”

2 Kings 23:10 says, “And he (Josiah – an 8-year old king of Judah) defiled Topheth, which in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.” A form of idolatrous worship was offered in the land of Topheth, and the false god was known as Molech. Leviticus 18:21 says, “And you shall not let any of your seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shall you profane the name of your God, I am the LORD.” When you look at the worship of false gods, especially in OT times, people have committed so many immoral acts. To glorify Molech, they would sacrifice the little children of the communion of worshippers to Molech. His image was a brazen cow sitting upon a brazen pedestal, and his humane arms were extending out to welcome the false worship. This image had a hole in its stomach with a perpetual fire in it, and they would sacrifice their children as they were shaken over the fire and die in their infancy! The word “Topheth,” comes from the word “taphaph,” which means “to drum,” because a drum was used to drown out the sound of the cries of the children as they are being pass through, or burning, in the fire! Judas Iscariot was the only disciple not from the Galilee. He was actually from the city of Kerioth, which is a fortified city of Moab. Their main idolatrous worship was Chemosh. Chemosh was the Moabite form of the Ammonite god, Molech. In other words, when Judas died in the Valley of Tophet where this Molech worship was done, he was actually saying, “It was better for me to have never been born!” The same god that he was, by culture, “born to serve” by being sacrificed to Molech, he actually ended dying to it, aborting his life and sacrificing his life to it.

Judas died at the edge of Gehinnom, in the Valley of Tophet, which was named after Molech, at the potter’s field, where they’d throw useless potter so men and horses could trample upon it! Judas hung himself on a tree branch, which would break, causing him to fall and hit the bottom, where his bowels would gush out! Judas was buried in the potter’s field, where he would be trampled under the feet of men and horses! The Bible says, “God’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither His ear heavy that it cannot hear.” Judas went to Gehinnom, to hell on earth, to end his life because he felt as though he was as broken potter, unworthy to live, and deserved to be trampled under the feet of all mankind! (Jeremiah 18:1-6; Isaiah 64:8) We are the potter, and He is the clay, and we are to be the work of His hands. In Jeremiah 18, the Bible teaches us that God told Jeremiah, whose name means “Jehovah will rise,” to go to the potter’s house so He can get a word from Him! So, Jeremiah went to the potter’s house, and he saw a potter working on the wheel. The vessel the potter was working on began to mar in the hand of the potter, and instead of throwing the clay away, He made it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter. You may have stepped out of the will of God before to even the point you feel like you have been marred, ruined, or destroyed, but God will perform His perfect will for your life. You may have messed up in your past even to where that it messed up God’s original intentions for your purpose in creation, but God is not done with you! It’s not over unless you want it to be over. You don’t have to have the same mentality as Judas and die in the Valley of Lamentation in the Valley of Gehinnom, but you can obtain eternal life and say, “Potter and maker, put me back on the wheel. I am ready.” You cannot change what is behind you, but your decisions can effect what is out ahead of you!