Woe to you, to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.
It would had been good for that man if he had not been born. - Mark 14:21
Let me make this very personal and very pointed with everyone here today:
If you do not repent of your sin,
if you do not deny yourself,
if you do not take up a cross,
if you do not become a follower of Jesus Christ,
it would be better for you that you never were born.
Because once you die
you will face the Judgement
and you will be damned
and you will be consigned to hell forever.
If you do not believe upon Jesus Christ, if you do not run to His arms of mercy and grace.
If you do not confess your sin and receive from Him the forgiveness of your sin.
Jesus says to you, “It would be better for you that you had never been born.”
Because what awaits you on the other side of death is so awful,
is so repulsive,
is so terrifying,
It would've been better if God had never even made you
than for you to live and to betray the Son of God.
All of us here in this room today have the knowledge of the Gospel
and a have the knowledge of the truth and have the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And for us to have that knowledge and the proximately to the truth
and to have the opportunity with Christ
and to have the access to Him through the truth
and to not repent of our sins
and to not do soul searching and say, “Lord, is it I?”
and to die as Judas died, outside of Christ,
it would be better that you had never been born
because of what will await you is the flames of hell forever and ever…
But how the Lord desires to cover sin.
How reluctant the Lord is to rush into Judgment.
How the Lord desires to put His pardon over a soul.
And how He desires to apply His own blood to your life.
If you have never believed upon Jesus Christ, I call you this day to come to faith in Christ,
and to surrender your life to Him.
Others of us here today have loved ones who are in just the same place as Judas.
We have daughters, we have sons, we have fathers, we have mothers, we have loved ones…
and many of them are religious.
And many of them are like Judas and have great exposure to the truth that they know so much
but yet they are so far away from Jesus Christ.
May the Lord give us the love that He Himself demonstrated towards Judas.
May we go to the second, the third and the fourth mile with them.
May we be so slow to write them off.
May we continue to extend love and mercy and grace to them
while there is still time and while there is still opportunity in this world for them to come to faith in Christ.
And how much is it to God to save, that one, that we would least expect, like Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus road.
So let us all draw from the example of Christ here
and let us be patient and suffer many things, and be enduring long-suffering
as we extend the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those who stand in the shoes of Judas, here upon this earth.
We will never know who is elect and who is not until we find ourselves in heaven and look around.
But until then,
may we be those who are so gracious and so patient and so long-suffering even as Christ
that they might receive the Gospel that we hold to them.
Let us pray.