Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 89 | Phil's Living Room Plague, BIG'N's Halo, and Did Judas Have a Choice?

Episode Date: May 15, 2020

Phil fights a plague in his living room and fire ants in his pants, BIG'N is driven close to insanity, and Missy runs the nets with Jase — voluntarily! Phil surveys the damage after a tornado turns his duck blind upside down. And the guys answer a question about Judas' betrayal: Did God create us and not give us a choice between right and wrong? Bonus: Jase reveals the inspiration for this frequently shared "Duck Dynasty" quote: "When you don't know what you're doing, it's best to do it quickly." See episodes of "Unashamed with Phil Robertson": https://bit.ly/2J4XsiX   See clips from Phil's TV show "In the Woods with Phil": https://bit.ly/2PNM6k1  - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am Unachanged What about you? Well, you're way away from the mic. So you may have to put your earphone. Yeah, we're running. I got from time and time I'll get on. So the aunt.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I'm a little antsy this morning. And somebody, the old joke in the south, I think where you got ants in your pants. That's exactly what I have in my pants. They're fire ants. It's pestilence of sort. I bet we're the only podcast in the world that starts off by a man picking fire ants off of his body.

When they come up on the right leg, they all got on the right leg, they started coming up. I didn't know they were there. They are going now between my pants and my leg. My old legs ain't worth much anymore, but they have stung me from my foot all the way over my knee. So they're up to my thigh, and they're still going. I'm climbing. Ladies and gentlemen, I have just, this is an update, an emergency. This is an emergency update.

Not only is there a pandemic with a viral, a microbe that's invisible. we have visible pestilence also. This reminds me of the plague of flies in Exodus. Now down at my house, before I tell you about there, I ain't just eating my tail up right now. I will just say that I looked around, I said, what are all these little flies? Yeah, the Nats.

No sea of nats. They're fruit flies. Well, I think they call them, because they say the biting ones or their buffalo. Hello, Nats. We've killed hundreds inside my living room where we eat. We're just steadily killing them. Dan came up with a, he got on the black box.

That's the place you go to if you have a black box, a little cell phone. Black box. I said, get on your black box and sit for some kind of a remedy. He comes up with a concoction that's put in a pint jar. I don't know what's all. He said vinegar, something sweet was in there. it gives off some kind of aroma. Nectar.

Listen, every couple of days he pours it out. And when he pours it out, there will be like 300 of these fruit flies. There's tens of thousands of them. Tell me about it. Because he's in the kitchen area. I'm glad the 300. I'm sitting down there about 40 feet from him in the living room with a fly swatter. And I'm just killing what I can.

that, you know, I'm getting better at it, hit them in the air when they fly, but most of them may light somewhere, make a mistake, pop, or get that one. So, Miss Kay's sitting over, you know, she'll be reading a book, you get him, I said, yeah, I got it. Well, I will, this is what, this is your pandemic.

So not only was it pandemic with a virus, we've got a plague of flies, and unbeknown to me on my way up to here, driving along the river, I walked over and through some shrimp holes. We're going to have fried shrimp today and the hull throw them in the river catfish like them

so I did that just walked 10 feet walked back to the truck and the whole right leg was covered with the fire ants and they've torn my tail up and tomorrow you'll have like a thousand you have the little zits the fire ant zits it's weird you bring that up

though not all is peaceful down on the river but you bring up the nats so missy you know she's suffering from quarantine withdrawals but you knew that because quarantineitis. Because she came down with me and ran the net, which was shocking. I got up. I looked over and saw her, and I thought it was an illusion.

I'm like, that was a really weird thing you said. Do you remember what you said? No, but I looked at it. I said, well, you looked at her in the airshot. He looked at me and Phil said, oh, so you brought your woman with you? She's like, you know, your daughter-in-law, hey, missy, come along. You brought your woman with you? I said, yep.

She said, oh, I'm now the woman. Well, I didn't remember that, but I was just trying to be, you know. You would just be in. Courteous. Curteous. I don't think that way. I've never seen that particular woman in a boat running a hook net. That's the first time I've seen that, Jay.

So you made John Headway, how long it takes to get her to get out there like that? 20-something years. 20-something years. Yeah, and she went once, and then she waited another. the five years, went again. But, you know, she, it was her idea. But I, you know, you look. I think it's 30 years this year.

