Genesis 40 Series, Part 39, Luke 22:3-6
Hello, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Tonight is study #39 in Genesis 40, and we are looking at the baker and how Joseph interpreted his dream to mean that his head would be lifted up and he would be hanged. We started to look at other references in the Bible to being hanged, as Galatians 3 declares that whosoever hangs on a tree is cursed. We saw that Christ hanged on a tree. We saw that Abasalom hanged in a tree, and was killed, and we saw that the two doorkeepers were hanged.
And now we are looking at Judas, and we see that spiritually Judas is a picture of the corporate church. He too was hanged. The baker was a picture of the corporate church. Absalom was a picture of the corporate church, and the two doorkeepers of King Ahasuerus were a picture of the corporate church. And now we see Judas as a picture of the corporate church, and he was infilled with the devil. We see that very clearly in the language, as it says in Luke 22:3-6:
Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve. And he went his way, and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray him unto them. And they were glad, and covenanted to give him money. And he promised, and sought opportunity to betray him unto them in the absence of the multitude.
Satan entered into Judas, and Judas did betray the Lord and afterwards he repented himself. We read in Matthew 27:4-5:
…I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.
We also looked at Acts 1:17-20:
For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry. Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood. For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take.
We saw it said in Psalm 109:8:
Let his days be few; and let another take his office.
And it also said in Psalm 69:25:
Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents.
These two verses in the Psalms are fulfilled in what we read in Acts 17:20:
For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take.
Notice the language of being “desolate.” It says, “Let no man dwell therein.” In Jeremiah God speaks of the judgment upon Judah, and He speaks of turning the land of Judah into a desolation, and no man will dwell therein. Christ is that “man,” and the churches became spiritually desolate the instant that the Spirit of Christ departed out of the churches. He had been in the midst of the churches during the church age, but at the end of the church age He left, and the churches became desolate, and Christ is the man: “…Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwells therein.” But in Psalm 69:65, it says, “Let their habitation be desolate,” and that is because it is referring to the corporate church.
At the end of our last study we went to John 17, and it had always seemed unusual to me that God would use the phrase, “son of perdition,” as it says in John 17:12:
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
Christ said that all the Father has given Him, He has kept, and that has to be the elect, or those predestinated to obtain salvation. When God says in 2Peter 3:9 that He “is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance,” the “any” are the elect, as all that come to repentance are the elect. When we read that in Adam all die, but in Christ all are made alive, the second “all” is referring to all the elect. The word “all” is dictated by the biblical context, and whenever the salvation of “all” is in view, it is obviously all the elect but one must have spiritual eyes to see the obvious. When Christ said that of all the Father has given Him, He has lost one, it has to refer to those who were given to Him, as it clearly states in Ephesians 1. God said, “For Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” And I could just go on and on with hundreds of scriptures that prove this, as well as many scriptures that prove that many will perish, as it says in Matthew 7:13: “…wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.” And then it says, “…narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”
Explain how these things can be if God loves everyone! That is nonsense, and it goes contrary to Christ’s statement, “…those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost.” Christ also said in John 6:44:
No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him…
The drawing of God is effectual, and it guarantees the salvation of the elect, so not a single soul is ever lost. The god of the corrupt lying gospels of the free will churches is a weak and ineffectual god. He lacks power. They portray God as if He were saying, “Please, I have done all I can do. I died for you but you have to do your part. You have to do the main part by coming to me, or else the blood I shed for you is a vain and empty thing.” That is total nonsense. It is an ugly thing that denigrates the God of the Bible, and it would weaken the Almighty and all powerful God to some weak idol that is dependent on creature men, like you or me. God forbid!
Thank God my salvation does not depend on me. You must have a pretty high view of yourself if you think your salvation depends on you and your decision. You can be sure that if it were left to you, me, or any man, it would be ruined. And that is why it is a lying gospel, and it is not in the least bit true. These lies fill churches but it brings together a “congregation of the dead,” because they say a few magic words like, “I accept Christ,” and then they sit in the pews but there was no change of heart. That is why churches today are almost indistinguishable from the world, and that is because they are of the world. The world entered into the churches and they called themselves “Christians,” and then they proceeded to do all kinds of things to give the enemies of God outside the churches cause to blaspheme, which served Satan’s purposes: “Oh, look at those Christians. They do this and they do that.” And they gave the world opportunity to speak evil of the God of the Bible.
But that is all history because God has distanced himself from the churches. He has abandoned the churches, and He has no relationship with the churches or anyone therein. They are not His people. It is just like the Israelites are not His people, and they have not been since 33 A. D. And now those who remain in the churches and congregations and who are calling themselves Christians are not His people. God’s people came out of the churches and worship God individually out in the world.
Let us go back to Jesus’ statement: “I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.” Who is this son of perdition? None of the elect are lost, but who is the son of perdition? Historically, Christ was referring to Judas, but spiritually the son of perdition who is lost is the corporate church, the professed Christians that Judas typifies in his betrayal of the Lord. It was a heart problem with him. He was never born again. He gave the outward appearance of being a child of God. He walked around with the Lord Jesus as Christ ministered, and he kept the bag. He was there when the Lord performed miracles of healings. People would have looked upon him with honor and respect because he had a relationship with the Saviour, just as those who entered into the churches and congregations had a relationship with Christ, and they were viewed as servants of Christ by the world. So there are many similarities.
During Judas’ life he had the appearance of being a servant of the Lord, but his end was horrible, and he died a shameful death. He was cursed – he was hanged. It is just like the end of the churches. During the church age the churches were highly respected and honored due to their relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, and people of the world understood that these were the people of God. Of course they could not distinguish between a true elect believer and a professed believer. God did not want that distinction made during the church age, as we know from the parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13:28:30:
…Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest…
And then the harvest would be the time of separation. So too at the time of the end of the church age, we came to start using the term “true elect believer,” to distinguish them from the merely professed Christian that called themselves Christians but were not saved. It was God who brought this issue to the surface because it came time to separate the wheat from the tares. God initiated that separation by opening the scriptures to reveal the time to depart out of the midst of the churches.
So God made it known that he had not lost any of His true elect but He lost “the son of perdition.” Regarding the death of Absalom, David was moved to cry, “O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son!” He was so grieved as a father, and he was broken in heart. He even said, “Would God I had died for thee.” You see, Christ had a love for those in the churches and the congregations, and that is why Jesus wept over Jerusalem: “How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” So there was this relationship to “the son of perdition.” Remember what it says in Isaiah 49:20-21:
The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell. Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?
Who are those children that were lost? This is God speaking of losing His children: “And none of them is lost, but the son of perdition.” They are the professed Christians within the churches and congregations, and the ones that appeared after He had lost the others were the great multitude saved outside of the churches during the last part of the Great Tribulation.
All those who become saved are likened to the children of God, and we are called “little children” in the Epistles of John. We are adopted into the family of God, and we are the children of our Father in heaven.
So for professed Christians, they had an outward relationship with Christ, but it was never true of their inward condition, and therefore at the time of the end of the church age they are “lost,” as Satan entered into the churches and infilled the churches. God’s people had come out of the churches, leaving Satan within. The Spirit of Christ had left, and the spirit of Satan entered in, and a big proof of this can be seen in 2Thessalonians 2, and I think we will be able to see the connection to Judas and the biblical language applied to him. It says in 2Thessalonians 2:3-4:
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
Satan was in the temple, the churches. He is the man of sin, the son of perdition. And now we can see the spiritual picture of Judas betraying the Lord, and his being infilled with the devil, and also in the fact that he hanged himself.