This week, we continue from where we left off in Part 13, where I stopped at the question: “how is it possible that a lost person and a sinner is able to muster the faith enough to believe that Jesus died on the cross for all his sins, and that he was buried and rose bodily from the grave on the third day for his justification?” The context of Luke 16 is about a rich man who died bodily and his soul went to hell. There, he had a conversation with father Abraham.
Luke 16:29-31 "Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. 30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. 31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."
The keyword is "persuade". If a man cannot be persuaded from Scripture (Moses and the prophets), he cannot be persuaded to believe in the gospel of peace.
Acts 26:28 "Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian."
Paul tried to persuade king Agrippa with Scripture, and Agrippa was almost persuaded, but sadly he was not. It is not possible to get people believe in the gospel by insisting that he MUST do this or he MUST do that. That in itself is a form of works salvation. If any man will believe in the gospel, it is because he was persuaded from Scripture to believe.
2 Corinthians 5:11 "Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men..."
If a man is not persuaded from Scripture to become a Christian, but is "persuaded" by some other means to enter into the sheepfold, then he "entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber." (John 10:1) Jesus calls them thieves and robbers, and Paul also reveals to us in Galatians 2:4 that those are the "... false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage:"
False brethren are not brethren. They do not believe in the same things and worship the same God as those who are truly born again do, even though they may not appear so outwardly. Paul warned us in the same verse that they came to “... spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus”, that is to say, they came privily into the church to find out what born again believers believe in “... that they might bring us into bondage:”, that is to say, they sought to impose their own philosophies, traditions, and religious ideas on the church so as to change our beliefs about the Bible and about Jesus Christ.
Today, mainstream Christianity is overrun by all kinds of theories, theologies, philosophies and traditions. There are many different schools of thoughts today as represented by the "-ism" behind the title, for example, "dispensational-ism" or “decision-ism”. The "-isms" denote their school of thoughts or framework of thinking. These are philosophical and religious ideas which men have invented that would add unto or take away from the words of the LORD in the 66 books of the Holy Bible. That is why Jesus called them thieves and robbers in John 10:1. Going back to Job 36…
Job 36:14 "They die in youth, and their life is among the unclean."
What does it mean by this verse that the hypocrites “die in youth”? Does it mean that every hypocrite in heart will die young? Recall previously where we compared a hypocrite to a plant in the garden? Referring to the hypocrite:
Job 8:16-17 "He is green before the sun, and his branch shooteth forth in his garden. 17 His roots are wrapped about the heap, and seeth the place of stones."
Here, the Spirit of God compares the hypocrite to a plant in the garden. The hypocrite is green before the sun, and his branch shooteth forth, but this is very deceptive. Verse 17 tells us that his roots are wrapped about the heap, which means that they cannot penetrate deep whereby their roots may draw moisture and other nutrients. For this reason, the plant cannot live long. The soil is of course the ground whereby the seed was sown. Again, verse 17 tells us that that piece of ground is a “place of stones”. This bears a connection to the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13, Mark 4 and Luke 8.
Matthew 13:5-6 "Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: 6 And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away."
Notice how the words “stony places” in this passage is connected to the words “places of stones” in Job 8:16-17? The seed that is sown in stony places will bring forth a plant, even as the word of God sown in the stony ground hearts of some people will bring forth a hypocrite. It is amazing how God use the things of nature to teach us his precepts in the word of God.
The plant that sprung up from stony places will not live long enough to bring forth fruit, because when the sun was up, it will be scorched, and because the roots are wrapped about the heap, it cannot draw moisture from deep inside the ground. Without water, the plant will eventually wither away. This connects us to another verse, and that is:
2 Peter 2:17 "These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever."
Have you noticed that the water transportation system in a plant is like wells of water that travels up through the plant? Also, who are the “these” which Apostle Peter was referring to in this verse? The answer is found in the passage starting from:
2 Peter 2:10 "But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities."
Previously, we have studied verse by verse, here a little and there a little, and came to know that the hypocrites who hated Jesus and the church have already formed certain religious bodies, and they are the scribes, the Pharisees and the Sadduccees at that time of Christ first-coming. We’ve also come to the knowledge that these groups of people and the false prophets of Old Testament times are inwardly the same. Apostle Peter in 2 Peter 2:10 reveals to us that the scribes, the Pharisees and the Sadduccees are chiefly them that “walk after the flesh…”, and perhaps even more stunningly, Peter refers to them as “presumptuous.” This word “presumptuous” bears a connection to:
Psalms 19:13 "Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression."
The psalmist warns us in this verse on “presumptuous sins”, and how it eventually leads to “the great transgression”. Presumptuous sins being to sin presumptuously against of the “law of of the LORD” (Psalms 19:7) in the 66 books of the Holy Bible. Jesus tells us that “all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men” (sin not unto death) but there is a sin that shall not be forgiven unto men, and that is the “blasphemy against the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 12:31). When a man despised the word of the LORD, he has sinned presumptuously: he has blasphemed the Holy Ghost.
Again, going back to 2 Peter 2:10 “…walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government.” Notice the word “uncleanness” in this verse? This ties in with "They die in youth, and their life is among the unclean." (Job 36:14) Hypocrites walk after the flesh. Compare this with:
Romans 8:1 "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
To walk after the flesh is to go contrary to the Spirit of God (Holy Ghost). Born again believers walk after the Spirit, which is to say, they are in agreement with every word of God and are led by it. This also goes to show that the religious hypocrites who walk after the flesh are not born again believers, even though they may appear like one outwardly. In fact, Jesus said of them in:
Matthew 23:13 "¶ But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in."
This is like the saying: "If I can't have it, neither can you." According to the Crab Bucket Syndrome, if there is only one crab in the bucket, it would certainly have escaped. But if there are many crabs in the same bucket, and if one tries to escape, the other crabs would grab hold of it to prevent it from escaping so that it would share the same fate as the rest of them.
In that sense, the scribes and the Pharisees are like crabs in a bucket. They sought to shut up the kingdom of heaven against men because they themselves could not enter in. Job 36:14 reveals to us that their life is among the unclean. 2 Peter 2:10 tells us that they walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness. Repentance is a thing beyond them, and they lead others to follow them in their pernicious ways. Interestingly, the word “repent” is found exactly 46 times in the 1611 King James Bible, 46 being the number of chromosomes in the genetic makeup of a man’s flesh. We shall continue with our study in Part 15.
Very well said Sir