Well, I know, but I took her. Oh, for the, he said, went the first time. So it's been over 30, then. But, you know, I still haven't learned because a lot of guys, I'm sure, are married, you know, to women who have this issue. We hope this is. And, uh, because still things I don't, like, things you would say with your buddies, you shouldn't say to your wife. Like she said, because she got right. Fixed to walk into the boat.

Well, you know, it had rained and the boat was about half full of water. And I was like, I'm going to have to bail the boat out here. Then I was, oh, he's got a build bump in here. This is awesome. But, you know, when that happens, there's a lot of moving insects that I don't notice because I know, I mean, I look around and make sure there's not a cotton mouth, scorpion, you know, something that can kill me. And if I look around, I think everything's fine. And she said, are there any spiders in here? And I said, well, yeah.

I said, but they won't hurt you. I said, now we had one in here the other day when we got in. I said, that thing was that big around. Well, see, I shouldn't have said that. Because then I looked and she just turned pale. And I said, well, but he's not. I'll look. And I thought, why did I say that?

Because I thought, that's cool. You think spiders. Everything that touches her leg then is going to be the giant spiders. It's horrible. Well, anyway, that's, I don't finish my. story. So every time I looked around, because she was screaming the entire time. But she was screaming in excitement. When the fish come up, she's like, oh, you know, I'm like, I wanted to say, you got to act like you've been here before. But every time she'd do that, you know, I'd look

around because she's looking, she's looking for that spider. She'd holl her and then look, you know. It's just the whole time. I thought it wasn't miserable. I took a guy duck up one time and he said, Roberson, he said, I'm from Illinois. He said, he was looking at the ground. He said, this ground down there where y'all live, it is literally crawling alive with, he said, I've never seen this many insect, spiders, bug. He said, the ground is just moving. And I thought, I looked down, and he was looking at the ground. I looked down. I could just see things. especially in the backwater, you know. Well, what happened to your perfume for your nats? Because I was going to tell you. It works. Because, see, what happened?

We went to the plantation this weekend because Missy's parents. But I made them not telling anybody if I ever put some of it on. It's the Victoria Secret, I think it says on there. It's for women who want to get all perfumed up and some of their girly men. I'm familiar with Victoria Secrets. Bottom line is that stuff, somebody said it's, keep these noceums off of it. I tried it and it actually works. Which kind is it?

Well, now, don't get me into talking perfumes because somebody said this will work and I'm like, don't be telling anybody I ever did this. And I sprayed my head with it. And, you know, but I mean, they took off. I mean, they got away from you. See, when I went right across the river to the old plantation house that we have, I mean, the gnat we were, I was calling them gnats. But they're coming out of the backwater.

Jack? Yeah. Well, I started reading them. Are they biting kind? Oh, they bite. Oh, yeah. Oh, Missy's like allergic to. Bloodsucker.

Here we go. She had whelps all over. And she's like, there's something biting me. I was like, hey, there's thousands of that. But look, I thought about that in the plague. It's interesting. You brought that up. Because, you know, I have my dog with me.

And he just stays in his little dog, can I. I now let him out, run around. It's time to go to bed. This is Biggin? Yeah, old Biggin. So Biggin's in the back of the truck. Well, when I woke up next morning, because I heard him, I heard him out there. And he doesn't ever bark or, you know, unless somebody comes up there.

But he's, whoo, woo, he's barking about every minute or two, six o'clock in the morning. Well, when I walked out there, look, there was a halo over that dog. Of those, of the gnats. And that's why I was barking. And so that joker, when I opened the hatch, he just took off. out of sight, jumped in the river, because when he came back,

you know, I could tell he was wet. And then he just started, you know, all over the ground. Just rolling. Just rolling. You know,

well, the guy that works for me that lives there, he was peeling crawfish, whatever they were making a gumbo. Because they had eaten crawfish the night before, you know, well, my dog just runs.

And I'm like, no, no, but it's too late. And he just jumped in the garbage can. just you know of course garbage goes everywhere and and gnats too well gnats and so he come running by after in he had something in the matter he grabbed a one of a corn cars and I was like this dog is gone these gnats have driven him insane insane and so well then what happened is he put the corn out because then he started sneezing because you know how you know when you you boil crawfish, the corn and the potatoes are the hottest for whatever reason,

which I don't know what causes that. It just soak it up more, I think. I mean, because everything else, you know, we like it spicy. But when you get to the corn, it's almost unedible. It's so spicy. That dog sneezed for days. It's been days now. He had all that up in his nose, you know.

