Plainer Words from 1968
November 9, 2011
PLAINER WORDS ONLINE …THE PHARISEES—PART 13
The top of the mind awareness about the Pharisees is that they insisted they were “Abraham’s seed” (John 8:33). To this, the Lord Jesus agreed, saying; “I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill Me, BECAUSE MY WORD HATH NO PLACE IN YOU” (John 8:37). When the Lord Jesus said that they did the deeds of their father, the Devil (John 8:44), the Pharisees became infuriated. They said to Him that they were not born as a result of fornication. But rather, they said, “WE HAVE ONE FATHER EVEN GOD” (John 8:41). Notice, they self-righteously insisted that God was their Father. They professed to belong to God; they claimed to belong to the family of God. They were so persuasive that most of the children of Israel thought the Pharisees were “sons of God.” The Pharisee’s outward “devoutness” and their strict adherence to “the Tradition of the Elders” [the Oral Law] reinforced their claim to be “sons of God.”
Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, stripped away the veneer of their “testimony” and placed them in the family of the Devil. Christ knew, in their hearts, they didn’t believe God. If they had they believed the Scriptures, they would have believed the Lord Jesus Christ.
There are those, today, who profess to know God, “but in works they deny Him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate” (Titus 1:16). They claim to believe the Bible. They can claim great exploits for Him and build great works in His Name but deny the very Truth of Scriptures. They insist that they are “born again” Christians and, consequently, “sons of God.” Here is the question! Could they have the Devil as their father? Could that which the Lord applied to the Pharisees be applied to 21st Century “Pharisees,” in the Christian ranks, that hold to THE LIE OF THE DEVIL?
The Pharisees were said to be of their father the Devil, who was a murderer from the beginning. He did not abide in the Truth, rather; he was a LIAR and the FATHER OF IT. The “lusts of your father” would indicate the Devil’s desire was to be believed. So it was with the Pharisees. They longed to have their doctrine believed and accepted as if it came from God. If the “man-on-the-street,” or the “man-in-the-market-place” didn’t accept Pharisaical doctrine as Divine, he was stigmatized as a “sinner” and branded as belonging to “the lost sheep of the House of Israel.”
According to His own words, the Lord Jesus Christ came to seek and save the “lost” and the out-cast. The stigmatized and branded ones, to wit, “the sinners” and the “lost sheep of the House of Israel,” had no forgiveness or hope in the Pharisee’s Israel. But, He came in order to obtain a position for them in His Pre-Millennial Kingdom. When this takes place, the Pharisees will lose their position. In fact, they will have forfeited their lives and will be thrown into the Valley of Hinnom when His Kingdom comes—there, their worm will not die, and the fires are not quenched.
THE PHARISEES’ CONVERTS
The Pharisees were very zealous in “witnessing.” The Scripture certainly indicated they had a very far-reaching ministry to gain converts to the “Jews’ Religion.”
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make
one proselyte, …” (Matthew 23:15a).
This accounts for the many Gentiles who attended the synagogues and came under the Apostle Paul’s teaching.
“... and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell [Gehenna] than yourselves” (Matthew 23:15b).
The proselytes became twofold (double) more the children of hell [Gehenna], (the perpetual fires burning in the Valley of Hinnom) than the lying Pharisees, themselves. It must be pointed out the DAMNABLE CONSEQUENCES of believing those who Deceive. Oh, how serious it is to believe THE LIE. The converts of the Pharisees will be worse off than the Pharisees, themselves.
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him [the convert] twofold more the child of hell [Gehenna] than yourselves” (Matthew 23:15).
Today, there are converts to the Devil’s Lie, “Ye shalt not surely die?” This is a very solemn thought. They embrace the teaching that, at death, a person either goes to heaven, or to the Devil’s hell.
It is true that the Pharisees were of “the seed of Abraham,” but the “children of Abraham,” they certainly were not. Natural descent from their illustrious progenitor did not bring them into the family of God. Abraham was “the father,” only, of them who believed (Romans 4:11).
CONCLUSION
The Scriptures in this study are not to be limited to a conversation 2,000 years ago between our Lord Jesus Christ and the Pharisees because it is relevant today. The Pharisaic spirit is “alive and well” among professing Christians. This spirit manifests the same self-righteousness and displays the same enmity against the Truth, while embracing the Lie. The ramifications are mighty!
This issue concludes our series of studies in which we wrote about, in detail, The Priesthood of the Jews, The Synagogue of the Jews, The Sadducees of the Jews, and The Pharisees of the Jews. A basic understanding of the history of these institutions, as presented in this series, provides judicious discernment concerning the struggle between these institutions of Judaism and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. The struggle was between Christ and the powerful elite in Israel. It took on a physical, as well as, a spiritual battle. At first, it appeared as if the powerful elite won, by orchestrating the Crucifixion. But, three days and nights after His death, Christ was gloriously victorious—alive for evermore!
“And having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15). AKJV
“And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Colossians 2:15) NIV
─The End─
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