Luke 12:1 ¶
In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable
multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say
unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees,
which is hypocrisy. 2 For there is
nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be
known. 3 Therefore whatsoever ye have
spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken
in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. 4 And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid
of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.
5 But I will forewarn you whom ye shall
fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I
say unto you, Fear him. 6 Are not five
sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?
7 But even the very hairs of your head
are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.
8 Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall
confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels
of God: 9 But he that denieth me before
men shall be denied before the angels of God. 10 And whosoever shall speak a word against the
Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the
Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven. 11
And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto
magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer,
or what ye shall say: 12 For the Holy
Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.
Christ has just blasted
a Pharisee for hypocrisy.
Here we see how leaven has negative connotations in that
it can, in specific contexts, represent corruption.
Matthew 16:11 How is it
that ye do not understand that I spake it
not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the
Sadducees? 12 Then understood they how
that he bade them not beware of
the leaven of bread, but of the
doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
Self-righteous
religion, self-justifying and false religion, is opposed to Christ and
misrepresents God’s intent and purposes in the world. Everything the Pharisees,
representing the religious elite even in our day, have done against God will be
exposed, Christ says. They will be exposed. Remember the parable of the tares
and the wheat in Matthew, chapter 13?
Here Jesus foretells of
the persecution His followers will suffer under the immediate oppression of the
religious authorities and He tells them not to worry about that because they
belong to a power that is much higher.
The very hairs of our
head implying that the days of our lives, in this context, are numbered. Do not
fear persecution and death because God will decide what and when that happens.
Job 7:1 Is there not an appointed time to man
upon earth? are not his days
also like the days of an hireling?
The time of our death,
from whatever cause, is determined by God and there is no escape from it.
Ecclesiates 8:8 There is no man that hath power over
the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath
he power in the day of death: and there
is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness
deliver those that are given to it.
Do not be afraid of
persecution by the religious elite.
Verse 8 is regarding
how they respond to persecution. It is not about whether or not you hand out a
gospel tract at the gas pump. There are several references on staying strong in
the face of death for your faith.
13 If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.
Revelation 3:7 ¶ And to the angel of the church in
Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he
that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth,
and no man openeth; 8 I know thy works:
behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou
hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.
To deny can also mean
to reject or dismiss.
Acts 3:14 But ye denied the
Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;
1John 2:23 Whosoever
denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: but he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.
But in this passage in
Luke deny is contrasting with confess and the context is about being persecuted
for faith in Christ. The Pharisees here can be transferred to any period of
Christian church history where an institutional elite had nonconforming
Christians and non-Christians tortured and burned at the stake or killed by
some other gruesome method. He tells His followers not to worry what they
should say when arrested but that the Holy Ghost will provide them the words.
Blasphemy against the
Holy Ghost was spelled out more clearly in Mark’s gospel which I commented on
in comments on Luke, chapter 9.
Mark 3:28 Verily I say unto
you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith
soever they shall blaspheme: 29 But he
that shall blaspheme
against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of
eternal damnation:
30 Because they said, He
hath an unclean spirit.
How would you blaspheme
the Holy Ghost today?
The Holy Ghost is the
very mind of God as Christ is the very body of God and God the Father is the
very soul of God, the seat of will and self-identity. The Holy Ghost always
points to Christ and never to Himself. He is the spiritual counterpart to a
John the Baptist announcing Christ in the flesh. He points at the Saviour of
mankind.
John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy
Ghost, whom the Father will send
in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your
remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
What prompted Jesus’
statement in Mark 3 was that those speaking against had said about Him as He
walked the earth He hath an unclean
spirit. The idea that the very mind of God, the Holy Spirit, the Holy
Ghost, that is present moving in all creation from the beginning and does His
will in every cell function, heartbeat, wave of the sea, or fluttering of a
bird’s wings is an evil spirit and that was what was the operational entity
behind Christ’s work of salvation would not be overlooked. It was an
unpardonable sin.
Typically, when you
hear someone reject Christ today they will deny He exists or existed, claim He
was simply a remarkable teacher which propagandists created a whole deity
mythology around, or that they’re good people and they don’t need to be saved
by Him or anyone else. I have never heard anyone reject salvation through
Christ because they said that Christ was an evil person intent on creating
havoc and causing harm or that He was demon-possessed. They might say that
about Christians, though. No, that was something the people who opposed Him at
the time said.
We Baptists, for the
most part, do not believe you can lose your salvation because you did not save
yourself.
John 1:12 But as many as
received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his
name: 13 Which were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Titus 3:4 But after that
the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,5 Not by works of righteousness which we have
done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration,
and renewing of the Holy Ghost; 6 Which
he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; 7 That being justified by his grace, we should
be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
And we are sealed until
the day of redemption, our resurrection.
2Corinthians 1:21 Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ,
and hath anointed us, is God;
22 Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
Ephesians 1:13 In whom ye
also trusted, after that ye
heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that
ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, 14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until
the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 4:30 And grieve
not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
So, since you cannot
lose your salvation the only way to interpret the Mark 3 verses for us is to
say that there are those who will never be saved as they will always be against
God’s work of redeeming mankind to Himself, or at least as much as will accept
His free gift of mercy. When you’ve been offered the free gift of Salvation
through the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word by which all things
Verses 6 and 7 are very
interesting in that they declare that God is aware, does not forget, even one
little seemingly insignificant sparrow that dies. In fact, He is not only the
cause of their life but of their death, and, in the context, of ours as well.
Matthew 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one
of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.
This fact about reality
and the physical world and universe in which we live is lost on many Christians
today who worship a caretaker God, a sort of absentee landlord they call on
when the plumbing breaks. The God of the Bible has His part in every moment of
reality and life is a continuous miracle. Nothing happens without His direct
and perfect will involved, requiring it, or His permissive will involved,
allowing it. Read the book of Job carefully.
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