And I thought, but I thought, you know, how back. Nats B, if you took one little gnat, and only the females bite, they're not a, you wouldn't think they're a threat, but if you get millions of them, bloodsuckers. This, I mean, it drove

that dog crazier than he already is. And they were, it's just, I was trying to metal detect, and it was just, they just was, I mean, it's a problem. When Pharaoh had the Egyptians, God started out, he said, this is what I'll do, with the

staff that's in my hand, I will strike the water of the Nile, and Moses, and it'll be changed into blood. The fish in the Nile will die. The river will stink. The Egyptians will not be able to drink its water, the plague of blood. Then there was a plague of flies, I mean, of frogs, and then there was a plague of gnats. Well, it makes you think that once the frogs, I'm looking at all this stuff. Once the frogs left, you had the gnats and the flies, which would make sense because the frogs

wasn't killing them. So you read these stories. And what's amazing is what you're seeing glimpses from time to time. It varies. It just, they just show up. It's pretty interesting that the very stories you read about 3,500 years ago are longer. You see like little glimpses of how that could be a problem. You notice those magicians?

You just look at it and God says, I will do this. I will do that. So all I can say, ladies and gentlemen, is it's on record and written. that these things have happened before. I just wouldn't rule God out of the equation when you're dealing with pandemics and blights and droughts. I don't know what on.

Do you remember that story? The magicians were replicating it. It makes me think of Hollywood. You know, somehow another. They replicated the first couple. Well, when he got to the Nats, couldn't replicate that one. And I think that was the first one that it didn't cease.

It never said it. Right. It was like, It wasn't lifted. And I always thought that's fascinating. I think the terminology was he made them from the dust turned to gnats, it says. Yeah. And it kind of made me think, though, about whenever there's a recreation that happens,

of course, I'm going to fast forward this to us being recreated in Jesus. There's a, that's a powerful force. I mean, what God basically did was he took creation and he kind of recreated it. it, which it turned into a plague in those cases. But whatever, whenever he stirs that again, I mean, spectacular things happen. Yeah, look, here's an exact reading. By now, I could have dressed out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But I've raised you up for a purpose, and for this very purpose I might show you my power

and that by name he proclaimed him in the earth. And then he, then you say, what did he did on? You'll set yourself against my people and not let them go. Therefore, at this time, tomorrow, I will send the worst hail storm that has ever fallen on Egypt from the day it was founded till now. So he gave it. Can you imagine that storm? Oh, look.

And he talks about everything. Is it both men and animals? It beat down everything growing in the field stripped every tree. That was only just small glimpse. but on top of the gnats and the fruit flies and the current pandemic that everybody is running from, I get them outboard every few days. You have to remember water rises here 25 or 30 feet. Which is where the gnats came from.

And our property is all underwater. 90% of it now was 96%. But it's all been underwater. A lot of acreage, you know, I mean, just miles. Well, I went over there yesterday. I'm constantly checking my duck blinds and my ropes and all this because the water is beginning to recede. As the water recedes, I have to make sure these duck blinds go down in the precise location pointing a precise direction, and you don't want them getting way up and then going over there and going down on a big tree top and turn it over.

So I'll pull out there and I'm checking my blinds, one or two. of the time, I do some work on about three or four of them, move them back in their previous location because the water now there is about seven feet deep. And you got to remember when you're saying blinds, most people may not realize. Some of these are the size of a small house. That is correct. I mean, they're huge. With that in mind.

So I checked the first four or five, and I'm going through the woods, and I'm going to check the blind we call the bottleneck hole. Yeah. We call it the bottleneck, because it kind of navelette. because it kind of narrows down a little bit and it opens back up in the woods. Well, I get off, I'm coming, motored up on the thing, and I look over there where the blind used to be, and I start seeing trees down.

Big overcut trees were down, down in the water. I'm thinking, boy, uh-oh, tornado. So I'm thinking a tornado has come through this place. So I'm looking around. Some of them are leaning. Some of them are in the water. So I finally see my blind what's left of it. When that tornado came through, it picked a 20 foot long, five feet wide.

