Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot went unto the chief priests, and said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him (Jesus) unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver" (Matthew 26:14,15).
Ever since: he "betrayed, innocent blood" (Matthew 27:3,4), selling the Lord Jesus to the highest bidder, the name JUDAS has been a byword and symbolic of the worst treachery and deceit known to man. However, though he stands out in history as unique, and his crime the most sinister, his sin is still among us.
The man who identifies with and/or supports preachers, churches and ministries which, in their preaching, deliver Christ into the hands of His enemies to do with Him as they will; auctioning Him off to the sinful crowd, selling Him out at a price agreeable to fallen man's natural will – that man is a JUDAS!
Any preacher or pastor, who, to get his people to be faithful, frightens them with the hounds of hell, drives them with the whip of the law, or bribes them with the promise of exalted positions and great rewards in heaven that preacher and or pastor is a JUDAS! Is the Lord Jesus Christ such an ugly, unattractive, undesirable Husband that His bride will not love and serve Him unless she is driven or bribed? What a dishonoring thought! What a blasphemous thought! Those who truly know the Lord Jesus, love Him; those who love the Lord Jesus, desire to honor and serve Him; those who desire to honor and serve Him do so, as willing servants, constrained by the knowledge of His great love for them, and the love which they, therefore, have for Him (II Corinthians 5:14; I John 4:19).