How much you take it weighs? Oh, it weighed a ton. It was riding on Cyprus logs, tied off on both ends with ropes tied up in trees, and it was just sitting there floating until the water went down and goes down. drop it on down. So I hadn't seen it in a couple of weeks, but I pulled over there and I saw all the carnage and then I see what's left of that duck blind. The entire thing had been lifted up in the air, turned upside down, and now I'm looking

at the floor of the duck blind, the bottom of the floor. And with a few two before sticking out there, my logs are gone. They're somewhere out there. I don't know where the, how far the tornado took the end. him, but I'm just sit there and I'm looking at that thing. I said, you know what? I said, any way you, any way you, the power of the Almighty. Well, I hate to tell you this.

When he gets ready. That was my least favorite blind. Stone said, it's a good riddance that it's gone. He said, well, of all the ones. What you need to do is just let it ride all the way down and then just build again. I would have, I got to. I'll see if I'd find my logs that was floating on and maybe I'll lash them back together. because I don't know what happened to them.

Surely they're out there in the backwater somewhere, but you just got to remember. The logs were gone. But you got to remember everywhere I looked, there was a big tree that it hit the water. So they were just down trees. My duck blind has been completely lifted up and turned upside down. And I said, I cannot believe that kind of power comes from wind. What I don't like is when we... It's the same one that hit the Monroe Air Force.

Yeah, the winterland was the Easter. That night, that's when it got it. Not 10 days ago. That's right. Let's take a quick break. We hunted this year several times in violent thunderstorms. I thought about you. When he told that story, I thought about it.

The worst thing that could happen is if you were hunting and that happened while you were in it. When I saw that duck blind yesterday, I said the next time they say tornado warnings, we shouldn't get in these duck blind. I thought we were relatively safe floating on the water like a big ship. but you think about it, no. I will, because you're out in the open, you know. I will bet you a hondo right now that the next time a storm comes through here, you will be in the blood. It's a good time to duck up because ducks tend to want to get down.

He's already backing up. Ducks tend to want to get down in a hurry during the storm, so we've always used that out of damage. I don't know if we've shared this before, but remember the day in Tils season we hunted during the hurricane and everybody ran out of the show. I mean, there were teal, literally, it was the most teal I've ever seen during a teal season. They had all come from the Gulf. It blew them back from the south.

Oh, I see. But those jokers would come in, you got one shot. And then it was 80, 90 mile an hour of wind. So as soon as they got in the, cupped in the winds, they're out of there. I mean, which is crazy. It's hard to hunt the wind. We even, we even. It's rough duck hunting.

But you know what I want to mention, I guess we weren't prepared to go into Exodus in the 10 plagues, but, you know, there's a statement in there when those magicians and all, they couldn't replicate it. They said it was the finger of God. And I just thought that was an interesting phrase because it makes you think, you know, what if it was his fist? You know, I mean, this is so small. And when you think about what kind of power God has, when you have the ability to— This was a pinky fingers, right? create and then

recreate and take you know you can make gnats from dust and I mean the power is so ginormous that I think we tend to underestimate it yeah well it's like when I was preached this last week

that was interesting somebody said you made a comment on Facebook about it that uh that we're 70% water human beings oh yeah I'm I'm gonna have what did you said I'm I think I'm 70% catfish right now. Because I've been catching all these ops.

I've been eating them every day. Well, you looked at Mike who doesn't, he looks like 70% biscuits, you know. It just, it was a funny thing when you said, you know, you're 70% water and he just. Yeah. Well, because I made, what I, what was interesting to me about it was we were talking about how you're created to work. You know, the idea about labor, that prosperity comes from labor. And so, you know, God made. us from the earth, from the dust of the earth, was his recipe to make human beings, which was

interesting. And then we share with the planet the same composition, roughly. I mean, about 70 to 75 percent water. I mean, I just found that very interesting. That's kind of a, is it, that's the biggest coincidence. Well, didn't that astrophysicist that we took hunting, he gave his little presentation, didn't he say, because he's like discovered planets, you know, he works for. Oh, yeah.

He's got like 17 letters. He's 17 letters behind his name. But he said that what makes the earth unique. And his approach is that God made that this is it. He made the earth special. But he's like the one special quality it has that none of the rest of the planets have is water. That's right. Yep.

And then we're made the same composition. So yeah. And I just found that. to be interesting, especially when you talk about the power of God that he has that ability to do that. So one of the questions that someone asked, it wasn't about Pharaoh, but I think it's perfect because it fits the same idea, is this idea about whether people have choice or not. Because a lot of people go to Pharaoh in Exodus and say, well, you know, God's unfair because you read the phrases like he hardened his heart. And so it's like, you know, he didn't have a,

you know, he was, it was scripted and he didn't have a choice. The question we got, from Travis was about Judas. But it's that same mindset is that does God create us and then not give us a choice to do the right thing or the wrong thing? Because when you read that text, so I think it's interesting. Well, he's getting out from read it. Now look, you've got to clarify something. These questions that we're getting asked are the most difficult questions. Right.

And then here we are going to say, well, let's take this on. So you studied out yourself. We don't claim to be experts about this. And I don't believe this is something that, you know, you have to get a handle on. That's right. It doesn't upset the apple card of faith whatsoever. Sometimes you can be wrong about things. You quoted the verse, was it, Deuteronomy 29, 29.

I mean, some things you just, it's hard to know. The secret things belong. Exactly. So that's a good context to put it in any time we're talking about it. I think it says where he's getting that is, the controversial part of it, is John 6, which is where we're going to be hanging out the next couple weeks. In 64, it says, yet there are some 664, yet there are some of you who do not believe. And then it says, for Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him.

He went on to say, this is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the father has enabled him. So that's where he comes up with a question. Well, did he have a choice? You know, which he had a choice. I believe he did. I think everybody does. And so, you know, my take is always to take the simplest approach and apply it first. And sometimes things are not always simple. But to me, this whole question about it, our problem is that we're trying to view humanity and even what we're reading the scriptures through the prism of God being everywhere, having all being all powerful, all the stuff we've talked about. And there lies your first problem.

When you start trying to define from a God perspective, when God goes back and tells you about what happened with Pharaoh, that's him outside of time functioning. We try to go back and apply, I say, well, this wasn't fair because, you know, then we put God in our time bubble. That's part of the problem. I mean, if you go from the divine view, we don't have an explanation for that. You know what I'm saying? I mean, we infer what we can out of the scripture.

But I think it's the view. People that try to say, well, no, there's no doubt about it. You don't have a choice. You know, you were made this way and you don't ever have a choice to do or not do. Yeah, I disagree. Yeah, I disagree with the people who, here's where I think you ought to be careful. And I'm going to give you my take here on Judas. it may take the rest of the time to get all this out.

But what I tend to look at, the reason that when we started talking about the plagues, and even when we see in John 6, and even what I just read, where it said Jesus knew from the beginning who was going to betray, well, we're dealing with a God who has powers that we can't relate to. And so there's a couple of things that, come out of that. Number one is, God is not going to do anything that violates his nature. Where is that Hebrew 6 where it says there's two things that God cannot change. One is implied his nature, which is what my point is. And I think two, it says it's impossible for him to lie.

So you say, well, what do you mean by this? Well, if you go to John 13, and here's what I think is significant, if Jesus really knew, which he did, because we believe, that Judas was going to portray him from the beginning. Well, how come he washed his feet? I mean, why didn't he just stop right there? Why did he, why was he a follower? Why was he chosen? Why was he one of those?

I think it's an interesting point because here's my point. When we say that God is love, well, that's bigger than when it says, you know, I love someone, but I'm flawed. there may come a time where I don't love someone. But God is incapable of that. When it says he is love, he just is love. So you can't all of a sudden say, and here's where I'm getting to this, people who believe this about Judas and they form this opinion,

the reason I disagree with it is because now they're saying that God doesn't love him. But he is love. You say, well, why did this happen? So that's my point. I'm fixing to give the answer. All right, go ahead. Hang on. Then I'm going to continue.

Hang on. Let's take a break and then Dad give us a hand. Here's what people tend to forget when it comes down to people like Judas go worldwide. And you say, why do people do the things they did? Why would you betray the epitome of love and all that? Just remember these two texts. They mean something. Jesus is talking.

Some of his disciples, they deserted him. and they said in John 6 they took off they said well that's all of it said we we've had enough I mean the grubs fixing to run out because they were there for the food and Jesus said you you don't want to leave too do you he asked the 12 that here they all are including Judas Peter answered Lord to whom shall we go you have the words of eternal life well I'm sitting here 2,000 years later saying that's why I'm following him. He has the words of eternal life. I'm not going anywhere. However, we believe and know, we believe and know that you're the holy one of God. This is John 7. He said, have I not chosen you the 12? Yet one of you is a devil.

Uh-oh. He's looking at all 12 of them. He says, y'all are going to all 12 of me. He says, y'all going to desert me too. They said, Lord, where do we go? You have the word of eternal life. He said, well, have I not chosen you? Yet one of you is the devil. Well, he already knew it. Jesus knew who he was.

Correct. He said, one of he's the devil. He meant Judas, the son of Simon, Escariat, who though through one of the 12 was later to betray him, one of the 12 apostles. So, That's one reading.

He comes up again in John 13, which we'll finally get to in the future. He said, they say, Lord. After he washed his feet. Yeah. He said after he had said this, John 13, 21, Jesus was troubling spirit. And he testified. I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me. Well, we're back on Judas again.

And why did he do what he did? Well, did he have a choice? Well, his disciples stared at one another when he said, one of you is going to betray me, as are at a loss to know which of them he meant. He said, I wonder which one or dear. They're all looking at each other. One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, that's John, who's writing this, was reclining next to him, Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, ask him which one he means.

He said, we'd like to know which one it is going to betray him. So look, leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, Lord, who is it? Which one of us is going to betray you? Jesus answered, it's the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish. So Jesus said, whichever one I give this bread to, that's the one. well then dipping the piece of bread he gave it to judas Oskaria and here's an interesting statement son of Simon as soon as judas took the bread Satan entered into him

I was going to read the same to answer the man's question about did he have a choice we all have choices to make but never underestimate the power of the evil one. Right. He was behind it all. You say so poor choices come from the evil one. Right. But you got to remember. Whether it be murder, mayhem, you know, whatever it is, you know, in this case, a guy who had every opportunity.

But how many have you talked to, Al, and you, Jason, me. We've told this message about Jesus to literally, we don't know. Hundreds of thousands. You say how many are just in your face and are mad? But you don't know who. I don't know. But Jesus did. And he still loved him, is my point.

And there's a precedent there because he is love. Yeah, and he did serve. And he also referred to Peter as Satan, you know, when he asked the dumb question. Remember he said, get behind me, Satan. Well, he had a satanic moment. but Judas had a satanic heart because in my opinion the answer to the question is he never surrendered he just went through the motions the whole time that's right and so when you say remember off on the side jays he's one a little one a little bit of cash that's right

everything about his character throughout the gospels was always deceitful it was hoard the money for him he said he helped himself to the you know he was the guy the hell the coin and he helped himself to it. Every time somebody would want to give something. I've run up on thousands after I shared Jesus with them, and they had the choice to believe in him, repent and believe in him or not. I've run up on thousands of them that, for some reason,

they just can't shake that flesh. Right. And they just won't come to a decision. Well, let me read this, Phil. So he read the verse in John 6, that no one can come unless the Father has enabled him. But however, think about it. When you're introduced to Jesus, at some point, and we've talked about this at nauseam,

you surrender. Now, some people say, you know, you ask the Lord into your heart, which is you do. You know, you accept Jesus. But we put the same emphasis on baptism because I believe that is your act of surrender, and it is an unselfish act. So I don't believe that Judas did this because all he had to do when it says the father has enabled him, all you had to do is ask. And he would enable you. I mean, you're sitting here looking at Jesus.

And here's where I'm getting that. If you fast forward to Matthew 27, where he realizes he messes up. So after he betrays him, you know, if you just kind of quickly read through the story, early in the morning, you know, they had bound Jesus hand. him over. When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the 30 silver coins to the chief priest and the elders. And he said, I have sinned, for I have betrayed innocent blood. So you would think right now, well, he's on the process. Because he realized he was not. That's what we do when we mess up. Well, let me finish this thought. And then you, because I don't want to get this confused. So he does something that we

deem as penitent. And that's why I said he never surrendered because watch what he does then. So Jesus threw the money in the temple. He left, he went away, and hanged himself. Well, I thought about that. And I know this is a tough illustration to do, but I've done it many times with people who struggle with suicide, um, thoughts and different things.

And I usually tell them, you're close to figuring this out because I'm not making that a positive thing, but I'm saying, look, here's the difference. When we're baptized, it is an unselfish suicide. It says our old self dies. We're introduced to Jesus, and we unselfishly give our life spiritually to God. But here he does. His heart never changed.

He's still being selfish. He selfishly committed suicide, which is my point. Hang on, let's take a break. Deep in his heart, you say he did not. Think about it. The other 11, all of them, Matthew said, deserted Jesus when it came down to crunch time, that he was going to save the world by him. And Peter denied him.

And Peter denied it. Three times. You say, although they were with him, they were listening to him, they still had a problem because if somebody came along and said, guys, I'm going to go up to Jerusalem, and they're going to arrest me, and they're going to murder me, but in three days I'll come back from the dead.

Now, he was telling him that repeatedly. Throughout the New Testament, he told them over and over and over. But somebody tell you that he used to be a carpenter. You're seeing the mirror goes and a lot of what in the world? What was that all about? You would think, But remember, when I was reading from John over there, John 7, it said, are y'all going to leave me too?

I mean, there Judas was. One of you is the devil. Y'all are going to leave me? Because they were shaky at best. That's right. Well, I was shaky when I came to Jesus, not knowing everything I should have known. 45 years later, and now I'm all in. That's why it gets back to the harm.

Get back to the heart. No matter what he did, he did not surrender his heart to Jesus. This is a good text. Emotions. Well, and that's the deal because that goes down to the heart of the question is if Jesus knew, same thing you say about God, Yahweh, and, you know, Exodus. If God knew what Pharaoh was going to do, did it take away their choice? And the answer is no.

No. Just because he knew didn't take away the choice. And the reason why is the fundamental connection between God and His creation, you go back to the Garden, Genesis 2 and 3 is we have a choice. choice. You have a choice to follow him or you have a choice to follow your own way? Once they saw, that's fundamental. Once they saw the resurrection, once that came about, they're like, that's what he kept telling us. And look out, he's done it. Once they figured that out, he said, now you go out. And they all surrender.

You'll make disciples now. By the way, and Judas missed that part. Yeah. But here's a good text. And for our man who asked the question, was it, did did Judas have a choice? I don't have anything to do with stupid, foolish, and stupid arguments because you know they produce quarrels. The Lord's servant must not quarrel. Instead, he must be kind to everyone. And you mentioned that, Jace, that these kind of, when people ask questions like it, we don't want to quarrel about it. We just give a few points and say, think about this. Lord's servant must be able to teach, not resentful.

Here's an interesting way to look at Judas. Those who oppose him, the Lord's servant. He must gently instruct in the hope that God will grant them repentance. Now, Jace mentioned the Father enables them to come to me. The Father enables them to you. Which is true. Fundamental principle. Fundamental principle.

And you're hoping, as we go forth, the servants of God, that God will grant these people granting them repentance, leading them to a knowledge of the truth. and here's what Judas failed to do, and that they will come to their senses, Judas. I mean, what are you doing? I mean, he's the savior of the world, but he's just not quite sure of it all, or he wouldn't be wearing about 30 pieces of silver. There's no resurrection. And he really wasn't at the end.

He gave it all back. He gave it all back. So the bottom line, they said, you hope that they will come to their senses, and Judah should have, and escape, that's why I said, never underestimate the power of the devil. Escape from the trap of the devil who has taken them captive to do his will. There was Judas right there. Yeah. But Phil, I think it's imported also. He just didn't put it together.

Right. That even though his heart wasn't in the right place, he didn't surrender, he was going through the motions. Satan didn't enter him until we in John 13. That's right. Which, by the way, a little thought here. One of the, this is a lighthearted moment, one of the sayings that came from Dutch, dynasty that probably people think, you know, somebody else wrote or whatever, but I wanted to share it with you because some people have T-shirts with this saying. I made a statement in an

interview that had nothing to do with Jesus or Jesus, but I want to tell you where it came from. The statement I made was, when you don't know what you're doing, do it quickly. Well, I'm going to tell you where that came from. I got that from this verse. Because Jesus, after Judas said, He took the bread and it said Satan entered him. And Jesus said, what you are about to do, do quickly. Because I knew, Jesus knew, he didn't know what he was doing, which comes from that if the rulers and the evil one had known Jesus was going to be the savior of the world.

Hang on down there. None of the rulers. Let's take one last break. None of the rulers of this age. I say he's talking about the evil one, understood it. on what was fixing to happen, the message that Jesus died and the resurrection. For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. That's what Judas didn't get.

Judas didn't get it. Well, and look, you're made a great point, Jay. So there's a point in our time in any life where you make wrong choices, you continue to separate yourself from what God wants you to do. And then ultimately, when you're that open to the evil one, I mean, just like you saw in this. When he sets up camp in your heart and life, then you're capable of anything. The price to be paid, Al, is death.

I might have shared this story before, but, you know, I've taught youth groups for years in various capacities, you know, what I remember was one girl that came up, and I met her when she was in junior high, and she would wear these disturbing, you know, outfits, everything name was dark and she would, you know, cut herself. And she just, she seemed demonic in the way she was. So I thought, you know what? Not on my watch. I'm fixed to get to know this girl, whatever her problem is.

And so for really years, her whole junior high and high school career, I made as much effort as humanly possible to befriend her, to carry her on the trips. And look, she got in trouble constantly. I was in a mini a meeting. And I think she appreciated my effort because it was 100% unconditional and loving. And there was a lot of baggage from her family and, you know, her history. It was just a tough situation. But where I thought she was trying to be that person and portray that image,

at some point in there, basically the later years of her high. high school, it just seemed to become a reality. It's like at first I think she was doing it for attention, but there was a point in there where she just became evil. I mean, just like scary evil. And I thought, you don't want to, despite the damage or whatever's happened in your life or you're mad or, you know, you've been abused or if you start playing with that fire, it takes over.

Yeah. Because she just engrossed herself in everything demonic and evil. And at some point, guess what? It just, that's, because I saw a spark in there of goodness at first. Yep. But it just slowly went away. It got Judas. Yeah.

Got him. And it's got a lot of people. You don't want to go down that. My answer to this man is, never underestimate the power of the evil one, the devil himself. Now, a lot of people would say in response to what we've talked about, well, you just wasted time there. No, I believe everyone has a choice. And I think it was worth a shot. because look, God knows who's not going to follow him, and he still loves him.

And I think he went through the motion. Why even create him? Why do that? Even though he knows, he gives you a shot. The common joke in America is, oh, so the devil made him do it. And we're like, yeah. Well, I think it's a combination. I mean, I think in Judas's case, for where you have.

It's a joke now. The devil made him do it. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder in every evil practice. So I think it's a combination of the evil one and your selfish ambition. I mean, Judas's problem wasn't actually the devil until the end. His problem was his ambition in life was completely about himself. And the way he ended his life pretty much was the exclamation point. And the money turned out to be blood money because they took it and they bought a field,

which was the same place, I'm assuming where he committed suicide. and it turned into this place of like ill repute from then going forward. They only buried foreigners there, people that weren't a part of the Israelite communities. So it was really interesting. Even his post-death became a place of shame and ridicule, which is really sad. It's a sad thing to see that. I think maybe it may be a little window. It's a sad thing.

But if you notice, I don't want to elaborate it on too much because, you know, I could be wrong about this. But you do see a lot of people that get. in the same mental shape as Judas was when he was, after he had pulled this dastardly act, you say committed suicide. Without hope. Without hope. There's a lot of suicide still going on in planet Earth now. I'm sorry to say for the same reason.

Yeah. It's a complete selfish act. And it's the opposite of what God represents. He wants people that want to live. Yep. That's basically quitting. It's sad, but it's true. And I tell people in counseling situations, I'm like, don't be a quitter.

Don't be selfish. That's right. And right, because you got, you know, you want your legacy to be something good. Great discussion. Travis, thank for the question. Tim had asked something similar. So we get, I try to batch those together where we can talk about some of these things. And these, like Jay Z, these are hard things to do.

We're not theologian, boys. That's right. We're just, what do you say, C plus men? C plus men. So to close out to that, I just want to thank all you guys for listening. And two people I want to shout out to is one is Bryce, who's serving our country in Yokosuka, Japan. Yokosuka.

Yoko Suka. Never been there. He's been listening. And Bryce, we appreciate your service, you and all the other guys over there. Also, Marjorie from Lubbock, Texas, 100 years young. She celebrated her 100th birthday. And she's a listener. She listens to our podcast.

I'm feeling better about it. She can't see that well. she can hear us. What's your name? Her name is Marjorie. Marjorie, you've given me hope, kid. There you go. See ya. So we're so glad you guys were with us today. You can subscribe on iTunes or Spotify or YouTube or Facebook. And be sure and rate us on iTunes so that other people can know about the podcast.